Keele University Prospectus Undergraduate | 2016 | Page 92

HUMANITIES

English and American Literatures
Overview

English and American Literatures is a single honours
degree course that allows you to specialise in English
language literary studies while acquiring knowledge
of two distinctive, internally complex national
cultures in the modern period.
As a student in English and American Literatures,
you will be part of a vibrant critical and creative
community. Our staff are active researchers in a wide
range of topics in literature, film and cultural theory;
they are published novelists, poets and short story
writers. There are regular programmes of visiting
academic speakers, novelists and poets, open to all
students. Recent visitors have included Gwendoline
Riley, Paul Muldoon, Jackie Kay, Roger McGough, and
Carol Ann Duffy.
English and American Literatures has achieved
among the best results for any cohort at Keele –
in some years more than a quarter of our students
achieved first class degrees.

Course content
First year
Core modules:

Reading Literature introduces various aspects of
literary study, enabling you to get to grips with a
range of primary texts and also to develop a variety
of skills.

• Romanticisms
• Victorian Performances
• Post-war British Fiction and Poetry
• The Age of Shakespeare and Donne
Additional optional modules include:
• Creative writing: Poetry and Prose
• French Cinema
• 20th Century Novels into Films
• Satire
• Aspects of the Novel 1730-1940
• Lyrics and the Popular Song
• Contemporary Poetry
• Medieval Literature
• Revolution and Restoration: Literature of the
English Civil War
For American Literature, you will take two core
modules from the following, which are additionally
available as electives:
• The Romance of Fiction: History and Society
in 19th Century American Literature

Starting Out: An Introduction to American Literature
surveys a wide variety of topics and periods in
American cultural history, and equips you with a
range of literary and analytical skills.

• From Modernity to Counter-Culture: American
Literature and Social Criticism in the 20th Century

Transatlantic Gothic: Studies in 19th Century English
and American Literatures explores the development
of one genre in two different national traditions and
introduces you to some theoretical concepts.

• Alfred Hitchcock’s America

Becoming a Critic extends the work you did on
Reading Literature in the first semester, developing
knowledge of different literary modes and historical
contexts, as well as an understanding of critical
methods and skills.

• The Detective and the American City
• Burning Crosses: Religion and American Culture
Or, you can study either for one or two
semesters as an exchange student with one
of our partners abroad.
Third year
For English literature, you can opt to take up to six
special subject modules from the following selection
(two in each semester):

Optional modules include:

• Contemporary British Fiction

• The Unreliable Truth: Studies in 20th Century
English and American Literatures

• The Canadian Metropolis
• Dickens, Collins and Detection

• Telling Tales

• Dreams and Visions

• New York, New York (includes film)

• Literature, Culture and Politics in the 1980s

• Playing Parts: Studying Drama and Poetry

• Shakespearean Stages: Making and Remaking
the Plays of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries

• The American Past – Explorations in US History
• American Politics
• Reading Film
• A Beginner’s Guide to Contemporary America
• Poetry Through Practice
• Fiction Through Practice
• Film Texts and Contexts: History & Theory
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Second year
For English literature, you will take two core modules
from among the following (these modules are also
available as electives):

• Postcolonial and World Literature in English
• Postmodernism: Fiction, Film and Theory
• Sex, Scandal and Society: 18th Century Writing
• Shakespeare on Film
• Writingscapes
• Aphra Behn and her Restoration Contemporaries