BA English and Film & Television Studies

EAF1501: Major Debates in Film Theory

This module will introduce you to some of the key debates and concepts in film theory. It will investigate some questions about film that have emerged as the most pressing at different junctures in the history of film and of film studies. Together, these ideas will allow you to build a conceptual framework for understanding film's relationship to reality, individuals, cultures and societies. It will demonstrate how theories can be productively applied to film analysis, and will develop your understanding of film and of the world around you, in new and diverse ways.

• To introduce you to a series of major debates in film theory from issues of realism and film language to affect and queer theories.

• To familiarise you with these theoretical approaches, situate them in the broader development of Film Studies as an academic discipline, and demonstrate how these theories might productively be applied to analyse film texts in new and different ways.

View an example full module specification

EAF1506: Interrogating Screens

Interrogating Screens will introduce you to key skills in formal analysis for film and television. It offers you an essential technical tool kit for interrogating film and television form and style, considering properties of image, audio, editing, storytelling and non-narrative media modes. To do this, the module covers a wide range of big and small screen texts from different historical periods, cultures, genres and movements. By the end of the module, you will be proficient in the use of a range of tools and techniques for close formal analysis and will be able to relate this analysis outwards to an understanding of relevant cultural and industrial contexts and conditions.

The module aims to:

• introduce you to the essential technical vocabulary for the close reading of film and television form and style;
• teach you how to apply this vocabulary in oral and written forms in constructing original analyses and close readings of texts;
• introduce you to a wide range of cinematic and television styles and genres from global media histories;
• enable you to understand how particular movements and trends in film and television form relate to their particular cultural and historical contexts;
• develop your core study skills in academic reading, writing, research and presentation;
• develop your ability to work individually and in a team.

View an example full module specification

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.

View an example full module specification

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.

View an example full module specification

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.

View an example full module specification

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.

View an example full module specification

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.

View an example full module specification

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.

View an example full module specification

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.

View an example full module specification

EAS2026: Desire and Power: English Literature 1570-1640

This module introduces you to a wide range of literature written during a crucial turning point in the English Renaissance, when society was undergoing enormous change and upheaval at every level. It covers the work of dramatists, such as Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Webster; poets, including Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Wroth, Spenser, Sidney, and Donne; and inventive prose writers like Thomas Nashe and John Stow. It deals with constructions of race, sexuality, and disability; explores issues of cultural contact and migration; examines the role of literature in upholding and subverting authority; and investigates the representation and meanings of violence.

The module aims to familiarise you with the breadth and depth of the literature of the English Renaissance, its fascinating contexts, complexities, and contradictions. You will engage with the ways in which Renaissance writers address eroti-cism, religion, race, class, authorship, social change, and anxiety about the power of the monarchy. You will learn about theoretical and critical landmarks in Renaissance Studies, as well as recent, cutting-edge critical perspectives on the Re-naissance, its cultural discourses and current resonances.

View an example full module specification

EAS2036: Theatrical Cultures in Early Modern England

Theatrical Cultures in Early Modern England focuses on the 'golden age' of English drama from the Elizabethan period through to the Civil War which produced the works of Shakespeare and other playwrights who continue to influence our understanding of this period and its drama today. Each week, you will explore a new performance environment, so that over the course of the term you will acquire a nuanced understanding of the performance culture that shaped the work of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, Cary and their fellow playwrights.

Through the prism of theatre history, the module explores how gender, sexual, national and racial identities were constructed not just through the written texts but also through theatrical conventions and technologies such as cross-dressing, blackface performance and the use of stage space, lighting and costuming. The study of both texts and their performance contexts will shed light on how popular and elite culture responded to immigration and the beginnings of colonial expansion and the slave trade.

The module's texts furthermore illuminate how increasing opportunities for women's participation in theatrical culture, foreign policy under Elizabeth I and James I and the growth of a mercantile middle class are related to the development of English drama.

View an example full module specification

EAS2071: Chaucer and His Contemporaries

This module introduces you to late medieval English literature. You will have the chance to explore some exceptionally inclusive poetic imaginations and a world of devotion, brutality, exclusion, chivalry, urbanity, misogyny, piety, courtly sophistication, sharp minds and some very bodily bodies.

We will look at religious and secular, and courtly and popular traditions, and themes such as 'courtly love', that adores women and puts them on a pedestal, arguably the better to ignore them; the constructions of femininity and masculinity in a Christian chivalric culture; the ways in which a tension-riven society went about presenting a harmonious vision of itself; and a Christianity that approached its God with a mixture of familiarity and awe. The module is split more or less equally between the works of Chaucer and the anonymous literature of the late Middle Ages.

The module aims to provide an introduction to the literature of the late Middle Ages in England.

The syllabus is split more or less equally between the works of Chaucer and the anonymous literature of the late Middle Ages. You will also consider the particular nuances of Middle English as a vehicle for literary expression and explore late-medieval culture.

View an example full module specification

EAS2080: Renaissance and Revolution

This module introduces English literature written during the most violent and turbulent period of English history: the seventeenth century. The module traces literature from Shakespeare to Milton, exploring literary culture at the courts of the Stuart kings James I, Charles I, and Charles II, as well as literary reactions to the civil war, the execution of the king, and the rule of Oliver Cromwell. It includes drama, poetry, and prose, and studies major male and female writers within their wider literary and historical landscape.

View an example full module specification

EAS2102: Satire and the City: English Literature 1660-1750

The period 1660 to 1750 was politically and culturally tumultuous. The Stuart dynasty was restored to the throne, and then deposed again. London expanded massively, becoming the largest city in Europe and a centre for financial and criminal activity. The theatres - closed during the civil war and interregnum - reopened, and actresses appeared on the English stage for the first time. The spread of literacy and growth of the press led to the emergence of many new literary genres - above all the periodical and the novel - and of the first professional authors, many of whom were women. Satire and polemical writing flourished in the period, as writers reacted against (or celebrated) these seismic shifts. This module offers an in-depth look at the writing of this period.

The long eighteenth century is a key period in British history and literature, when many of the cultural productions that inform our contemporary modernity - the novel, the periodical, the marketplace for a new, expanded print culture - emerged and started to take shape. You will read a broad range of texts, drawn equally from the poetry, prose and drama of the period, and learn to identify how these relate to the revolutionary times in which they were written.

View an example full module specification

EAS2029: Revolutions and Evolutions 19C Writings

Revolutions and Evolutions explores a wide range of literature written during the Victorian period. You will study literary texts by writers such as Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, and Thomas Hardy in relation to central historical, social, and cultural developments in the nineteenth century. The texts on this module are thematically arranged in order to illuminate a number of the important and exciting conceptual developments of the nineteenth century including industrialisation and progress; class consciousness and democracy; globalisation and colonialism; developing notions of the self and subjectivity; and conceptions of nature , ecology and evolution.

As well as studying a selection of major Victorian texts in depth, to consider these texts in their historical, social, and cultural contexts. The use of a course reader will introduce you to a range of texts beyond the core reading that will give you a broad understanding of the major themes that influence the literary production of the period. Such themes include imperialism, industrialisation and urbanisation; gender and identity, religion, secularism and the rise of science; liberalism; the emergence of the mass market; and the development of new literary forms such as the short story

View an example full module specification

EAS2103: Modernism and Modernity: Literature 1900-1960

Modernism and Modernity explores a wide range of British, American and Irish authors from the first half of the twentieth century (1900-1960). In different ways, these authors sought to challenge established ways of using language and reinvent literature itself. You will study the texts in relation to their political, aesthetic and critical contexts. Particular attention is paid to innovation and experimentation, to the emergence and development of literary and cultural movements and to literatures' perceived responsibility in a time of change. You will learn skills in contextual and historical analysis, and independent research.

• As well as studying literary texts in depth, this module aims to strengthen your skills in contextual and historical analysis and research. Lectures and seminars will introduce key concepts and provide advice on further independent research. Study group meetings and prepared seminar presentations will give you the opportunity to develop your own approaches to the syllabus texts and other materials.

View an example full module specification

EAS2106: Romanticism

The Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries transformed European culture, and had profound implications for a modern understanding of the self, nature, feeling, gender, imagination, the sublime, freedom and the role of the artist as an interpreter of all these. This module introduces some of the key canonical texts of British Romanticism produced during the years 1780-1830, in order to understand the phenomenon of Romanticism, its relation to historical, political, and aesthetic developments, and its legacy in today's world. The module is essential study for an understanding of literary history as a whole, and prepares you for more in-depth study of Romantic topics in Year 3 and beyond.

In addition to the primary literature, we will pay close attention to the central concepts and concerns of the era; the visual arts; Romantic experimentation with poetic forms; and the intertextual literary circles that formed between key Romantic figures. The early weeks of the module will introduce key Romantic concerns. At the centre of the module will be an exploration of writings by leading authors of the period, including Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Keats, Lord Byron, and Charlotte Smith.

View an example full module specification

EAS2116: Empire of Liberty: American Literature of the Long Nineteenth Century

This module explores key literary texts of the United States during the long nineteenth century. You will study a broad range of major contributions - including poetry, the novel, the short story, slave narratives, and autobiography - as well as the intersections of literature with broader contextual issues, such as literary nationalism, the literature of enslavement and the American Civil War, and the Gilded Age.

You will learn how the turbulent social and political development of the US during this time is reflected through literature, considering contexts such as the constitution of the democratic state, the fraught history of ethnic and race relations, the changing gender politics of US society, and how transnational models of culture have affected our understanding of the US literary canon.

Module aims:

• To consider major artistic forms and styles such as the American gothic, poetry, the tale and the short story, the autobiography, the slave narrative, and the American novel

View an example full module specification

EAF2520: Adaptations: Text, Image, Culture

The process of adapting material between media, including literary forms, such as scripts, short stories, novels and plays and visual forms, including film, television, graphic novels, webtoons, and games is one of the oldest, most dominant and most ubiquitous strategies in the creative industries. By analysing a wide range of adaptations in different forms you will be able to understand the rich and complex relationships between textual and visual media at distinct historical moments and in specific cultural contexts. This module introduces key issues in transmedia studies and offers you the opportunity to understand adaptation as a creative process and adaptations as cultural products.

View an example full module specification

EAS2031: Creative Writing: Building a Story

The module develops a toolbox of writing techniques and approaches for contemporary short fiction. It will prepare you for the contemporary writing world by focusing on the kinds of writing that are being published at the present time, while examining the production of literary texts within their traditions and lineages. Through practical exercises and seminar discussions, you will explore a variety of techniques, styles and content and build towards a portfolio of short stories and an accompanying critical essay that will show how you have reflected on and implemented the concepts and techniques taught on the course.

The course comprises a fortnightly lecture on key aspects of short story writing, as well as technical material on the set texts; a weekly 2-hour seminar that helps you develop the techniques introduced in the lectures, and fortnightly 'Workshops' to further develop and give and receive critical feedback on creative work and critical reading in progress. These approaches are designed to enhance the understanding of the practice, as well as the historical, social and critical contexts that produce short story writing and writers.

Only B.A. English and Creative Writing students and Creative Writing majors on the Liberal Arts programme are permitted to take BOTH EAS2031 AND EAS2032: Making a Poem.

View an example full module specification

EAS2032: Creative Writing: Making a Poem

The module develops a toolbox of writing techniques and approaches for writing contemporary poetry. It will prepare you for the contemporary poetry world by focusing on the kinds of 'page poetry' that are being written and published at the present time, while examining the production of literary texts within their traditions and lineages. Through practical exercises and seminar discussions, you will explore a variety of textual form and content.

The course comprises lectures on key aspects of poetry writing technique, as well as material on the set texts; seminars that help you develop the techniques introduced in the lectures, and workshops to receive and give detailed criticism and feedback on works in progress. These approaches are designed to enhance the understanding of the practice, as well as the historical, social and critical contexts that produce poetry and poets.

Only students enrolled on the B.A. English and Creative Writing programme and who are Creative Writing majors on the Liberal Arts programme may take BOTH this module and EAS2031: Building a Story.

View an example full module specification

EAS2033: British Cultures: The Exeter Seminar

This module is especially designed for inbound study abroad students and will enhance your experience of visiting Britain by providing you with a critical introduction to British Culture from the medieval period through to the present day. The module covers a variety of cultural forms (including literature and film) and genres (including drama, fiction and poetry) and encourages you to reflect on the processes by which - sometimes competing - ideas about national identity have been created, disseminated and interpreted in Britain. Teaching is by regular seminars and assessment is by a reflective learning log, a presentation, and an independent study.

This module aims to provide inbound study abroad students with a distinctive critical introduction to British Cultures, including national legends, icons, beliefs and values. It will provide you with the opportunity to study some familiar texts in depth and will introduce you to some that you might not yet have encountered. The aim is to equip you with skills that will enable you to interpret examples of British Culture in relation to their contexts. The module is taught by a convenor with frequent guest contributions from specialists in the department who have research interests in this area.

View an example full module specification

EAS2037: Comics Studies: Histories, Methodologies, Genres

View an example full module specification

EAS2089: Creative Industries: Their Past, Our Future

Creative Industries: Their Past, Our Future tracks the profound changes that the creative industries have gone through during the 20th and early 21st centuries. The module, which focuses on the publishing industry, museums, film and theatre, looks at how each of these industries has become increasingly focused on 'users', tracking how the industries have worked with emergent technologies, including social media and AI, to shape new forms of engagement; how they have widened participation and redefined access; reinvented values (aesthetic, economic, social); and dealt with generational and social divides.

You will learn about how the creative industries operate as organisations; how they design their relationships to readerships, visitors and audiences; how they use a range of technologies to reach out to different communities; how they produce novel forms of aesthetic, social, and economic value; and how they usually operate through shrinking budgets.

The module requires no prior knowledge or skills and is open to anyone with an interest in the current and future developments of the creative industries.

View an example full module specification

EAS2090: Humanities after the Human: Further Adventures in Critical Theory

Humanities After the Human considers how critical theory - a constellation of writing that includes philosophy, sociology, political manifesto, and cultural commentary - has decentred the (white, heterosexual, able-bodied, cisgender, male) human subject as the privileged site of meaning, knowledge, and creativity. In so doing, this course tries to imagine those yet-to-be-enumerated possibilities of being and relating to others and the world around us that models of subjectivity in late consumer capitalism tend to foreclose. You will build on concepts introduced in Approaches to Criticism and reflect on the challenges that critical theory poses for the study of literature, the limits of the self, possibilities of kinship, and the organisation of social life. It is advantageous for you to be familiar with the material in Approaches , although it is not a prerequisite.

On this module we will interrogate the assumptions bound up with white Euro-American neoliberal subjectivity, such as interiority, individualism, private property, and naturalised partitions. How have critics deterritorialised the received coordinates of self and world, public and private, mind and body, man and woman, human and non-human? What happens when familiar myths of being are left behind in favour of new utopian communalities, queer and trans futures, and rhizomatic connections? And what does this mean for how we read literature and other cultural texts?

View an example full module specification

EAS2113: Culture, Crisis and Ecology in a Postcolonial World

This module offers an introduction to World Literatures and film focused on Africa, the Caribbean, Middle East and South Asia, assessing how texts inscribe the social, historical and environmental impact of colonialism and new and adapted forms of imperialism. Focussing on issues such as development and disaster, conservation and animal rights, resource exploitation, and the effects of neoliberalism and global tourism, the module will introduce you to a range of texts - essays, films, novels, poems, and short stories - to investigate the cultural representation of the consequences of global crisis. While considering stylistic and thematic features, the module will map the convergences and divergences of postcolonial and environmental perspectives. This focus enables you to explore the deep connections between imperial power relations and contemporary issues of globalization.

View an example full module specification

CDF2001: Script Craft: Writing for Screen and Stage

This module introduces you to the basic skills needed for writing for Screen and Stage. You will learn how to write short-form and long-form texts (scripts, short dramatic scenes) tailored to specific audiences, media, and purposes. You will use concepts such as scene structure, character, conflict, dialogue, pacing or visual description to create dramatic writing for stage or screen. You will learn how to apply the conventions of film, broadcast, or stage and use them to shape tone, structure and rhetorical approach. You will have the opportunity to implement iterative revision practices using feedback, focusing on clarity, concision, tone, and dramaturgical coherence. There are no pre-requisites or co-requisites for this module, and no specialist knowledge, skills, or experience are required to take it.

View an example full module specification

EAF2502: Shots in the Dark

This module offers you the opportunity to look closely at Hollywood, one of the world's most successful exponents of screen entertainment, but also consider the important realms of independent filmmaking and art cinema, which have broadened the scope of cinematic innovation and representation, and have often offered a distinct challenge to Hollywood's own practices. It gives you the chance to study some of the most fascinating and significant films to have emerged from the American cinema, placing them in the rich cultural and institutional contexts from which they emerged.

View an example full module specification

EAF2511: Television: Times, Trends and Technologies

Mass entertainment, public service broadcasting, state apparatus, domestic screen medium, digital platform: this module examines the changing nature of global television by investigating its different histories, modes and technologies. By reflecting and informing daily life, television plays a significant role in shaping how individuals, families and communities consume sound and images. You will consider television's role from a number of perspectives drawn from a range of disciplines - visual culture, history, sociology, politics, and psychology, to name a few. As an introduction to television studies, this module is suitable for all students regardless of previous experience.

This module aims to offer a rich insight into the development of television on a global scale, considering its historical and geographical evolution, various forms and trends, and its changing technologies. The module examines the origins of television across the world, enabling an understanding of different national industries in America, Europe, Africa and Asia. You will interrogate television as a socio-cultural phenomenon, evaluating some of the most influential programming trends and ground - breaking texts, and how they have engaged societies. We will locate these discussions within specific broadcasting policies and broader institutional and political contexts.

View an example full module specification

EAF2519: Scrublands, Sanctuary, Screens: Co-creating Knowledges alongside Donkeys

You will be trained to evaluate critically the portrayals and experiences of donkeys in film and other screen media and contrast that with in-person donkey observations. You will be fully immersed into the day-to-day practicalities of donkey life including the labour of care, the exact nature of which will be individually determined at Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary (https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/visit-us/sidmouth). No prior experience of working with other species is required. The module includes 1 day at the donkey sanctuary. The day will consist of learning about donkeys in Knowing Donkeys sessions, donkey observations and potentially some interactions. You will explore the myriad ways in which donkeys have been represented in screen cultures and incorporated into discourse and rethink human-donkey relationships in the process of working on this module. You may be given the opportunity to present your final video assessment on the Donkey Sanctuary website and/or at their Education centre.

View an example full module specification

EAF2521: Fanatical: Fan Culture and Identity

Fanatical delves into the scholarly study of fandom, blending theory with real-world examples and personal reflection to examine how fandom shapes and challenges contemporary media. Through lectures, seminars, screenings, and hands-on engagement with archival materials at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, you will gain insight into fan studies and its discourse. Suitable for any student interested in critically reflecting on their own fan practices and examining media industry dynamics, this module is an excellent choice for interdisciplinary pathways.

View an example full module specification

EAF2522: World Cinemas: Representations, Histories, Conflicts

World Cinemas: Representations, Histories, Conflicts is the first of two modules which introduce you to some of the key debates, themes and films of ‘world cinema’. In this module, you will examine how these films interrogate some of the key issues of our time: global conflicts, power and identity (including race, gender, sexuality and class). You will explore how these themes are portrayed in films from all over the world, including South and East Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. The films span a wide range of genres, including animation, comedy, drama, thriller and documentary. You do not need prior knowledge of film, or deep knowledge of geopolitics or identity politics to study this module. You just need a curiosity about the world around you and an interest in how cinema portrays it. There is no expectation that you will necessarily complete both World Cinema modules, although they address different material and you are welcome to if you wish to.

View an example full module specification

EAF2523: World Cinemas: Contexts, Environments, Industries

World Cinemas: Contexts, Environments, Industries is the second of two modules which introduce you to some of the key debates, themes and films of ‘world cinema’. This module specifically invites you to explore some of the key debates around contexts, histories, and media industries globally. You will examine how these films interrogate some of the key issues of our time including representations from the margins, climate change, and neoliberalism. Further, you will explore how media industries are shaped by the idea of world cinemas, and global voices shape industry contexts, particularly, film festivals. You will explore how these themes are portrayed in films from all corners of the world. In addition to films from diverse genres, you will also assess the burgeoning global screen industries around cinemas of the world. You do not need prior knowledge of Film or a theoretical grounding to participate, and therefore the module welcomes students from all contexts and expertise levels. The module studies cinema as a key framing apparatus for the world, and as such will aid you through interdisciplinary readings to name the world and frame questions about the world. There is no requirement for you to have completed the first World Cinema module before taking this one, although it will provide some useful foundational understanding.

View an example full module specification

HAS3999: Study Abroad

The Study Abroad programme enables you to undertake a year-long study placement at a partner university outside of the UK, as part of your degree programme.

This module serves as the administrative mechanism for recording the Study Abroad assessment results of students within the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS). Students participating in the Study Abroad programme and based in a HASS department (except for the Law School, the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Modern Languages, and the School of Education) will be registered on this module during their Study Abroad placement year.

The Study Abroad programme widens the range of modules available to you during Stage 3 of your degree programme; enables you to broaden your academic horizons by studying in a different learning culture and (where relevant and appropriate) in languages other than English; and aims to promote resilience, independence, cultural awareness, and communication skills.

View an example full module specification

HAS3998: Employment Experience

This module allows you to undertake and to learn from an extended work placement during the third year of a four year “with Employment Experience” programme. You will use one or more work placements to gain skills that equip you to work in the employment market and to improve your knowledge of the work environment. You are encouraged to think about the intercultural competence and the employability skills that you acquire during your year.

To progress to this module, you will have secured a suitable placement for a minimum of 26 weeks.

Having developed the skills necessary to find relevant roles and apply for roles in the graduate labour market, this is an invaluable opportunity to develop work-related skills and experience that will further enhance your success in the graduate labour market and support your future career choices.

During your placement year you will be supported by the Module Convenor and Placement Team.

The module assessment structure provides opportunity and support for you to evaluate your skills and achievements using personal development techniques.  You will also write an Employer Report to showpiece the culmination of your academic and business skills.

This module aims to:

View an example full module specification

CDF3000: Dissertation

This module gives you the opportunity to undertake an

in-depth research project, either in the form of a traditional written

dissertation or by bridging academic scholarship and practical application. You

will develop critical thinking and independent research skills, and will have

the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge in real-world contexts should

you wish. You can choose between an 8,000-word scholarly dissertation or a

career-oriented portfolio, allowing you to tailor the project to your interests

and future goals. The module offers preparatory workshops, group supervision,

individual supervision and, where appropriate, reflective practice activities,

helping you explore topics of professional or academic interest. The module is

designed to enable you to enhance both your intellectual rigour and career

readiness and can be tailored to your individual skill sets and strengths.

View an example full module specification

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.

View an example full module specification

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.

View an example full module specification

EAF3107: Queering British Screens

You will encounter a range of dynamic film and television texts from the post-war period to the present day, which you will analyse in the light of your wide reading in classic and contemporary queer theory. Using both the screen texts and the theories, you will consider the question of whether ‘the queer must insist on disturbing’ as Lee Edelman argues. You will debate film and television’s contributions to both reinforcing and disturbing heteronormative myths, and the radical impact that both media have had on the political positioning of LGBT+ subjects. Far from privileging British culture as a special case, the module will consider how Britishness itself is an identity open to interrogation, considering how homonationalism has linked notions of ‘the good LGBT+ subject’ with ideas of the nation. The module will provide opportunities to build on some of the theoretical and critical insights of earlier modules, as well as developing a precise critical vocabulary for writing on the moving image.

The module aims to:

View an example full module specification

EAF3520: Beyond Sex and the City: Becoming a Woman in Contemporary Western Cinema

On this module you will study contemporary films (1990s onwards) from American and European cinema that map out girls, girlhood and coming-of-age. It is designed to enable students from a wide range of backgrounds such as English, Modern Languages, History, Politics and Philosophy to engage critically with some key ideas concerning filmic representation of contemporary girlhood and its aesthetic, cultural and political meanings. Prior experience of film study is not necessary. The focus of the module is on how film articulates certain tropes, and how they may shore up or allow space for critique of what has been labeled a ‘post-feminist’ culture. Major themes include emotion and affect on film; sexualisation of mainstream culture; diversity and race; and performance.

This module aims to appeal to students from a wide range of backgrounds such as English, DML, History, Politics and Philosophy. It aims to enable you to:

• Study contemporary films from European cinema that map out the fraught process of attaining adult femininity
• Examine how a range of filmic European cultures, in both art house and popular modes, represent and refract the status of young women in contemporary society against a backdrop of anxiety concerning the sexualisation of young women and the status of feminism
• Draw upon the theories of post-feminism and place these into a comparative context, including an engagement with cinema produced in Hollywood that also impacts upon European audiences
• Debate and critique representations of femininity within a range of cinematic cultures
• Discuss and articulate a range of feminist and postfeminist positions and ideas
• Appreciate and understand a wide range of films, drawn from both ‘popular’ and ‘art-house’ traditions, and their articulation of female life stages, and the political and aesthetic consequences of this
• Apply a range of theoretical concerns to films and television programmes with which you may be familiar already

View an example full module specification

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.

View an example full module specification

EAF3525: British Screens

View an example full module specification

EAF3526: Cinema in the Anthropocene

This module seeks to interrogate the role of cinema in the Anthropocene: the rapidly overheating, manmade, geological epoch that we all inhabit. Divided into three sections (Origins, The Myth of Progress, Navigating the Anthropocene), the module will engage with film’s relationship to the environment since the silent era, pursuing intersectional approaches that seek to understand the Anthropocene through considerations of capitalism, gender, colonialism, race and class. Films from across the globe will be analysed and consideration will be given to sustainable filmmaking practices. There are no pre-requisites or co-requisites for this module.

This module is suitable for specialist and non-specialist students.

This module is recommended for interdisciplinary pathways.

View an example full module specification

EAF3527: Film, Philosophy, and the Internet

Film is an empathy machine. It puts us into others’ shoes and behind their eyes. This window on the world enables us to learn different philosophical concepts, thereby understanding that world more fully. This module will enable you to grasp ideas about aesthetics, logic, ethics and uncertainty from a creativity-focused perspective. Art and media are increasingly constructed, consumed and distorted by digital disruptions. You will examine core notions of philosophy including identity, agency, and value, in relation to a world changed and changing through the Internet. There are no pre-requisites or co-requisites for this module, and no specialist knowledge, skills, or experience are required.

View an example full module specification

EAF3528: Perspectives on Animation

The module will explore the historical development of animation and select studios as well as relevant contexts and animation techniques. Topics might include: critical and theoretical perspectives, questions of national identity, studies of individual animators’ work, and the evolution of animation as a technology. Case studies might include animation from the early 20^th-century modernist period, films and series produced by established studios, arthouse productions, European and Asian productions, and animations made and exhibited outside family-oriented contexts.

View an example full module specification

EAF3529: Film Audiences

View an example full module specification

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.

View an example full module specification