BA (Hons) Creative Writing and Philosophy & Ethics

Creative Non-Fiction: Starting From The Self

This module introduces you to the versatile genre of creative non-fiction, in which writers employ skills transported from fiction to lend dramatic complexity to factual narratives.

Using autobiographical material as a base, you will generate dramatic scenes on a variety of topics and themes.

Introduction to Creative Writing

You will be introduced to the fundamental skills of creative writing through two core lines of investigation: the writer’s notebook (analogue or digital) and the creation of characters. You will develop your notebook through active engagement with a wide range of sources, including personal experience and the local environment, and recording lived experience through attentive use of the senses.

You will experiment with style, form, medium and genre, generating creative work through processes of critical reading, editing and revision, and be guided through the process of creative writing workshopping.

Investigating Interpretation: Ideas in Literature From Marx to Barthes

The course traces the origin of ideas in literature through three key thinkers: Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. These thinkers will introduce you to the notion that our language is crucial to the way the world is constituted.

Truth, Post-Truth and Ignorance

This module investigates if and how one can know the truth in a society where social media shapes the perspective of many people.

Is truth something that can be measured? Is there reality beyond the material world? Or a reality beyond the world we experience?

The module begins by reflecting on contemporary culture’s questioning of knowledge in social media, film/TV and politics.

You will investigate the implicit epistemologies at work in these areas in order to understand how popular views of knowledge support particular ethical and political views.

Subverting the Subject: Ideas in Literature from Barthes to Gaming

This module explores the idea of the subversion of the subject, our idea of the individual, across a range of ways of thinking about literature.

If fiction is already an exploration of the subject, and one that is potentially destabilising, then we need to consider how our selves might be considered as a kind of fiction and what results from this.

Ranging from the 1970s to the present, we will examine how ideas of the unconscious, of the body, of the libido, of power, of simulation, of performance, and of the machine and the animal undermine our sense of the boundaries of the human and even the human itself.

Being Human

This module invites you to engage in a profound inquiry into the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

By positioning humanity at the intersection of nature, culture, and individual agency, you will explore our unique place as a species and the intricate ways our inner emotional landscapes are forged within the broader social and historical world.

Drawing upon a rich synthesis of sociology, philosophy, psychology, and biosemiotics, students will navigate a diverse intellectual terrain. Moving from foundational explorations of humans as symbolic, meaning-making creatures to critical investigations into the complex dynamics of emotion as they manifest in contemporary life—including the structures of the workplace, the nuances of intimate relationships, the performance of gender roles, and the heat of political discourse.

You will be challenged to look beyond biological or social determinism to consider the “human condition” as a contested and evolving concept.

By engaging with these high-level abstract frameworks, you will cultivate a sophisticated, reflexive understanding of themselves and others.

This approach fosters a deep appreciation for diverse disciplinary perspectives, empowering you to synthesise competing ideas and apply them to the lived experience of being human in a complex, globalised society.

Creative Non-Fiction: Writing Lives

Focusing on life narratives and creative non-fiction, including biography and autobiography, this module develops your skills in the genre of creative non-fiction.

Journalistic and digital communication skills will start to be developed underpinned by the history of creative non-fiction. The concept of the ‘personal essay thesis’ will be explored.

You will be encouraged to connect your creative non-fiction to relevant debates in contemporary culture, and to engage with the issues arising from these debates.

Reenchanting 'the West': Learning from Myth and Sacred Texts

In this module, you will examine the genesis, evolution and global context of Western literature through an internationalist and beyond realist lens.

European and world myths, folklore, legends, wonder tales and sacred texts will be read and discussed in relation to global, historical and contemporary beyond realist and social realist oral literature and texts. 

You will be asked to consider questions concerning hidden social histories; political power; psychology; mythography; poetics; narrative structure; cultural appropriation; and translation.

Ultimately, the module will empower you to confidently participate in creative and critical conversations and writing modes.

You will be introduced to ‘the Cauldron of Story’: core texts and oral literature in the fields of world myth, legend, folklore and wonder tale.

Seminars will invite you to read these stories in relation to contemporary texts in English and English translation: work ‘speaking back’ to traditional narratives, including poetry and fiction.

Uniting these disparate fields of study will be a critical concern with themes of gender, power, disability, war, the supernatural, faith and the beyond human world. Jung’s theory of the archetype and Campbell’s ‘The Hero’s Journey’ will be introduced as conceptual frameworks subject to feminist, queer, post-structural and decolonial critique.

You will critically evaluate mythic archetypes and stereotypes. Questions of universality will be contextualised in relation to specific historical contexts, including our own diverse backgrounds and shared cultural experiences.

Liberal Political Philosophy and Its Critics

The module investigates the historical development of the liberal political tradition in order to assess its ability to address contemporary political issues.

You will become familiar with central figures in the development of liberalism, key critiques of this approach and representative examples of alternative approaches to politics.

Engaging with arguments that may include feminist political philosophy, political philosophy of race and/or post-colonial theory allows you to explore the limits of the Western philosophical canon.

Thinking the Environment

The module will familiarise you with key approaches to thinking about the environment. Covering topics that may include climate change, ecology, the controversies surrounding the term ‘the Anthropocene’ and cultural representations of these themes will enable you to discuss the intersecting political, ethical and social dimensions of environmental issues.

The Politics and Culture of Technology

This module investigates the technological transformations of society with an emphasis on the way that digital technologies are transforming local, national and international politics, ethics and culture.

You will learn how culture has shaped technologies and examine ways that technologies are changing the way we live.

You will consider the broader political, ethical and social implications of these changes, which may include topics such as the role of algorithms in our daily lives, the environmental impact of AI and/or predictions about the transformative power of emerging technologies.

Fairy Tales: Early Modern to Postmodern

Gain an informed historical and critical perspective on a powerful literary and cultural tradition beginning with the fairy tales written in early modern Italy, continuing through Perrault, D’Aulnoy, Grimm, Andersen to the work of more contemporary authors such as Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood. It also asks where we can turn to for modern fairy tales, through a focus on the use of fairy tale tropes in the work of J.K Rowling and Philip Pullman.

Fiction: Stories in Motion

This module explores the dynamics of change in contemporary fiction, with particular emphasis on how research initiates and propels narrative movement.

You will examine a range of texts across different modes of fiction – such as the fantastic, experimental writing, and folktales – to explore and evaluate how stories are set in motion through moments of disruption, discovery, or transformation.

Through close reading and discussion, you will analyse narrative form and the techniques writers use to shape stories, create tension, and generate conflict. These include structural choices as well as stylistic devices that control pacing, focus, and momentum.

You will develop your skills of effective storytelling through research and a range of writing devices, including exposition, dialogue, patterns of imagery, metaphor, and suggestion. Attention will be given to how these elements work together to animate a story’s central concerns and themes.

The module aims to deepen your understanding of short fictional narrative forms and to inspire the production of original creative work that demonstrates control over both the technical and imaginative aspects of these genres.

Alongside creative writing, you will write a critical essay on one of the model short stories studied. This essay will focus on a specific writing device explored during the module, analysing its function and effectiveness in relation to the story’s central theme or themes.

Work Placement

The aim of this module is for you to undertake a work placement to apply your academic learning in a related employment setting and for you to gain experience that will be useful in pursuing your career or profession.

Emphasis will be placed upon the development of vocational and employability skills, knowledge of self-reflexive work, an ability to use subject knowledge beyond the classroom and the development of skills for lifelong learning.

English and Creative Writing Dissertation

Your dissertation gives you the opportunity to work independently on an imaginative writing project of your own choosing (with supervision), to pursue specialist literary-creative interests, and to strengthen and enhance your understanding of a chosen genre, literary form or area of artistic enquiry.

It will include a related essay in which you will investigate either:

• a particular artistic, aesthetic or cultural issue of relevance to you as a contemporary writer

OR

• the work of a particular writer who will be influential as you develop your own body of work for the dissertation project

Digital Writing: Writing for the Community of Strangers

On this module, you will harness the skills developed during your course to engage with new possibilities in digital writing, including: blogs; gaming reviews, online journalism; social media campaigns; experimental digital writing; podcasts, fan fiction; etc.

You will develop your creative skills and augment them with the technical skills that are necessary to deliver a written project in a specific interest area.

You will be asked to submit a critical essay, exploring specific cultural and political issues that confront digital writers. You will be encouraged to explore experimental possibilities and to extend the range of your work by engaging with groups both within and beyond the university.

The module will cover a trinity of skills: academic, technological, and professional, with an emphasis on employability and transferring storytelling and narrative-building ideas into the job market.

Throughout, you will be encouraged to examine your chosen field critically and to engage with examples of the best professional practice.

World & Story: Writing Socially Engaged Imaginative Fiction

This module offers the opportunity to develop fictional skills in long or short narrative forms in the rich mode of socially engaged imaginative literature.

Imaginative literature, including but not limited to science fiction, modern Gothic, experimental and speculative fiction, has a distinguished pedigree stretching back to humanity’s earliest myths, hymns, epic narratives, folklore and fairy tales.

Questions of social relevance, literary innovation and ethical responsibility therefore come to the fore, as students make decisions about their own unique approach to writing contemporary imaginative fiction (prose or script/screenplay).  

The module aims to develop your skills as sensitive and intelligent readers of the work of others, and to deepen your understanding of imaginative fiction as a vehicle for understanding of the human psyche and the world.

Through creative reading of set texts, you will analyse contemporary British and international socially engaged imaginative novels, short stories, flash fiction, theatre, radio drama and screenplay.

Encounters with genres including science fiction, speculative fiction, urban fantasy, beyond realist eco-literature, the graphic novel and metafiction, will allow you to experience a range of approaches, explore hybrid models, and develop the appropriate vehicle for your own expression.

Imaginative genres offer opportunities to explore political and psychological relationships between Self and Other, and the ethical issues involved in creating fictional representations of the ‘alien’, the ‘monster’, and diverse cultural identities will also form a key area of course content, with reference made to contemporary discourses around race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability.   

Fantasy Writing: Origins and Development

This module explores the landscape of fantasy writing from its origins to the contemporary.

This module will guide you through this rich and living tradition from medieval origins to modern greats like Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

By the end of the module, you will be equipped to respond critically or creatively to fantasy writing as a genre.

Dissertation in Philosophy and Ethics

The dissertation is the culmination of your degree, as you produce a research project on a specific aspect of theology.

The dissertation consists of a study of 9,000 words on a topic agreed between the student and the module coordinator.

Religion in a Secular Europe

This module investigates the history of the concept of religion, its role in politics and its depiction in culture.

You will reflect on the co-emergence of ‘religion’ and ‘the secular’ as key to understanding contemporary ideas about belief, belonging and identity.

During this module, you will assess the role of religion and the secular in constructing a concept of Europe and its others.

Drawing on philosophy, sociology, anthropology and political theory will allow you to develop a more holistic understanding of the role of religions in the contemporary world, with an emphasis on Europe but an openness to global events and issues.

Futures: Hope, Risk and Anxiety

This module investigates different conceptions of the future, particularly those that worry about impending disasters and those that imagine radically new futures. What role does the future play in our conception of the world today? What might the future look like?

We will ask how the future has been conceptualised in philosophy, politics and sociology and some of the ways it has been depicted in literature, film and other media.

Topics covered may include theories of utopianism, apocalypticism, doomsday prepping, the ‘risk society’ and the ways these approaches to the future shape and are shaped by popular culture.

Unconscious Desires: Psychoanalysis and Culture From Freud to Žižek

This module explores the notion of unconscious desire and the expression of these desires in literature and culture.

You will trace the emergence of the ideas of psychoanalysis in the work of Freud and how various psychoanalytic thinkers have transformed the notion of unconscious desire and used it to grasp literary and cultural forms.