Literature and Culture

This module explores the ways we understand our literary and social world, allowing you to engage with critical, creative and hybrid work to improve your analytic and writing skills.  Some of the questions we will debate include: 

• How do literary texts engage with the politics of class, race, gender, nationality and sexuality?  

• Can writing imagine alternatives to political, social and environmental crisis? 

• What is the relationship between writing, well-being and world-building, for both individuals and communities?  

You will be taught by critical and creative writers who will showcase their cutting-edge theoretical and literary practices to enable you to have confidence to work on exciting, innovative topics, and to experiment with your own practice.

In collaboration with the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, this module will offer you an opportunity to explore the literary, journalistic and critical work of a key post-war writer. You will study canonical work by Burgess, alongside lesser known texts, including autobiography and biography. You will have access to the unique archive at the Foundation, which includes film scripts, correspondence and journalism, and this will inform the assessment. An annual prize, sponsored by International Anthony Burgess Foundation and the University of Salford, will be awared to the best archive-essay.

This module looks at questions of nation, place, class and identity in texts composed in English and its closely related varieties (such as Scots, African American, and other national and regional dialects), and will explore debates relating to cosmopolitanism, globalisation, and postcolonialism. Students taking this module may opt to work on an archive-based project for their assessment by drawing on University’s Walter Greenwood archive.

This module will explore the aesthetic, ethical and political challenges of representing violence and trauma, and the role played by personal testimony, art and culture in post-conflict society and peace-building initiatives. This will involve the analysis of an interdisciplinary range of fictional and non-fictional texts, and the study of Hiroshima, the Holocaust and slavery. You will have the opportunity to write a critical essay or offer a creative response.

This module examines constructions of sex, gender and sexuality in literature and culture. Theoretical frameworks derived from sexological, feminist, psychoanalytical and/or queer approaches will be used to examine a range of fictional and non-fictional texts from across the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Specific topics may include race, pleasure, intimacy, sensation, disability and utopia. 

This module allows students to develop the skills they need for their future careers, whether you aspire to work in the creative industries, academia, publishing or any other role where creativity and innovation are valued. This is a practical skills-based module to help work on their professional portfolios with expert guidance. It features guest lecturers to help with career planning, pitching research-based articles, PhD funding and developing writing skills for publication. You will also get hands-on experience organizing a conference; and the opportunity to get classroom teaching experience.

Topics covered will include:

• How to present and pitch your ideas
• How to apply for funding for research proposals
• How to build impact into your grant applications
• How to plan a lesson

This module will introduce you to the world of publishing and open up careers in agenting, publishing, marketing and reviewing. We will explore bestsellers and publishing phenomenons alongside literary prizewinners and social media marketing campaigns. You will have a portfolio of work and a good understanding of the publishing process from writing and 'selling' a manuscript through to marketing and reviewing. 

This module will explore the conceptual, theoretical, and contextual frameworks of crime writing, considering issues such as ethics, sensationalism, genre, context and form. You will engage with a variety of modes, such as journalism, fiction and podcasts, and consider how form impacts content. You will develop advanced critical skills of conceptual and textual understanding; gain skills in writing in different registers, for different forms; and learn how to pitch a journalistic article. 

This module will explore the creative and critical challenges presented by adapting plays for stage, and novels for screen; translating texts across languages, time and space; and the politics of retelling classics from marginal and neglected points of view. You will have the opportunity to produce interdisciplinary outputs, and to work specifically with the University’s Arthur Hopcraft archive.

This module will identify the differences between satire, slapstick and spoof as modes of comedy, developing an understanding of the function of laughter and humour across a range of film texts, exploring questions of taste, as well as gender, class and race. You will analyse issues of language, communication, performance and context in the service of humour; and will debate issues around comedy as a genre and as a necessary cultural means for negotiating areas of social and political tension. 

This final module provides students with the opportunity to develop their specific research interests, including archive-inspired interests, in consultation with supervisor and professional archivists, and to produce an independently researched 12,000-14,000 word project.