Module Aim:

This introductory module will introduce you to the rich and diverse cultural heritage of Sheffield and the surrounding area and to questions of place, space, and identity. You will explore the plurality of meanings associated with ideas of ‘North’ through analysing and discussing texts, drawn from a range of historical periods, cultures, and perspectives. 

Indicative content: 

• Literary geographies and the cartographic imagination 

• Language and identity in ‘the North’ 

• Textual representations of ‘North’ 

• The north as margin/the north as centre 

• Northern transformations: history and culture 

• Locality, regionalism, and relations 

• Northern writers/writing the North 

• The ‘North’ in a global perspective 

Module Aim:  

Literature and language are active and applied fields of study. In this module, you’ll work in groups on a project set by an external partner, responding to current issues, questions, and challenges. Applying your growing expertise in English in the world, you will explore how language and literature are experienced, used, and understood in local, national, and global contexts. This module will focus on the skills that English Studies develops, and on the rich resources to support your ambitions for the future. 

Indicative Content:  

• Communities of readers/the ‘reading public’ 

• The reader as critic 

• Contemporary responses to literature and language 

• Reader-response theory 

• Language in social contexts 

• Literature and language in education 

• ‘Canonical’ literature and questions of value 

• The language of literature 

• Publishing, access, and representation 

• Language/literature and self-identification 

• Collaborative practice and the social value of reading 

Module Aim:  

Language and literature are an important part of how we understand our world. In this module you will develop your critical perspective on language and literature by exploring the ways in which authors, texts and contexts have been tackled through the ages. This includes focusing on artistic and cultural movements, linguistic and literary styles, and a wide range of theories and critical perspectives that have driven lively and vital discussions.  

Indicative content:  

• Textual analysis 

• Ethics processes and research 

• Historical, cultural, social, and political contexts 

• Regional and global varieties of English 

• Literature-in-English versus ‘English’ literature 

• The role of English in education 

• Introduction to critical approaches 

• Key periods, approaches, texts, and/or authors 

• Academic writing and research skills 

• Language, power, and representation  

Module Aim:  

In this module, you’ll explore the subject of ‘English’ through consideration of concepts of speaking, interacting, writing, and reading.  You'll explore and interrogate historical, social, and cultural context for the study of English. With a focus on expanding your understanding of language and literature, the module will support you to develop appropriate knowledge and skills, as well as to begin evaluating your progress and reflecting critically on your specific interests. 

Indicative content:  

• Speakers and readers: articulating meaning 

• Language and social change 

• Technology and interpretation 

• Style, audience, and reception 

• Literary forms 

• Chronologies, influences, and evolutions of knowledge 

• The ‘reader’ in history and today 

• Reading communities 

• The role of the critic 

• Speech and orality 

• Analysing language 

Module Aim:  

This module will support you in undertaking a reflective enquiry into your professional ambitions, develop an understanding of ongoing social and cultural issues related to the study of English, and engage with research and creative enterprise in generating your own solution, product, or idea. Working with internal and/or external partners, you’ll develop an appropriate project, think practically about your skills and future goals, and reflect on your process. The module will facilitate an active link between your personal, academic, and professional development and the social, cultural, educational, and economic needs of the local community and region. 

Indicative Content: 

• Enterprise skills 

• Research methodologies 

• Reflective processes and writing 

• Language and Literature career paths 

• Careers advice and guidance 

• Professional presentation and skills 

• Collaborative working 

• The impact and application of literary and language skills and knowledge 

• Self-leadership and independent working 

• Project development and management 

Module Aim:  

How does the study of English contribute to our understanding of the ‘human’? In this module, you’ll investigate the representation of physical bodies in a range of historical and contemporary texts, and the relationship between literature, language, and subjectivity. You will explore the ways in which the material world shapes and is shaped by readers, speakers, writers, and communities of listeners and receivers. The module will provide you with critical and creative frameworks that you will use in the analysis of a range of literary and non-literary texts. 

 Indicative Content: 

• Identity, representation, and power 

• Bodies in literature/bodies of literature 

• Theories of affect, materialism, and embodiment 

• Performativity and reception 

• Minoritised bodies/minoritised texts 

• Political representation/representing politics 

• Multimodal communication/the communicative body 

• Accessibility, inclusivity, and reception  

• Constructing worlds 

• Postcolonial, decolonial, and neo-colonial theories 

• Sensing the world/representing sense in language and literature 

• Publishing and the circulation of texts 

• Virtuality, digitality, and extending the body/text

Module Aim:  

This module will introduce you to the ways in which minds are represented in English language and literature as well as the cognitive processes involved when readers read English texts. The module focuses on interdisciplinary perspectives on language and literature including from the cognitive and social sciences, providing you with knowledge and understanding of frameworks that you'll apply across a range of literary and non-literary texts.  

 Indicative Content: 

• Perspective, point of view, and mindstyle 

• Cognitive poetics 

• Theories of mind  

• Reader-response 

• Psychology and literature/the literature of psychology 

• Voicing the mind 

• Discourse and text 

• Neurodiversity/representing diversity 

• Transitivity and verbal processes 

• Representing interiority  

• Subjectivity and articulating the self  

Module Aim:  

How to literature and language make sense of the complexity of the world around us? How can they provide ways of interpreting and critiquing what we see? This module will introduce you to a range of contemporary critical frameworks and methodologies relevant to the study of English. Building on work in previous modules, you’ll engage with a range of key theorists and concepts, developing your critical understanding and analytical skills. 

Indicative content:  

• Contemporary critical theories 

• Contemporary issues such as ethical representation, climate change, post- and neocolonialism, AI 

• Questions of taste and cultural value 

• Technologies of reading and writing 

• Critical trends/history of criticism 

• Ethics and the contemporary researcher 

• Adaptation and transformation 

• Creativity and responsibility

Module Aim:  

Your final-year research project will give you the chance to pursue your own interests: is there a topic you’ve encountered that you are keen to explore further? Or a personal passion that you want to bring to your study of literature and/or language? This module will be your sole focus this semester, allowing you to dedicate your time and energy to an area of study that you love and want to bring to a wider audience. You will get one-to-one guidance from a dedicated supervisor, as well as the support of being part of a thriving research community. Seminars, lectures, and workshops will develop your research and communication skills as well as your awareness of the place of literature and language in the world.  

Indicative content:  

• In-depth investigation of a topic, issue, or challenge relevant to English Studies (Language and/or Literature) 

• Engagement with critical theory and/or methodological approaches to research 

• Plan, organise, and carry out an extended independent study appropriate to level 6, including identifying and developing research topics and questions; evaluating data and resources; consideration of research ethics and appropriate university ethics processes for undergraduate research 

• Advanced academic writing skills 

• Reflecting, reporting, and recording progress 

• Contributing to a research community and engagement with relevant events, discussions, and activities 

• Providing and responding to feedback 

• Critical approaches and issues in scholarship 

• Self-reflection and self-leadership 

• Communicating ideas and constructing persuasive arguments 

• The public value of research 

• Identifying and engaging audiences    

Module Aim:  

This module builds directly on the semester 1 research-focused module, ‘English Research Project’. You’ll engage with an external partner in adapting an element of their research project or placement experience for a specific audience or to address a need for external audiences, users, or learners. You'll also be supported in a deeper reflection on your progress and professional development, embedding career readiness and an understanding of how your subject knowledge can be applied in a wide range of opportunities following an undergraduate course.  

 Indicative content:  

• Self-reflection and self-evaluation 

• Understanding audiences 

• Professional communication and expectations 

• Creative industries and cultural awareness 

• Working to brief and commissioned work 

• Adapting research 

• Public engagement 

• Research ethics and working beyond the university 

• Self-promotion, advocation, and understanding different agendas 

• Community building and the value of the arts and humanities 

• Literature and language in the world 

• Inclusivity, access, and diversity 

• Planning forward 

Module Aim:  

This module will enable you to synthesise and extend the skills and knowledge developed over the course of your degree to new topics in language research. You’ll be considering and responding to cutting-edge research topics, which could include the role of language in issues such as the environment, social and criminal justice, education, healthcare, and digital technology.  

Indicative content:  

• Scholarship and research 

• Evaluating evidence and analysing data 

• Digital texts; digital readers 

• Technology and education 

• Style, form, function 

• Identity and power 

• Language users/language in context 

• Multimodal texts 

• Languages of policy and power 

• Education and ‘Language’ studies 

• Preserving language; transforming language 

• Creativity and linguistics  

• Language in a global context 

Module Aim:  

This module will enable you to extend your skills and knowledge and synthesise critical responses to contemporary issues in literature research. Topics may be drawn from specific historical periods (Renaissance; Romanticism; Modernism), critical approaches (post-colonialism; cultural materialism; post-humanism), literary forms, and/or specific genres. Working with specialist researchers, you'll develop a critically informed and engaged response to these issues, applying their literary understanding to a wide range of texts. 

Indicative content:  

• Scholarship and research 

• Evaluating evidence and arguments 

• Social justice and literature 

• Historical contexts and contemporary responses 

• Adaptation and ‘authenticity’ 

• Readers in response: the public critic 

• Publication, dissemination, and the print trades 

• The book as object 

• Literary networks, ‘schools’, and influence 

• Prize culture and the ‘value’ of literature 

• Gender, genre, and representation 

• Disability, visibility, and accessibility 

• Sexuality, desire, and identity 

• Race, culture, and inclusion 

• The social/economic/political/cultural role of literature 

• Global literature/literature in translation