BA English with Study in North America

EAS1032: Approaches to Criticism

This module will introduce you to a broad range of critical and theoretical approaches to reading texts. Such approaches, developed throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century and deployed by English Studies scholars, are intended to be both worthy of historical study in their own right and useful to your own research at university. Over the course of the module you will explore a range of ways in which you might approach familiar and unfamiliar texts, and be encouraged to question exactly what a text might be and why it is worth our critical attention.

To cover a significant range of critical and theoretical approaches to literary and film studies in the context of English Studies, including work on language and meaning, texts and reading, the mind and the brain, ideology and power, gender and sexuality, race and empire. The module encourages you to recognise dialogue and dissent within the field, and introduces the ground rules for scholarship in the discipline of English Studies.

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EAS1035: Beginnings: English Literature before 1800

This module selects texts that represent some of the richest sources and most complex moments of English cultural history before 1800. These texts, and the cultural elements they combine, went on to have afterlives of great significance for English language, literature and other media. In other senses, they offered legacies that were not taken up, and what has been lost in cultural transformations will also be considered.

The module aims to

• introduce you to these major literary texts. In doing so, we aim to cultivate modes of reading and critical analysis broadly informed by an attention to history and context. Such analysis will include ideas of subjectivity, identity, conflict, community, myth, the transmission of stories, storytelling, translation, transformation, and influence. This module will emphasise essay-writing skills that are fundamental to research and communication in English literature.

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EAS1038: The Poem

Despite its strong oral traditions and origins, poetry is the origin of all written literature. It is the base on which all that literature - drama, novels, non-fiction prose - is built. Many of its formal elements are used in common and rhetorical speech. This module is designed to introduce you to the mechanical aspects of poetry and to its history; in addition, it offers you insight into the history and influence of important poetic eras, as well as into how understanding of it may be enriched by literary theory. By the end of the module, you will have a firm grounding in the poem as a form and as a literary force.

The aim of the course is to cultivate skills of formal analysis which can be used in combination with other interpretive and creative techniques later in the degree. There will thus be a close focus in seminars on details of language in particular examples of poetry.

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EAS1040: Academic English

Academic English introduces you to the techniques needed to write successful, university-level analytical essays on literary texts and topics. Using model essays and articles, seminar discussions, your own essay writing, and guided readings, you will learn how to write well structured, clearly argued persuasive analytical essays, with a focus on some of the fundamentals of writing: arguments/thesis statements, paragraphing, clarity of expression, essay formatting and accurate referencing. You will also learn how to locate, evaluate, and use secondary (critical) sources that support your essay's argument, as well as how to cite those sources correctly. There will also be attention to ways of analysing literature effectively.

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EAS1016: Digital Cultures: Narrative, Creativity, Industry

Digital technology has transformed almost every area of human life over the last sixty-five years, and the written word remains at the core of this ongoing transformation. This module will introduce you to some of these developments across literary cultures, and you will gain an understanding of how phenomena such as interactive storytelling, artificial intelligence and the Internet have come to influence literature's subject matter as well as its modes of publishing and production. Alongside critical readings and discussions, you will conduct practice-based research by learning to use some of the technologies and software that define modern literary cultures..

This module aims:

• To consider how digital technology makes itself apparent in modern literary, visual and creative cultures.
• To introduce you to a diverse range of authors, poets, artists, technologists, theorists and critics both commenting upon and using digital technologies to explore new possibilities in literature.
• To explore the historical relationship between literary cultures, visual cultures and emerging technologies, grounding students' understanding of current debates in this field.
• To enable you to create a diverse portfolio of creative and critical responses to the topics explored in class, including both traditional written outputs and digital prototypes.

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EAS1037: The Novel

This module will introduce you to an exciting range of novels representative of diverse narrative styles drawn from different historical periods and national contexts. The module covers the development of this important genre from the birth of the novel in eighteenth-century England through the nineteenth-century and modernist periods into the present day. It provides an invaluable foundation for future study in a number of literary fields.

• To introduce students to an exciting range of novels representative of diverse narrative styles drawn from different historical periods and national contexts. The module covers the development of this important genre from the birth of the novel in eighteenth-century England through the nineteenth-century and modernist periods into the present day.
• To address the emergence and reception of the novel in relation to its historical and literary contexts and to its adoption, and adaptation, of particular voices and forms. Close readings of chosen novels will be supplemented by theoretical and critical analysis. Stylistic changes - such as the move from nineteenth-century realist fiction to modernist experimentation - will be explored alongside specific texts which illuminate the impact of cultural change on fictional form.
• In looking at a variety of examples of prose fiction, to examine the pleasures of the novel, as well as the historical conditions and textual strategies which underpin those pleasures.

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EAS1041: Rethinking Shakespeare

This module explores Shakespeare's plays from a wide range of perspectives. You will study in depth some of the plays and examine the contexts of their production and reception; the plays' print history; early modern performance practices, and how other writers and film directors have adapted Shakespeare's plays. Through engaging with the sources and precursors to Shakespeare's plays, the intricacies of textual production and editorial history, as well as how these plays have been reimagined by other writers, you will be asked to rethink notions of textual stability in relation to the 'Shakespearean text' and encounter the nuances and richness available within Shakespeare Scholarship.

The module aims to explore the processes by which Shakespeare's plays came into existence, how they achieved their unique status in English literature and culture, and how Shakespeare's dominance has been and continues to be challenged. The module illuminates the role (and texts) of other writers involved in the legacy of Shakespeare's plays, from the Restoration to the twenty-first century, and encourages you to examine these often neglected influences within modern understandings of Shakespeare. Throughout, the module pays close attention to the particular possibilities of theatre as a mode of cultural production.

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EAS1044: Imagine This: Prompts for Creative Writing

This module will ask you for a creative writing response to whatever 'prompt' is suggested - whether it's a newspaper headline, the Ted Hughes archive in The Old Library, or a geographical feature. It will invigorate your entrepreneurial spirit, and will include expressions written in both poetry, prose and dramatic forms. Working across a wide range of writing styles and genres, you will make literature that works for the ear and the body and the page. The assessment will be entirely creative, and in that sense the module complements the other term-2 compulsory module on the Combined Honours English and Creative Writing degree programme, 'Critical Reflections', for which the assessment will be wholly critical/academic.

This module has a clear set of learning strategies, offering you a series of stepping stones that navigate the creative process in different forms. You will develop learning strategies that will encourage self-starting intelligence and invention, an entrepreneurial spirit. It will explore the notion of the 'good idea' and its relationship with form - whether poetry, prose, or dramatic expression, as well as strategies for successful drafting/rewriting. The overall intention of the module is for you to develop an individual creative process that might be carried forward into a writing life.

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EAS2110: North American Study Term 1

After following the English programme in your first year, you will spend the second year in North America, and rejoin the Exeter English degree as a third year on your return.

The Department currently has agreements with the universities of Toronto and Victoria (in Canada) and Augustana, Northeastern Illinois, Kansas, Oregon, and Vassar, and Carroll College (in the USA).

While in North America, you'll follow a balanced programme of study which is broadly comparable with the Exeter second year, but will also be encouraged to take advantage of the wide range of courses and particular specialisms available at their host universities.

Successful completion of North American studies counts towards one-third of your final degree: this is the same as if you were completing the full three years at the University of Exeter.

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EAS2111: North American Study Term 2

After following the English programme in your first year, you will spend the second year in North America, and rejoin the Exeter English degree as a third year on your return.

The Department currently has agreements with the universities of Toronto and Victoria (in Canada), Augustana, Kansas, Northeastern Illinois, Oregon, and Vassar, and Carroll College (in the USA).

While in North America, you'll follow a balanced programme of study which is broadly comparable with the Exeter second year, but will also be encouraged to take advantage of the wide range of courses and particular specialisms available at their host universities.

Successful completion of North American studies counts towards one-third of your final degree: this is the same as if you were completing the full three years at the University of Exeter.

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EAS3179: Life and Death in Early Modern Literature

In this module, we will read early modern works that are engaged with the milestones of human life: childhood, adolescence, parenthood, marriage, ageing and death. These stages of the life cycle are represented in a wide range of plays, poems, and prose pieces by such writers as William Shakespeare, Thomas Heywood, Isabella Whitney, John Donne, Thomas Middleton, Dorothy Leigh and Katherine Philips. Analysing the module's core texts, you will encounter a rich variety of early modern views on how the stage of an individual's life is related to his or her understanding of self, family, and state. In addition to literary representations of the life cycle, you will examine non-literary materials such as ballads and songs, sermons, and medical writing from the same period. In its combined exploration of core and contextual materials, this module aims to encourage you to pursue textual analyses that recognise important nuances within early modern representations of Life and Death. You will be given the opportunity to investigate how early modern writers' concerns with birth, marriage, and death prompt exploration of adjacent fields such as illegitimacy, impotence, health, sickness, ageing, spiritual uncertainty and poetic legacy.

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EAS3195: Acts of Writing: From Decolonisation to Globalisation

Acts of Writing focuses on the processes of decolonisation, the decline of Empire, and the move to a globalising and interconnecting world, which have shaped the mid-20th to early- 21st century. The module allows you to consider key cultural and critical debates responding to these events. You will engage in detail with texts that consider questions of nationhood and community, revisionist historiography, the ethics of representation, collective guilt and responsibility, identity politics, new subjectivities and art's relationship with economic and cultural globalisation.

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EAS3234: Citizens of the World

What did it mean to be a citizen of the world in the eighteenth century and Romantic period? This module, designed for specialist and non-specialists, explores the shift from the cosmopolitan view that the enlightened person was at home everywhere to the Romantic view that one may be an exile even in one's own country. The module examines major works by writers such as Austen, Voltaire, Wollstonecraft, Polidori and Keats, as well as lesser-known texts, to build up a detailed view of eighteenth-century and Romantic literary culture. We will explore themes such as nation, empire, slavery, identity and literature's evolving role in mediating between the self and the wider world.

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EAS3003: Dissertation

The dissertation is an independent research project, which enables you to operate autonomously and responsibly, and take a positive and active role in your learning. You will plan and produce a sustained piece of critical work that highlights the skills you have learnt over the course of your degree programme, incorporating a range of research methods and methodologies.

You will receive guidance from a supervisor and receive support through a series of workshops and lectures. The dissertation module teaches you time management skills and gives you the flexibility to devise and follow your own research questions, extending your knowledge in a specialism which you have particularly enjoyed.

• To enable you to operate independently and responsibly, and take a positive and active role in your learning, in the service of the production of a sustained piece of critical work. It allows you to devise your own research questions and to pursue these lines of inquiry. You will work under the guidance of an academic supervisor, with extra support provided by occasional workshops and lectures to develop key skills for researching a chosen subject and preparing a finished manuscript.

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EAS3122: Creative Writing Dissertation

This module gives the opportunity to pursue a sustained piece of original writing of your choosing. You will have the chance to develop both your imaginative and critical abilities through the completion of a portfolio of creative work and reflective commentary. Possible project forms include an extract from a novel, a sequence of short stories, a collection of poetry, a combination of poetry and prose or a screenplay.

You will choose your project in consultation with academic staff and then write the dissertation, along with a related self-reflexive essay, under appropriate academic supervision.

The dissertation provides the opportunity to gain skills in active learning, research and writing.

• This module aims to provide the opportunity, at the end of your BA programme, to pursue a sustained piece of creative writing. A project is chosen by you, in consultation with an academic member of staff, and thereafter you write the dissertation, along with a related self-reflexive essay, under appropriate academic supervision. The module therefore develops qualities of independence, active learning, research and writing.

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EAS3510: Dissertation by Collaborative Project

This module gives you the opportunity to share your university English learning with a non-academic audience by creating a project in collaboration with an external partner. Sample external partners include but are not limited to: the creative industries (e.g. a publisher); heritage organisations (e.g. a museum); a school; a library; an archive; a charity. The format of the project output is flexible: for example, it could be a website, series of blog posts, set of podcasts or video essays, set of lesson plans, online exhibition, edition, translation with introduction, edited collection of poetry, interactive guided walk. It will be based on scholarly research and it will communicate a topic that falls generally into the remit of English and Creative Writing. If you want to hone your employability skills and create a piece of work that will be read and used by a specific non-academic audience, this module is for you.

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EAF3524: American Independent Film

This module gives you an in-depth look at the contemporary American independent film sector, tracing major developments, and studying some of the key films and filmmakers to have emerged over the last few decades. You will look at the rise of the Sundance film festival, study Hollywood’s investment in ‘specialty’ or ‘indiewood’ productions, examine key directors and genres, and develop an understanding of the different artistic and political approaches employed by filmmakers working in the field. You will also think about how the emergence of digital production, distribution and exhibition has changed the independent film sector, and the challenges to create new modes of storytelling in this era.

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EAF3531: Something to See: War and Visual Media

This interdisciplinary module investigates the dynamic connection between visual media and industrialized warfare, making it suitable for students across a wide range of subjects. It will offer you the opportunity to interrogate how visual media shape the ways war is understood, remembered and waged. Bringing together approaches from media, history, conflict studies and visual culture, it critically examines both fictional and non‑fictional representations of warfare and investigates the blurred boundaries between the two. Starting with photography and film in early industrialized wars, and moving on to television, videogames and digital media, you will explore the evolution of visual conventions for representing conflict and analyse their relationship to political, cultural and ideological contexts. Throughout, you'll develop a critical understanding of how media technologies and texts don't just represent warfare, but actively participate in how conflicts are fought, felt, and understood. At the same time, the module supports you in building the analytical, research and communication skills that are valued across a wide range of careers, from media and cultural industries to policy, journalism and military roles. Through working with diverse sources, producing digital outputs and crafting clear, well‑evidenced arguments, you will strengthen your ability to navigate complex information environments and to communicate insightfully in professional and academic contexts.

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EAS3241: Harlem and After: African American Literature 1925-present

Taking as its point of departure the landmark special issue of Survey Graphicthat announced the arrival on the artistic and intellectual scene of the 'New Negro' (1925), this module provides an historical survey of African American writing, 1925 to present. Focusing on a range of literary forms - including novel, short fiction, essay and poetry - the module showcases the range and diversity of African American literature in the 20 thand 21 stcenturies. Through close readings of works by canonical, recovered and emerging writers, it encourages students to situate these texts within their historical, social, political and literary contexts.

• To enable you to situate these texts within their historical context and to facilitate your consideration of the intersections between politics and aesthetics.
• To encourage you to consider the intersection of African American literature with other art forms such as visual art, photography and music (especially jazz and blues).
• To motivate you to evaluate the aesthetic strategies African American writers have used to challenge pervasive and ongoing racial stereotypes.
• To stimulate you to frame your readings of African American literature within a range of theoretical and contextual frameworks, for example: modernism, postmodernism, multicultural and 'post-racial' America, eco-criticism, whiteness studies, feminism and biopolitics.

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EAS3252: Poison, Filth, Trash: Modernism, Censorship and Resistance

Modernist authors and filmmakers pushed the boundaries of what was deemed acceptable in terms of racial, sexual, gender, age, national and class politics as well as aesthetics. As a result, they had to confront the threat and reality of censorship and repression. This module invites you to explore different forms of censorship and repression, ranging from psychological repression, self-censorship, and editorial interventions to postal seizures and government-imposed bans. You will learn about the reasons why certain texts were considered dangerous, obscene or immoral, engaging closely with ideologies of race, sexuality, gender, age, nation and class that underpin censorship and repression. You will examine transnational networks of circulation and explore the different strategies authors and filmmakers developed to resist censorship or to reveal the repressed contents of the human mind. You will consider the complex and often contradictory impact of censorship and debate whether there are contexts in which forms of repression are inevitable or even necessary. You will also explore the histories behind concepts like freedom of speech and strategies like age restrictions and content warnings that are still relevant today.

This module is suitable for all students. You will have the chance to read literary and filmic texts in tandem with other relevant historical sources and theoretical debates.

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EAS3421: Picturing the Global City: Literature and Visual Culture in the 21st Century

Since 2007, for the first time in human history, more people have been living in cities than rural areas. By 2050, 75% of the world's population will be urbanised. The urban, the global and the contemporary are completely intertwined. Grappling with these facts, and travelling from London, New York, Vancouver and Detroit, to Mumbai, Seoul, and the Yangtze River Delta, in this module you will study recent works of literature and visual culture that aim to come to terms with the new global urban reality of contemporary life.

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EAS3500: American Counterculture in Literature

This module allows you to delve into America's diverse countercultural scene, examining both how the counterculture expressed itself, and how it was captured by others, in literature. Focussing on the period from the late 1950s to the mid 1970s, you will engage in close analysis of literary texts (novels, short stories, poetry, etc.) from this period and later works reflecting back on it, alongside exploring contextual material (pamphlets, essays, articles, underground publications, political theory, music, etc.) to gain a sense of the counterculture as a multifaceted cultural, political and historical phenomenon. You will also consider how the formal literary experimentation of many writers associated with the counterculture relates to revolutionary political ideologies.

a. To introduce you via literature to the diversity of views and practices that made up the American counterculture of the 1960s and 70s.

b. To enable you to contextualise literary texts from the period in relation to relevant political, social, cultural and historical developments.

c. To encourage you to consider factors motivating aesthetic (and especially formal) innovation in this time period, and the extent to which they intersect with political innovation.

d. To enable you to develop skills in archival research, through the use of (online) underground press archives.

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