Final Year, Component 01

How has the American identity and purpose changed since World War Two? And how is this reflected in literature? Gain answers to these questions via a range of American texts. Analyse these works using a variety of critical approaches, considering social, political and cultural contexts since the Second World War.

What is a novel? How did the form originate? How does its relationship with time and space make it particular from other forms and how does it renew itself? In this module, you will learn how to devise and plan your own novel through the reading and study of a selection of other novels. Seminars will consist of lecturer-led discussions, student discussion of the selected reading, and creative workshops. The module builds to a creative and critical assessment in which you will submit the outline of a novel, write your own beginning chapters, and submit an essay exploring the learning outcomes of the module through the novels of other writers.

Science fiction has experimented with speculation about other worlds by means of time travels in time and space and other ways of living and being by crossing boundaries of different kinds including species and the human/machine. Some science fiction has imagined oppressive regimes, hierarchical societies characterised by brutality and enslavement. Other science fiction has used the speculative aspects of the genre to create radically new, imagined transformations of body and society brought about by scientific and technological inventions. This diversity of treatment in science fiction makes it a versatile genre which has appealed to feminist, postcolonial and Afrofuturist as much as to conservative approaches. The module focuses on a specific theme--what it means to be human--by exploring the robot, the cyborg and clone as well as the automaton and the vampire. The fears and desires are intense in the treatment of the human/animal/machine and when associated with reproduction and the figure of the alien in the world of the science fiction novel.

To what degree are Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and Othello tragedies? How useful is this term in understanding them? Undertake a close reading of Shakespeare’s four great tragedies. Critically discuss recent issues about each, in groups and in your own work. Gain an understanding of their enduring and/or present significance.

How do you write poetry? Be introduced to the practice of writing poetry. Examine seven distinct formal elements of verse alongside the best examples from canonical poetry in the English language. Build your own skills, as well as an appreciation of the history, variety and power of poetry.

Investigate the myths surrounding the founding of the United States. Crossing disciplines of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and cinematic and theatrical texts, you compare the classic Western against a range of counter-narratives from black, Hispanic, latino, and aboriginal storytellers. This module interrogates the concept of a 'national literature', explores the relationship between folklore and contemporary society, and investigates the relationship between the Western as a narrative form, and the history of colonialism in the U.S.A.

This module considers the enduring significance of the events known as the Holocaust (or Shoah) as they enter representation and continue to shape our present responses to various forms of racism and violence against the Other. It explores how the Holocaust has been represented, appropriated and reconfigured by writers, poets and filmmakers over the past seven decades. We will examine the connections between history, trauma, and representation through an analysis of Holocaust testimonies, literature, film and visual media. How do novelists, poets, filmmakers and artists depict events that shatter traditional forms of comprehension and representation? How do imagination, memory and history coalesce in works of art? What is the relationship between aesthetics and ethics, and what are the limits of representation? The module looks at numerous examples of Holocaust literature and film, from short story and autobiographical novel, through lyric poetry, drama and graphic novel, to documentary and recent Academy Award-winning productions. We will discuss the issues of testimony and witnessing, the aestheticization and commercialization of trauma and suffering, and the moral, philosophical and cultural legacy of the Holocaust.

This module will examine the interrelationship between law and literature from a variety of perspectives. The module reflects research interests of staff in the Law School and Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies. There is increasing academic interest in interdisciplinary study in law, and there is an established body of scholarship examining the relationship between law and literature from a variety of perspectives. The perspectives examined in the module will include, but not be confined to, the representation of law in literature, legal texts as literature and how techniques of literary interpretation can inform the study and understanding of law. The module will also present the opportunity for students to examine the nature of interdisciplinary work, exemplified by the study of law and literature.

I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Mans / I will not Reason; Compare: my business is to Create. So howls Los, William Blake's alter ego, in the epic poem Jerusalem. Blake's almost hyperactive creative drive has spurred, fascinated, and confused readers for more than two centuries. People as diverse as poet William Butler Yeats, graphic artist Alan Moore, film director Ridley Scott, and horror writer Thomas Harris, have taken inspiration from Blake's lyrics, epics, and visual designs. For not only was he a prolific writer of his own wildly original, vast, and evolving mythology, he also engraved and coloured his works. This module focuses entirely on Blake's literary and visual art, but places this work in a larger historical and intellectual context of the late Enlightenment and early Romanticism.

This module aims to consider the significance, history, culture and impact of video games. It fosters critical thinking by inviting students to consider issues central to the historical, theoretical and aesthetical dimensions of computer games and computer game theory. In this digital age of Web 2.0 gaming and interactive media is ubiquitous and consistently redefines our relationship to games and other external players. Gaming is constantly evolving, and as new consoles emerge other platforms and experiences of gaming become obsolete. How do we keep up with this constant change and where does this leave older games and players? Why is gaming and rule-based environments significant to culture? – chess for example dates back to the 15th century and is still widely enjoyed today, reformed in gaming apps bringing together global players to a rule-based environment played out on a screen. This module explores different historical and contemporary ideas of gaming from debates about interactive fiction and storytelling to phenomenological ideas of the game’s controller and avatar and how they extend players into virtual spaces. It will consider a range of topics including: gender, ethnicity, violence, capital, contemporary art, while turning a critical eye inwards to discussions on ludology, immersion, procedural rhetoric, cyber-individualism, embodiment, avatars and ludonarrative dissonance. Through a close consideration of video game theory, students will reflect on how gaming has evolved to become an even larger industry than that of film.

Film festivals have traditionally been global phenomena and played a pivotal role in the film industry ecosystem. In the 21st century, and due to the rise of digital technologies and telecommunications, festivals have become even more important to numerous independent filmmakers who seek routes of distribution (and self-distribution) of their films. The module offers a historical and contemporary examination of the multifaceted role of film festivals in validating, exhibiting and distributing as well as in the process of canonisation of film. While it explores established A-list festivals (such as Cannes, Venice, BFI LFF, Locarno), it also looks at ‘smaller’, niche festivals (such as London Asian Film Festival, and London Migration Film Festival) whose number and impact have increased over the years. Through a dynamic combination of lectures, seminars, presentations, group projects, masterclasses, field trips and the organisation of a one-day film festival at the Colchester campus, the module will equip students with advanced knowledge of the key roles involved in producing film festivals (directors, curators, juries, audiences, filmmakers). Students who are filmmakers will also gain an understanding of the necessary steps that need to be followed before they get their films screened at festivals as well as of the ways they may capitalise on such opportunities to progress their careers within the film industry.

This module is intended to provide you with a broad understanding the main theoretical frameworks of media and journalism to develop their critical appraisal of the interconnected communication world of today. This module is intended to provide you with a broad understanding the main theoretical frameworks of media and journalism to develop their critical appraisal of the interconnected communication world of today. It is aimed primarily at students looking to develop a research career in journalism or media studies as well as those students looking to acquire a critical approach to journalistic practice. It will also be interesting to students of Government and Sociology who are interested in understanding the big debates around the media and the relationships with politics and society. Each week a current event will be discussed in the seminar as well. The module will equip students with the knowledge, theoretical frameworks, and critical tools to unpack the complexities of contemporary networked newsrooms. It will provide the conceptual framework required to analyze and comprehend our interconnected communication sphere. The module will be open to students from LIFTS who want to critically reflect on the professional practice and to students from Government and Sociology who would be eager to acquire analytical tools that would support their interdisciplinary research.