First Year Reading List - English Literature and Creative Writing Modules
ESH101 Shakespeare
ESH102 Reading, Theory and Interpretation: Approaches to the Study of English Literature
There is no advanced preparation for this module, but you can always start thinking about what ‘theory’ might mean for the study of literature. A good place to start is with a basic introduction like Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Cullers (2011).
Your assigned reading will primarily come from an anthology (Literary Theory: An Anthology, 3rd Edition, Wiley Blackwell) which if purchased new will be approx. £29, but can be found used or in e-book format.
ESH124 Poetry
There is no preparatory reading required for this module, and nothing you need to buy. Each week during the semester we will read around ten poems – so while the number of pages is relatively low, we’ll ask you to concentrate on them carefully and take your time over them.
To warm up your poetry brain, you could start reading a poem a day – choose a varied selection of old, new, conventional and experimental from websites such as the Poetry Foundation (where you can subscribe to receive a poem a day), or listening to recordings of poets reading their work at PennSound. You might be inspired to approach the work of criticism in a different way by reading some reviews of new books, such as those at Jacket2 . We won’t be focussing on technical terms to discuss poetry, but if you’ve never had any introduction to these and would like to get started, The Poetry Handbook by John Lennard is useful and can be bought for around £3 used.
ESH126 London Global
There is no required preparation for London Global although reading the set texts ahead of the semester will help lighten your workload.
Still, it is always good to read as widely as you can about London's cultures and histories and to walk as much as you can, getting to know the city if you don't already know it, or getting to know it better if you do.
The novels we will be studying on London Global are:
Semester 1: Yara Rodrigues Fowler, there are more things and Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners.
Semester 2: Charles Dickens, Great Expectations and Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (any editions) .
You should have your own copy of each of these novels, and you are strongly encouraged to read them in preparation for the module, as this will lighten your workload during the semester. As you read, think about the very different Londons that each of these writers conjures.
If purchased at full price, the cost of the set texts will be approximately £38; however second-hand copies are widely available.
Further reading material for the module will be provided in the digital module pack, available on QMPlus.
ESH129 Literatures in Time: Epic and Romance in the Middle Ages
There is no advance preparation for this module.
ESH4101 Introduction to Creative Writing
