UoA 29 English Language and Literature

The English department at the University of Exeter is one of the largest in the UK and covers all aspects of the subject from medieval to contemporary in its chronological scope, while its disciplinary breadth includes American Literature, Postcolonial Studies, Creative Writing and Film.

We will work closely with the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) with work in this area channelled through the Exeter Centre for Literatures of Identity, Place and Sustainability (ECLIPSE). Collaborative projects under ECLIPSE include the network on Early Modern Discourses of Environmental Change and Sustainability.

Future strategic objectives will be guided by the University's Humanities and Social Sciences Strategy (HASS). English will seek to build on HASS research themes of Science Technology and Culture./p>

Collaboration has been aided by the Exeter Science Exchange: Bridging the Gaps which aims to create a physical and virtual environment where researchers from different disciplines can build new partnerships.

We will also work towards enhancing the international status and public Impact of our research with the new Internationalisation Strategy (2010-15) which committed the University to improving the global profile of its research.

Strategic investment in future impact work will also be facilitated through the English department's involvement in the Research and Enterprise in Arts and Creative Technology Hub (REACT).

Key results

  • 35 per cent of our research was assessed as world-leading (4*).
  • This represents a national ranking of 25 out of 89 submissions.
  • 100 per cent of our research impact was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent.

Impact case studies

NameSummary

Raising awareness of early modern Ottoman history

Research at the University of Exeter has raised public awareness of early modern Ottoman history and promoted sustainable equestrian tourism by establishing a UNESCO Cultural Route, the Evliya Çelebi Way. In 2009 Professor Gerald MacLean re-enacted the 1671 horseback journey undertaken by the celebrated Ottoman travel-writer Evliya Çelebi, attracting media coverage and building links with local communities. Professor Maclean has since collaborated in developing the Way to promote cultural heritage and stimulate tourism in Turkey. The main impacts of this research have been to: preserve, conserve, and present cultural heritage contribute to processes of commemoration and memorialisation develop stimuli to tourism and contribute to the quality of the tourist experience.

Creating, inspiring and supporting new forms of literary expression

Members of the University of Exeter’s Programme for Creative Writing and Arts have translated their research-as-practice into regional, national, and international impact by introducing innovative forms of contemporary writing to a range of audiences through publications, several of which have had notable public acclaim; an events programme; and training workshops. Funded projects to develop new writing have strengthened relationships between academic and creative sectors and inspired new and successful writing careers. The main impacts of this research-as-practice have been to:
  • Create new forms of literary expression and enrich public appreciation of contemporary writing.
  • Engage different publics in creative practice through participation and events.
  • Inspire and support new forms of literary expression.

Providing new perspectives on identity and citizenship

As long-running debates on what it means to be British, English, Scottish or Cornish grow more urgent, researchers at the University of Exeter have engaged different publics in new perspectives on identity and citizenship, encouraging them to reconsider their own identities in the context of regional and national cultural heritage. This research has influenced media narratives, public policy debate, and a diverse range of discussions relating to regional or national identity. Its main impacts have been to:
  • Inform and influence policy debate and practice inform the content of associations between people and groups.
  • To illuminate and challenge cultural values and extend the range of evidence.
  • To enhance public understanding of major social issues.

Understanding the history of popular culture

Research by University of Exeter academics has increased the public’s participation in, and appreciation of, the history and pre-history of cinema. Much of this has been achieved by collaborative projects with the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, a free-entry museum located on the Exeter campus, which has a large collection (65,000 items) of international stature. A number of funded digitisation projects to improve accessibility have presented as well as preserved cultural heritage. The main impacts of this research have been to:
  • Preserve, conserve, and present cultural heritage.
  • Engage different publics in literary and cultural heritage.
  • Contribute to economic prosperity via the creative sector.

Preserving, conserving and presenting cultural heritage

Staff in the Centre for Intermedia and Creative Technology at the University of Exeter research methods of documenting, archiving, and replaying multi-media art, heritage, and performance. Their work demonstrates how ideas and practices of performance, particularly sharing and replay of audience experience, can broaden and enhance public encounters with museums. Developed in collaboration with international artists, technologists, and major cultural organisations, the main impacts of this research have been to:
  • Help professionals and organisations adapt to changing cultural values.
  • Preserve, conserve and present cultural heritage.
  • Generate new ways of thinking that influence creative practice.

Engaging audiences in the South West's literary heritage

Members of Exeter University’s Centre for South West Writing have collaborated with authors, scholars, musicians, archivists, museum staff, private businesses, public councils, and tourist organisations to enhance public understanding of the cultural heritage of the South West of England and its distinctive literary traditions. Much of their research is archival and has reached audiences via publications, conferences, concerts, festivals, lectures, blogs, exhibitions, and the commissioning of public monuments. The main impacts of their research have been to:
  • Preserve, conserve and present literary and cultural heritage.
  • Engage different publics in literary and cultural heritage.
  • Develop stimuli to tourism.

Research centres

CentreAbout the centre
Centre for Intermedia and Creative Technology The Centre for Intermedia and Creative Technology promotes advanced transdisciplinary research in performance and the arts through collaborations between artists, academics and scientists from a range of disciplines.
Centre for Victorian Studies

The Centre for Victorian Studies promotes interdisciplinary research and teaching in all aspects of nineteenth-century literature, culture and media.

Centre for Interdisciplinary Film Research OLD Oct22 The Centre embraces an exciting range of international research across the broad field of Film Studies. Work spans film history and theory across American, East Asian, European, African and other World cinemas.
The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum 

Founded in 1994, The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum (formerly known as The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture) contains an enormous collection relating to the history of film and visual media. From shadow puppets to Shirley Temple dolls, from magic lanterns to Marilyn Monroe postcards, there is something to fascinate everyone.

Centre for Literature and Archives The Centre for Literature and Archives at the University of Exeter holds many resources and manuscripts in the Special Collections archive, and actively encourages students to engage with this material.
The Centre for South West Writing

The Centre for South West Writing exists to promote the appreciation of the region’s many important creative writers.

ECLIPSE This Centre facilitates research into literary and cultural representations of identity, place and sustainability. Sitting within the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI), the Centre seeks to ensure that research into environment and sustainability includes its significant social and cultural dimensions.
The Centre for Early Modern Studies

The Centre for Early Modern Studies capitalises on the exceptional concentration of scholars of the early modern era based at the University of Exeter, it provides a focus for intellectual exchange and interdisciplinary activity between academic staff and postgraduate students of the Departments of History, English, Drama, and Modern Languages and Cultures.

The Centre for Medieval Studies

The Centre for Medieval Studies provides the focal point for interdisciplinary scholarship and learning in a wide variety of subjects relating to the Middle Ages. It brings together staff with interests and expertise in areas that include Archaeology, History, Arab and Islamic Studies, Law, Music, Theology, the literatures of England, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy, Food History, Material Culture, and the History of the Book.

Research groups

GroupAbout the group
Medieval and Renaissance research group Research interests include the relationship between politics and literature; religion and literary culture, cultural geography; literature and domestic travel in early modern England; reception of Virgil in the Civil War polemic; Shakespeare in the English theatrical memoir, and English writing and the Ottoman Empire.
Long Eighteenth Century research group Research interests include enlightenment philosophy and modernity, particularly utilitarianism; animal and human in the enlightenment; science, medicine, politics and aesthetics; the development of British national identity; British responses to the French Revolution; women's literary history and feminist theory; 18th century poetics; satire and print culture; forgery and authenticity; the Arabian nights’ entertainments and orientalism; children's literature; eco-criticism; new readings of Romanticism and nature; literary biography; Islam and women's poetry; the reception of classical texts and ideas; the epic tradition; romantic poetry; the gothic and romantic medievalism; Fielding; Smollett; Sterne; Burney; Austen.
Victorian research group Research interests include fin de siècle; gender studies; popular literature; Victorian prosody; Hardy; periodical literature; science, technology and medicine; Darwin; the Great Exhibition and popular culture.
Twenty- and Twenty-First Century Literature Creative  Writing and Film research group

The 20th and 21st Century Literature, Creative Writing and Film research group promotes interdisciplinary research and teaching in all aspects of twentieth century literature, culture and media.

 

The research group is characterised by intellectual expertise, strong archival holdings, thriving postgraduate community and internationally recognised academic events. Its researchers have achieved success in obtaining support from the AHRC, British Academy and others.

UoA 29 English Language and Literature

The English department at the University of Exeter is one of the largest in the UK and covers all aspects of the subject from medieval to contemporary in its chronological scope, while its disciplinary breadth includes American Literature, Postcolonial Studies, Creative Writing and Film.

We will work closely with the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) with work in this area channelled through the Exeter Centre for Literatures of Identity, Place and Sustainability (ECLIPSE). Collaborative projects under ECLIPSE include the network on Early Modern Discourses of Environmental Change and Sustainability.

Future strategic objectives will be guided by the University's Humanities and Social Sciences Strategy (HASS). English will seek to build on HASS research themes of Science Technology and Culture./p>

Collaboration has been aided by the Exeter Science Exchange: Bridging the Gaps which aims to create a physical and virtual environment where researchers from different disciplines can build new partnerships.

We will also work towards enhancing the international status and public Impact of our research with the new Internationalisation Strategy (2010-15) which committed the University to improving the global profile of its research.

Strategic investment in future impact work will also be facilitated through the English department's involvement in the Research and Enterprise in Arts and Creative Technology Hub (REACT).

Key results

  • 35 per cent of our research was assessed as world-leading (4*).
  • This represents a national ranking of 25 out of 89 submissions.
  • 100 per cent of our research impact was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent.

Impact case studies

NameSummary

Raising awareness of early modern Ottoman history

Research at the University of Exeter has raised public awareness of early modern Ottoman history and promoted sustainable equestrian tourism by establishing a UNESCO Cultural Route, the Evliya Çelebi Way. In 2009 Professor Gerald MacLean re-enacted the 1671 horseback journey undertaken by the celebrated Ottoman travel-writer Evliya Çelebi, attracting media coverage and building links with local communities. Professor Maclean has since collaborated in developing the Way to promote cultural heritage and stimulate tourism in Turkey. The main impacts of this research have been to: preserve, conserve, and present cultural heritage contribute to processes of commemoration and memorialisation develop stimuli to tourism and contribute to the quality of the tourist experience.

Creating, inspiring and supporting new forms of literary expression

Members of the University of Exeter’s Programme for Creative Writing and Arts have translated their research-as-practice into regional, national, and international impact by introducing innovative forms of contemporary writing to a range of audiences through publications, several of which have had notable public acclaim; an events programme; and training workshops. Funded projects to develop new writing have strengthened relationships between academic and creative sectors and inspired new and successful writing careers. The main impacts of this research-as-practice have been to:
  • Create new forms of literary expression and enrich public appreciation of contemporary writing.
  • Engage different publics in creative practice through participation and events.
  • Inspire and support new forms of literary expression.

Providing new perspectives on identity and citizenship

As long-running debates on what it means to be British, English, Scottish or Cornish grow more urgent, researchers at the University of Exeter have engaged different publics in new perspectives on identity and citizenship, encouraging them to reconsider their own identities in the context of regional and national cultural heritage. This research has influenced media narratives, public policy debate, and a diverse range of discussions relating to regional or national identity. Its main impacts have been to:
  • Inform and influence policy debate and practice inform the content of associations between people and groups.
  • To illuminate and challenge cultural values and extend the range of evidence.
  • To enhance public understanding of major social issues.

Understanding the history of popular culture

Research by University of Exeter academics has increased the public’s participation in, and appreciation of, the history and pre-history of cinema. Much of this has been achieved by collaborative projects with the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, a free-entry museum located on the Exeter campus, which has a large collection (65,000 items) of international stature. A number of funded digitisation projects to improve accessibility have presented as well as preserved cultural heritage. The main impacts of this research have been to:
  • Preserve, conserve, and present cultural heritage.
  • Engage different publics in literary and cultural heritage.
  • Contribute to economic prosperity via the creative sector.

Preserving, conserving and presenting cultural heritage

Staff in the Centre for Intermedia and Creative Technology at the University of Exeter research methods of documenting, archiving, and replaying multi-media art, heritage, and performance. Their work demonstrates how ideas and practices of performance, particularly sharing and replay of audience experience, can broaden and enhance public encounters with museums. Developed in collaboration with international artists, technologists, and major cultural organisations, the main impacts of this research have been to:
  • Help professionals and organisations adapt to changing cultural values.
  • Preserve, conserve and present cultural heritage.
  • Generate new ways of thinking that influence creative practice.

Engaging audiences in the South West's literary heritage

Members of Exeter University’s Centre for South West Writing have collaborated with authors, scholars, musicians, archivists, museum staff, private businesses, public councils, and tourist organisations to enhance public understanding of the cultural heritage of the South West of England and its distinctive literary traditions. Much of their research is archival and has reached audiences via publications, conferences, concerts, festivals, lectures, blogs, exhibitions, and the commissioning of public monuments. The main impacts of their research have been to:
  • Preserve, conserve and present literary and cultural heritage.
  • Engage different publics in literary and cultural heritage.
  • Develop stimuli to tourism.

Research centres

CentreAbout the centre
Centre for Intermedia and Creative Technology The Centre for Intermedia and Creative Technology promotes advanced transdisciplinary research in performance and the arts through collaborations between artists, academics and scientists from a range of disciplines.
Centre for Victorian Studies

The Centre for Victorian Studies promotes interdisciplinary research and teaching in all aspects of nineteenth-century literature, culture and media.

Centre for Interdisciplinary Film Research OLD Oct22 The Centre embraces an exciting range of international research across the broad field of Film Studies. Work spans film history and theory across American, East Asian, European, African and other World cinemas.
The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum 

Founded in 1994, The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum (formerly known as The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture) contains an enormous collection relating to the history of film and visual media. From shadow puppets to Shirley Temple dolls, from magic lanterns to Marilyn Monroe postcards, there is something to fascinate everyone.

Centre for Literature and Archives The Centre for Literature and Archives at the University of Exeter holds many resources and manuscripts in the Special Collections archive, and actively encourages students to engage with this material.
The Centre for South West Writing

The Centre for South West Writing exists to promote the appreciation of the region’s many important creative writers.

ECLIPSE This Centre facilitates research into literary and cultural representations of identity, place and sustainability. Sitting within the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI), the Centre seeks to ensure that research into environment and sustainability includes its significant social and cultural dimensions.
The Centre for Early Modern Studies

The Centre for Early Modern Studies capitalises on the exceptional concentration of scholars of the early modern era based at the University of Exeter, it provides a focus for intellectual exchange and interdisciplinary activity between academic staff and postgraduate students of the Departments of History, English, Drama, and Modern Languages and Cultures.

The Centre for Medieval Studies

The Centre for Medieval Studies provides the focal point for interdisciplinary scholarship and learning in a wide variety of subjects relating to the Middle Ages. It brings together staff with interests and expertise in areas that include Archaeology, History, Arab and Islamic Studies, Law, Music, Theology, the literatures of England, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy, Food History, Material Culture, and the History of the Book.

Research groups

GroupAbout the group
Medieval and Renaissance research group Research interests include the relationship between politics and literature; religion and literary culture, cultural geography; literature and domestic travel in early modern England; reception of Virgil in the Civil War polemic; Shakespeare in the English theatrical memoir, and English writing and the Ottoman Empire.
Long Eighteenth Century research group Research interests include enlightenment philosophy and modernity, particularly utilitarianism; animal and human in the enlightenment; science, medicine, politics and aesthetics; the development of British national identity; British responses to the French Revolution; women's literary history and feminist theory; 18th century poetics; satire and print culture; forgery and authenticity; the Arabian nights’ entertainments and orientalism; children's literature; eco-criticism; new readings of Romanticism and nature; literary biography; Islam and women's poetry; the reception of classical texts and ideas; the epic tradition; romantic poetry; the gothic and romantic medievalism; Fielding; Smollett; Sterne; Burney; Austen.
Victorian research group Research interests include fin de siècle; gender studies; popular literature; Victorian prosody; Hardy; periodical literature; science, technology and medicine; Darwin; the Great Exhibition and popular culture.
Twenty- and Twenty-First Century Literature Creative  Writing and Film research group

The 20th and 21st Century Literature, Creative Writing and Film research group promotes interdisciplinary research and teaching in all aspects of twentieth century literature, culture and media.

 

The research group is characterised by intellectual expertise, strong archival holdings, thriving postgraduate community and internationally recognised academic events. Its researchers have achieved success in obtaining support from the AHRC, British Academy and others.