The Storyteller’s Art
Write your own tales of transformation and adventure, drawing on the world’s greatest stories studied in this module.
Green Thoughts, Blue Stories: Literature and the Environment
Explore environmental issues, focusing on 'green' (land) and 'blue' (sea) themes. Analyse Anglophone eco-writing, including Native Indian and Indigenous perspectives, and texts on pollution, climate change, and sustainability, such as Juliet Blaxland’s The Easternmost House and W. G. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn. This module fosters cross-cultural and creative approaches to global environmental crises.
Compulsory•20 credits
Scriptwriting
Learn about story, plot, characterisation, dialogue, structure and adaptation. Develop your skills in giving and receiving feedback on creative work. Learn how to work effectively in a group, sharing work, encouraging other writers and being encouraged by others to be the best scriptwriter you can be.
Writing Poetry Now
Do you want to take your poetry further? If you are ready to become a more skilled practitioner, able to present your work to an audience, and willing to go deeper into your study of contemporary poetry, then join us. Learn how exciting contemporary poetry is, and feel more confident in your own contributions to the poetry world.
The Short Story
Do you love reading, writing or listening to short stories? Immerse yourself in classic and contemporary stories, learn about how writers deliver their magic, using limited word counts to make every word sing. Go on to craft your own stories, drawing on the limitations of the form to turn it into a strength.
Shakespeare and co.
Rethink connections between plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries and their links to contemporary issues like racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and gender identity. By exploring how these plays address ongoing social issues, we gain an insight into the origins of modern social constructs, while deepening our understanding of dramatic forms and historical context.
Visual Narratives: Reading Word and Image
Understand the relationship between text and image, from medieval manuscripts to modern multimedia. Utilising visual narratives like comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, video games, and virtual reality, the course highlights how they challenge power structures, featuring works from William Blake to contemporary queer and antiracist webcomics.
Literary Lovers
Study literary representations of love and desire through modern works like Sally Rooney’s Normal People, as well as famous literary couples and texts depicting passionate and homoerotic love, such as Wuthering Heights. By analysing depictions of love from classical to contemporary literature, you'll reflect on traditional and transgressive views of desire, building on earlier studies of identity and global voices.
Engaging Audiences
A unique collaboration between English at Hull, HMPPS, and local colleges. Analyse literary engagement with external audiences, gaining skills in quantitative research, ethics, and audience reception theory. Explore responses to literature and social issues. The module enhances employability through real-world challenges, preparing you for advanced research and practical applications.
Scandalous Lives
This module explores 'scandalous' texts, focusing on themes like prostitution, domestic abuse, and incest. Analyse works addressing maternity, authority, and relationships, to understand changing perceptions of scandal. Spanning various genres and periods, the module invites you to reflect on contemporary and historical understandings of scandal and how literature challenges and redefines societal norms.
Dystopian Worlds
A study of contemporary dystopian fiction, featuring key texts from the 20th and 21st centuries, including George Orwell’s 1984. The module covers themes such as totalitarianism, surveillance, rebellion, post-apocalyptic scenarios, and genetic modification, relating them to current political issues
Difference and Divergence
Explore concepts of ‘difference’ and ‘divergence,’ examining both positive and negative connotations. Analyse how ‘normality’ is defined and use ‘otherness’ to understand differences, focusing on texts with neuro-divergent, disabled, gender-fluid, non-binary, or
homosexual protagonists. The course builds on Level 4 Performing Identity, deepening understanding of how literature addresses diverse experiences.