Degree in English Literature

Below are presented in detail the modules of the first year of the school of English Literature:

• The Writer’s Craft: Developing your skills
  

  Students will examine the three main literary genres, that is poetry, prose and drama, and will consider specialization in creative writing. In the module they will study fiction and short story writing, the requirements of the form in which they are writing, including writing for media (radio, television and cinema), as well as script writing for drama.

• Order from Chaos: Narrative and Poetry
  

  Students will be introduced to literary study and become familiar with basic approaches and skills for understanding and analyzing narrative and poetry, in texts that cover a variety of topics, such as the supernatural, crime, consciousness, revenge, technology, and environmental disaster.

• Stages and Pages: Drama and Criticism
  

  Students will be introduced to the analysis of drama and the use of different types of criticism, especially in relation to theater. Through various works, a series of texts will be examined, from classical philosophy to modern theatrical writings, while modern and older ideas around drama will be discussed. Finally, students will explore how drama is transformed into the final performance.

• Language in the 21st Century
  

  Students will be introduced to the study of language. As the title of the module suggests, this study is firmly placed in the context of late modernity, after ascertaining through various subject areas what human language is and how the acceleration of the global flow of people and technological change affect its forms and functions.

• Describing Modern English
  

  Students will focus on a set of tools for describing and analyzing English in a detailed and systematic way. Students will have the opportunity to combine the knowledge gained from the module “Language in the 21st Century”, and to extend their studies to the main “levels” of language description, applying their knowledge of morphology, syntax, phonetics, phonology and semantics of English to all language genres.

• The Writer’s Journey
  

  Students will be introduced to writing structured creative prose. In the module, Campbell’s “Monomyth” will be presented, which will be used as a benchmark for the ways a “Best Seller” can be created, as well as a literary analysis template.

Below are presented in detail the modules of the second year of the school of English Literature:

• Questioning Literature: History and Theory
  English Literature students will take a thematic approach and each week they will have the opportunity to address a central issue in literary history, criticism, or theory. The module aims to develop basic skills and knowledge, and to encourage interactive discussion based on critical excerpts and short literary texts.
• Refocusing Literature: Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism
  Students will be introduced to the main theoretical approaches of literary criticism. Each week, using a combination of primary and secondary theoretical texts, students will have the opportunity to study a different approach and apply it to one or more short literary texts, evaluating the ideas and limitations of theory.
• Literature of the Victorian Age
  Students will study the great poets and novelists of the Victorian period from 1847 to 1891. The module will explore topics such as marriage, money, social class and mobility, rural and agricultural life, city life Victorian social codes and the position of women. The aim of the module is to understand the relationship among the author, the text, the reader and the world.
• Literature from the Inferno to Paradise: The Renaissance
  Students will study the European transition from the Medieval to the Renaissance ways of thinking. The literary texts will be studied in relation to the political and cultural context of the Elizabethan age and 17th century England.
• Contemporary Sociolinguistics
  Students will study the causes of linguistic variation and change. They will focus on the relationship between language and society, exploring how social variables such as gender, age, social status, and geographical location influence linguistic variation and change, as well as the role of language attitudes and ideologies.
• How to write like Tolkien: Archetypal Literature From Homer to Harry Potter
  Literature, and in particular fantasy, continues to include archetypal characters. Students will examine the ways in which a number of texts have been based around this notion of monomyth, and they will be encouraged to develop the skills and techniques used by writers to model their work on a monomythic structure.

Below are presented in detail the courses of the third year of the school of English Literature:

• Monster, Madness, and Mayhem: Gothic Literature
  Students of English Literature will explore modern Gothic fiction, both literary and theoretical, focusing on a range of Gothic “monsters”, from vampires and werewolves to serial killers and terrorists.
• Advanced Studies
  For their dissertation, students will produce a long piece of writing of eight thousand words and will give a presentation on their work. Students are asked to use the research skills they have acquired throughout the program and to show original insight into the topic they have chosen.
• Shakespeare
  Students in their third year will be introduced to a wide range of Shakespearean plays. The course covers all the main genres in which Shakespeare worked: Comedy (e.g. A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night); Tragedy (e.g. Othello, and Macbeth); History (e.g.Richard II and Henry IV Part 1); and Romance (e.g. The Tempest).
• Language and Gender
  Students will explore the way in which feminist research on gender and language has developed since the 1970s. A wide range of work will be examined, including empirical studies of spoken interaction, accounts of sexist language, and recent work on discourse and the construction of gender identities. In particular, the effects of ‘second wave feminism’ will be studied, looking at arguments relating to post-feminism and how masculinities have been represented.
• Writing the Novel
  Students will be encouraged to develop a holistic view of the requirements for writing a novel, such as ‘the elastic storyboard’. On completion of the module, they will be able to progress their idea using the skills and knowledge gained and will have an understanding of how to submit a submissions packet – sample chapter, synopsis and covering letter.

* Modules may change each year.