BA (Hons) English Literature and Creative Writing

This module aims to establish your core knowledge of poetry, encouraging you to look beyond your previous study and embrace what poetry can be in all its different mediums and forms. The emphasis will be on instruction and development of knowledge, and guest speakers and readings will illuminate your experience further.

This module is designed to introduce you to the differing demands of scriptwriting for three major dramatic genres – screen, stage and radio. It introduces you to the formats used in these three forms and encourages you to engage with the process of visual, verbal and aural storytelling in relation to the same.

In this module, you will be tested on your ability to write using accurate and appropriate contemporary language, techniques and devices. You will scrutinise published writers' narrative strategies for important aspects of form, techniques and devices in prose, explore the links between critical and creative writing, and join in with discussion, debate and exercises.

The aim of this module is to provide you with an understanding of the basic strands of literary and cultural theories, such as feminism, Marxism, postcolonial theory, and psychoanalysis. It will allow you to explore and evaluate these theoretical perspectives through practical application to literary texts as well as to other primary sources.

This module introduces you to the study of English literature at undergraduate level, through set texts drawn from different historical periods and covering fundamental literary categories (poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama). It will give you a grounding in the key terms that you will need in critical writing, such as form, narrative, character, and irony, and in the skills needed for English studies, including close reading, reading quickly and efficiently, and researching and writing essays.

This module will introduce you to Liverpool as a global city with a rich literary heritage, tracing the creativity and multiculturalism which has shaped, and continues to shape, our world-famous city. You will read a range of works authored by or about Liverpudlians and consider the historical, social, and geographical contexts for writing in and of the city.

The aim of this module is to introduce you to a range of seventeenth-century writings in their historical and cultural context to enable you to recognise different forms and genres used in the period. This module will also facilitate an understanding the concept of the Early Modern and issues of historical change and continuity.

This module enables you to develop a critical vocabulary to enhance your understanding of poetry. You will be introduced to a range of poetry from different periods, in different forms and from different cultural locations. Alongside this, you will learn to identify the aesthetic qualities of different poetic traditions.

This module aims to further develop your awareness of screen language in relation to screenwriterly concerns and encourage you to examine the narrative devices and structures inherent in film and television productions. It will also encourage you to develop your own storytelling skills.

This module will develop your skills in structuring and writing a treatment and a screenplay. It will encourage individual development of filmic storytelling skills in a critical, supportive environment in preparation for the longer stories you will develop and write in Level 6 Screenwriting modules.

This module provides you with an additional year of study at an approved overseas partner. It will complement your programme of study at LJMU. You will demonstrate the acquisition of programme-related learning having followed your approved course of study abroad.

This module engages you in the study of fantasy, horror and science fiction literature and related arts. This has proven the most popular genre amongst undergraduate students and the module provides an opportunity for specialisation in this area. You will produce original, creative work informed by your studies, and present it to your classmates and tutors for formative feedback and further development.

Clearly, a novel can not be completed in one semester, but you should be left with an awareness of what is required to make this huge leap from short story writing. You will emerge with a proposal for its completion and a deeper understanding of what method best suits you to live with, revise, complete and place a book.

In this module you will acquire a deepening understanding of some of the forms which prose takes and learn to write a piece of original prose within a chosen form. You will study examples of short fiction and literary non-fiction, learning some of the key techniques involved. Then, you will reflect on your reading and your own creative processes.

In this module you will focus on structural and technical aspects of poetry and on questions of subject-matter and source material, using examples of modern and contemporary poetry. You will look at students' poems in workshops, analysing them technically, providing feedback, and focusing on the specific uses of form and language.

This module is designed to develop your ability to craft short stories and to broaden your independent reading, honing the ability to read as a writer. It will improve both the identification and understanding of elements of fiction-writing craft and encourage reading as a writer in greater depth. You will develop the habit of writing prescriptively (via set writing exercises that enhance your understanding of the writer's craft) and independently. You will also develop a heightened awareness of your poetics and be able to reflect on the reading that shapes your writing.

In this module you will workshop your script for either radio or stage in tutor-led sessions, offering and receiving constructive criticism, reading, and performing scenes from your developing scripts. We will focus on structural and technical aspects of both forms and analyse the differences and transferable skills between the two mediums.

The aim of this module is to introduce you to a range of seventeenth-century writings in their historical and cultural context to enable you to recognise different forms and genres used in the period. This module will also facilitate an understanding the concept of the Early Modern and issues of historical change and continuity.

This module focuses on the emergence of a modernist movement in Europe and America at the beginning of the 20th century and lasting until the decades after the close of the Second World War. You will be introduced to the literature, culture and politics of modernity through an engagement with a variety of modernist texts.

This module will introduce you to the field of postcolonial studies through a selection of literary and critical works. It will introduce the debates on the relationship between art, politics and culture at the heart of postcolonial literary criticism.

In this module, you will develop an understanding of the manifestations of Romanticism in nineteenth-century literature to assess the cultural afterlife and importance of Romanticism and its modes. You will explore the connections between politics, social history, and literary culture in Britain during a period of social instability and intense and rapid changes in many areas of life at home and abroad.

The aim of this module is to analyse a wide variety of short writing from the post-Second World War era to develop skills of close reading and textual analysis. You will also explore the relationship between short writing and modernity/contemporary culture.

Within this module, you will extend your familiarity with a range of Victorian texts including novels, poetry and essays. You will explore how the Victorian age was characterized by rapidly developing scientific discourses and popular interest in them and understand how contemporary understanding of genre and cultural prestige were inherited from the Victorian period.

This module examines the mapping of spaces and places in Irish and Scottish cultural productions. It reads across a range of resources, including film fiction, poetry, non-fiction, with an attentiveness to the cultural imagining of place, spatial, regional and national identities. It looks at the languages in which environment is constructed and encourages you to engage with the combination of the critical and creative in your own writing practices.

This module will enable you to develop a range of professional and transferable skills relevant to the world of work. You will be able to critically reflect on your self-development and acquisition of skills and attributes through experience of work in conjunction with their academic studies.

This module promotes independent learning activities to give you an opportunity to pursue their own research-informed projects. This module promotes key skills relating to Level 5 work identifying a set of aims or key questions exploring a body of published literature relevant to the project, and effectively communicating information, arguments and analysis.

The aim of this module is to introduce you to the diversity of auto/biographical writing. It will equip you with the critical vocabulary and analytical tools to explore and analyse modern life-writing. You will understand key critical topics relating to life-writing, including the relations of subjectivity and form; the intersections of gender, race, class and embodiment; the role of memory and nostalgia; narrative strategies of confession and secrecy.

This module examines slavery from a long historical interdisciplinary and transnational perspective. It will analyse a range of 'slave texts' such as autobiographies, novels about slavery, abolitionist poetry, and contemporary film, to interrogate the diverse ways in which slavery has been represented historically, and contemporary debates around that history.

This module will develop your understanding of the relationships between gender, sexuality, and literature. Building on the feminist theory you will encounter in your first year, you will explore literature’s role in the developments of the sexual politics and gender norms of Western society and culture since the nineteenth century and up to the present day.

This module focuses on post-1948 literature about ethnic diversity in Britain. You will explore a tradition of writing by and about post-colonial migrants and their British-born children, including works of prose, poetry, and drama, and read these texts in relation to contemporary debates about multiculturalism, race and (anti-)racism, and British identity and society.

This module covers a range of working-class literary traditions and genres from the nineteenth century to the present. You will examine the relationship between literary form and social class, consider how working-class writers have appropriated and developed particular genres, and explore the intersections between class and other markers of identity.

Building on your encounters with key strands of critical theory in your first year, this module offers you the opportunity to further explore contemporary theoretical concepts and ideas, including postmodernism, posthumanism, gender and queer theory, and critical race theory.

This module is designed to encourage you to use the technical, cognitive and narrative skills you have acquired to produce a writing portfolio and reflection, using your own strengths and those of the community of writers of which you are a part. As the workshops are based each week on prepared readings of peer students' draft work, suggestions for wider reading and giving thoughtful and detailed critiques mean that your individual contribution is of great importance. The portfolio may consist of fiction or literary non-fiction. 

This module is designed to encourage you to use the technical, cognitive and narrative skills you have acquired to produce a writing portfolio and reflection, using your own strengths and those of the community of writers of which you are a part. As the workshops are based each week on prepared readings of peer students' draft work, suggestions for wider reading and giving thoughtful and detailed critiques mean that your individual contribution is of great importance. The portfolio may consist of fiction or literary non-fiction. 

This module allows you to pursue an individually devised creative project in Creative Writing at an advanced level. The module provides you with an opportunity to pursue a project which is not accommodated elsewhere in the programme. The project will follow an interest of yours, and of your own devising, with tutor support.

In this module you will be given instruction on a wide-range of freelance possibilities and professional occupations open to a writer. In group discussions and 'troubleshooting' sessions you will develop your critical faculties by offering advice to your peers. You will devise and develop a work-based learning project which takes your skills as a writer out into a public-facing position or role, creating a detailed plan of your ideal project. You will also research organisations currently working in a similar area to your interest, producing a case-study of one such organisation.

In this module you will be given instruction on a wide-range of freelance possibilities and ways that writers can earn a living by using their skills. In group discussions and 'troubleshooting' sessions you will develop your critical faculties by offering advice to your peers. You will deliver a work-based learning project which takes your skills as a writer out into a public-facing position or role. You will produce a writer’s CV, or showcase document, which you can use with employers after you graduate.

This module will focus on in-depth critiquing of students' work, asking you to consider how to disassemble, rebuild and improve your own and classmate’s work. Discussions and reading material will centre around discussion of your own writing processes. Guest masterclasses and readings from leading contemporary poets will be utilized to give you a wider and richer learning experience.

In this module you will continue to workshop each other’s work, with encouragement towards robust and intellectual insights into your peers' work. Class discussions will centre on how best you might articulate your own poetic practice in ways which will benefit your own development. A series of masterclasses and guest-readings will continue to expose you to the best in contemporary poetry, and you will be exposed to the professional world of poetry, gaining insights on how and where to submit your work.

This module enables you to develop an understanding of writing for digital platforms and skillsets necessary to produce digital content. Over the semester you will not only discover the creative possibilities of writing for online platforms but also the career opportunities in this field of writing. You will look at diverse areas of text and writing online, from media characters portrayed in social networking, to bloggers, viral campaigns and participatory projects to location based storytelling.

In this module you will examine the relevant genres in detail in workshop sessions, using current examples and with input from visiting professionals. You will be required to use relevant formats, complete storylines/treatments, and drafts of script extracts to deadlines. 

The portfolio module is the last step before you become a fully independent writer or move on to Masters level. In this module, you are encouraged to use the work-shopping skills that you have developed over the previous five semesters to give and receive constructive criticism in peer-led sessions as well as tutor-led work groups. You will be encouraged to independently evaluate each other’s scripts through the drafting and redrafting of a 30-45 minute film or TV series episode, radio play or stage play.

This is a year-long module, at the end of which you will have produced a dissertation of 7- 8,000 words. As such, it offers you the opportunity to investigate a topic of personal interest within the field of English Studies: you might wish to revisit something studied on a previous module, with a fresh approach or in greater detail, or choose an area as yet unexplored. You will be given guidance by a supervisor through the different stages of researching and writing, but above all you will be expected to work independently in the formulation of ideas, selection of key texts, and production of the final piece.

The aim of the module is to explore intersections between literature and visual art in the 20th and 21st centuries. You will develop and apply a critical vocabulary for approaching works that combine text and image and assess the way writers engage with visual questions as a means of interrogating the possibilities of literature, and the way art contributes to thinking about language and power, narrative and identity.

The aim of this module is to consolidate and extend appropriate critical skills and vocabulary for the understanding of poetry to promote critical understanding of contemporary poetry in its historical, cultural and critical/theoretical contexts.

This module will extend your understanding of contemporary women's fiction and its relationship to feminist theory, politics, and practice. You will be equipped with an advanced understanding of the complexity and diversity of the history of feminism and feminist theory from the 1960s to the present day.

In this module you will explore the nature of travel writing as a genre, with reference to a range of texts from the sixteenth century up to the present day. You will interrogate what it means to travel by considering writing by slaves, colonialists, explorers and tourists. The module will relate these texts to broader theoretical questions concerning race, class, gender, nationality, colonialism, neo-colonialism and globalisation.

The aim of this module is to examine the ways in which literary texts and cultural trends in post-Restoration England represent the interests of different social, political, religious and gendered groups and how the cultural positions of these groups conflict and intersect.

You will understand and interrogate discourses of and about 'madness' through the analysis of a range of texts. This module will extend your understanding of the role of binary constructions (with particular reference to identity and difference in gender, sexuality, race, and class) in relation to madness and its discourses.

This module will give you an opportunity to pursue your own intellectual interests to undertake an independent academic study, working on your own initiative and building strong time management skills.

The aim of this module is to analyse domestic space as an important aspect of contemporary culture, to familiarize you with a range of disciplinary and philosophical traditions which have focused upon domestic space.

This module will extend your knowledge of the diversity and range of British writing in the twenty-first century in order to explore key events that shape literary culture in Britain today.

You will learn important critical and theoretical views relating to racial formations, racial identities, and racism in American history to develop cultural and historical understanding of the dynamics of race in post-war America.

This module will extend your familiarity with the history and theoretical framework of masculinity studies to discuss how different cultural preconceptions and academic theories of 'masculinity' relate to a broader cultural frame work of issues concerning subjectivity, race, class and sexuality.

This module will reinforce the ability to critically analyse texts in close detail to examine a range of Shakespeare's plays in the context of their original cultural production.

This module will introduce you to narratives of capitalism in fiction and non-fiction to develop a knowledge of the key concepts of capitalist critique and examine their relevance in making sense of significant cultural texts.

Terrorism and Modern Literature will establish terrorism as a significant and persistent literary, political and cultural preoccupation in modern literature (1880s to present), and examine key instances in which the language and concept of terror is at issue.

This module will examine the genre of Gothic fiction as it has developed over two centuries to explore the cultural, historical and intellectual contexts that shape the moment of its production.

This module will introduce the concept of 'world literature' through a selection of texts from the twentieth to the twenty-first centuries in relation to the rise and expansion of a global modernity. You will examine on-going critical debates around key areas of research in the global humanities: a singular modernity, the politics of translation, the periphery and the world system.

This module will enable you to develop advanced digital humanities research skills by engaging in individual and collective work as part of an online collaborative research project. You will be introduced to editorial procedures and skills and to edit and write your own research materials and findings at a professional level suitable for online publication.

Writing the Real will explore the genre of contemporary non-fiction, by examining a number of works published from the mid-1980s to the present day. It will cover a wide variety of writing encompassing the description of 'non-fiction' – autobiography, memoir, reportage, travel writing, prose poetry, the 'new nature writing' and lyrical works of cultural theory and philosophy.

The aim of this module is to analyse a wide variety of writing encompassing the genre of contemporary nonfiction and will consider how these works particularly engage with the nature of contemporary culture, identity, politics and reality.

This module will provide a detailed understanding of the role and significance that the Victorian period, its literature, and its culture play in contemporary literature, film, and television. You will gain an advance understanding of postmodernism, historiography, and intertextuality.

This module examines shifting identities and the intersections of class, sexuality, gender and regionality in British literature of the interwar years. It moves across popular, middlebrow and experimental fiction and looks at poetry, non-fiction and magazine publishing as a means of examining the changing cultural formations of the period.

This module will critically examine the literature of the Victorian fin de siècle, both as a transitional decade between Victorian and Modernist writing and as a highly productive period in terms of the development of new literary genres that it witnessed. You will also explore the cultural, historical and intellectual contexts that shape the moment of its production.

This module will establish violence as a significant and persistent literary, political and cultural preoccupation in nineteenth-century literature (1800-1900), and examine key works in which the issues of class, empire and gender were explored by authors of this period in relation to conflict and crisis.

This module will establish violence as a significant and persistent literary, political and cultural preoccupation in nineteenth-century literature (1800-1900), and examine key works in which the issues of class, empire and gender were explored by authors of this period in relation to conflict and crisis.

This module explores how Victorian writers responded to environmental changes. It examines key historical and intellectual developments shaping debates about the natural world in the Victorian period; you consider links between the historical past and current modes of environmentalism.

This module focuses on modern fiction focused on the urgent environmental crises with which we are now obliged to reckon. Some of the issues you will engage with on this module include climate, the environment as a concept, the non-human, and the alternative approaches to nature represented in indigenous narrative systems.

This module explores writing by and about African Americans from the mid-twentieth century to the present; you will consider how Black writers and artists have contested racial injustices, articulated new identities, and identified grounds for solidarity and alliance.

This module focuses on recent works of transnational fiction that have been adapted for the screen. Drawing on literary studies, film studies, adaptation studies, and postcolonial studies, you will examine novels about migrants alongside their film adaptations, considered as ‘migrants’ from page to screen.

This module explores how extinction on various scales, from the local and national to the planetary, is conceptualized and represented in American environmental and ecocritical texts, including fiction, nature writing, and ecocritical theory.

This module will deepen your understanding of the early modern world (or worlds) through attention to travel writing, early science fiction, early colonialism, and approaches to race and slavery, through topics such as the representation of piracy, and utopian writing.