English School of Art, Communication and English English undergraduate program Honours Advanced coursework - University of Sydney
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School of Art, Communication and English Semester 1 & 2 2023 English English undergraduate Honours Postgraduate Postgraduate program Advanced coursework English Studies Creative Writing
Download our 2023 Guides
School of Art, Communication and English
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Art History English
bit.ly/arht-2023 bit.ly/engl2023
Film Studies Media and
bit.ly/film2023 Communications
bit.ly/meco2023
Theatre and Sydney College
Performance Studies of the Arts
bit.ly/prfm2023 bit.ly/sca2023
In this edition
—
Welcome by Chair of Discipline 2
Why Study English 3
Career Opportunities 3
Undergraduate Program 4
English Major and Minor 4
Honours 08
Writing Studies 10
2023 Units of Study 13
Postgraduate Program 26
Coursework Program 26
2023 Units of Study 30
Research Program 36
Staff 38
Key Dates for 2023 40
Contact Details Back Cover
Information in this booklet is to be Please check the Faculty of Arts and Cover image: David Mendolsohn in Edward III,
used as a guide only, as there may Social Sciences Future Students web Pacific Repertory Theatre, 2001, source: Wikipedia
be changes closer to the start of page for complete course and study
the academic year. information:
sydney.edu.au/arts/study.html
01
From the Chair of Discipline
—
Welcome
Welcome to English. Here you’ll meet world-leading researchers passionate
about their subjects and about sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with
students. You will cultivate your skills in reading and/or creating imaginative
literature in its various forms and manifestations – from novel to poetry,
drama or film. If you are interested in literature or film, in medieval literature,
British, American or Australian literature, literary theory or linguistics,
modernism and postmodernism, creative or academic writing, we have
something for you.
At undergraduate level, we offer units on Anglo-Saxon classics through to
the latest contemporary works. You’ll encounter cutting edge work in global
literatures as well as American, Australian, British, Irish, Postcolonial and
Modern literatures. We also offer units in Old English, Old Irish and Middle
Welsh. You can also elect Creative Writing units in which you’ll experience
workshops, seminars and lectures led by established writers and academics.
We also offer a range of units designed to improve your academic writing and
your understanding of rhetorical studies. All of our units will assist you to gain
a more nuanced sense of how others communicate elegantly and effectively,
allowing you the potential to become a more knowledgeable and persuasive
communicator.
At postgraduate level your options are also extensive. We offer a world-class
Master of English Studies program, with core units on Literary History, Genre,
Global Literatures and Critical Reading, and a diverse range of elective units.
We also offer the Master of Creative Writing program, taught by leading
writers and designed for new, established and developing writers to hone
their creative practice. Popular units in academic writing, and professional
writing and editing are also available.
Associate Professor Rebecca Johinke
Chair of Discipline of English
02
English at the University of Sydney
English students learn a wide range of skills in close reading, Career opportunities
textual interpretation and critical argument. They examine
how writers from different cultures over many centuries English is a broad and dynamic discipline that offers a
have used poetry, drama and prose to represent real and variety of transferable skills relevant to many different
imaginative worlds. As the largest English Department in the career situations, as these evolve over time. Traditionally,
country, our staff of internationally distinguished scholars an English degree prepares students for careers in
teach and research in all fields from the medieval to the teaching, the media, public and community service, and
contemporary, from Old English riddles to the narrative academia, and in any vocation or area that demands
puzzles of modern cinema, not forgetting the great novels, intellectual flexibility and versatility, critical thinking and
poems, and drama of centuries of Western culture. the ability to communicate. Employers today value the kind
of broad levels of expertise provided by an Arts degree,
Studying English at Sydney University will introduce you to rather than the narrower professional skills generated by
this wide range of literary and cultural works where you will vocational training. The cultural knowledge and critical skills
encounter the richness, breadth and depth our research provided by an English major are not only marketable for
and teaching culture, allowing you to customise your study a wide variety of career situations but will also enrich you
according to your interests. personally, giving you analytical and communication skills to
draw on throughout your life.
English at Sydney offers undergraduate and postgraduate
coursework and research programs, allowing students to
expand upon and explore their passion for literature in
all its forms, and in many social, historical and narrative
contexts.
The University of Sydney
03
English as a major or minor
The discipline of English offers the widest array You will explore questions about genre, form,
of choice in an undergraduate program in this period, and place across a wide range of works
discipline in Australia, especially coordinated in English. You will learn to analyse, explain, and
to allow you to pursue your own interests in a appreciate the formal and linguistic features of
carefully graduated manner. With us you may texts, aspects of their genre and history, and
complete a major in English or a minor in Writing their dynamic role in local and global cultures.
Studies, and if you wish to pursue your interests You will formulate and pursue meaningful
still further you may proceed to a fourth year of theories of critical analysis, reading communities,
Honours in English Literature or combine your and literary value.
Bachelor of Arts degree with the Bachelor of
Advanced Studies. We offer a broad and dynamic discipline that
prepares students for careers in the media, the
Our areas of specialisation include: arts and cultural industries; in public service and
Undergraduate | English (major or minor)
• Old and Middle English (800-1500) in industry; in teaching and academia; and in
• Early Modern (1500-1750) any vocation that demands intellectual flexibility
• Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century critical thinking, and the ability to communicate.
Modern and Contemporary The cultural knowledge and critical skills
• Australian, American, British and World provided by an English major are not only
literatures marketable for a large number of employment
• Literary theory opportunities, they also inform your whole
• Cultural, gender, postcolonial and life, enabling you to live a life that is rich with
transnational studies possibilities.
• Film, multimedia, linguistics and language
studies First year English will introduce you to a diverse
• Creative writing range of units, from global literatures to classic
texts in a variety of periods and contexts, as
An English major will introduce you to a wide well as to language and creative writing. You can
range of literary and cultural works including take any two first-year units to commence your
novels, films, poems, and plays, extending from English major. In all units you will be introduced to
medieval times to the present day. You will what it means to study English at university, with
encounter the richness, breadth, and depth of an emphasis on ways of reading and analysing
the discipline’s research and teaching culture texts and producing original, evidenced-based
as you explore some extraordinary and exciting arguments in response.
texts.
Second year English will consolidate and enrich
Areas of specialisation may include: your understanding of English as a discipline.
• Australian, American, British and World As an English major, you will also undertake a
literatures core unit (ENGL 2674: The Life of Texts). This unit
• creative writing allows you to think about the dynamic nature
• cultural, gender, postcolonial and of literary texts in more specialised ways, and
transnational studies to consider the interpretive and theoretical
• Old and Middle English (800-1500); questions these complex lives open up. In
Early Modern (1500-1750); Eighteenth- addition to this, you will be able to select from
and Nineteenth-Century; Modern and a range of specialist units to meet your own
Contemporary Literatures interests and to extend your skills. You will be
• film, multimedia, linguistics, and language able to select units focused on core aspects of
studies the field including specific genres, periods and
• literary theory contexts as well as addressing literary theory
or creative reading and writing. Whatever
04
2000-level unit you take will engage you actively with 2000-level units of study
intellectual, cultural and/or historical problems and
debates central to English. All second-year units will Core
advance your fluency in writing, research and analysis and ENGL2674 The Life of Texts
build your capacity to collaborate with peers.
Selective
Third year English will round off your major through ENGL2617 Postmodernism
high-level study of particular topics, texts and contexts. ENGL2627 Screening Sexuality
Third-year units are taught in seminar mode to maximise ENGL2650 Reading Poetry
student involvement and research-led teaching. Working ENGL2654 Novel Worlds
closely with lecturers and peers in small groups, you ENGL2666 Creative Writing: Theory and Practice
will deepen your knowledge of literature in theory and ENGL2672 Postcolonial Modernisms/Modernities
practice, and apply your disciplinary skills in diverse and ENGL2675 Literary and textual theories
interdisciplinary ways. ENGL2676 Climate Fictions
Requirements for Completion
A major in English requires 48 credit points from the Unit 3000 level units of study
of Study table including:
• 6 credit points of 1000-level core units Selective
• 6 credit points of 1000-level selective units ENGL3607 Modern Irish Literature
• 6 credit points of 2000-level core units ENGL3608 Transpacific American Literature
• 6 credit points of 2000-level selective units ENGL3623 The 18th Century: Scandal and Sociability
• 18 credit points of 3000-level selective units ENGL3633 Introduction to Old English
• 6 credit points of 3000-level Interdisciplinary Project units ENGL3635 Old Norse
ENGL3642 Medieval Literature: Dreams and Visions
A minor in English requires 36 credit points from the Unit ENGL3655 The Literary in Theory
of Study table including: ENGL3657 The Brontes
• 6 credit points of 1000-level core units ENGL3695 Medieval Tales of Wonder
• 6 credit points of 1000-level selective units ENGL3696 Advanced Creative Writing
• 6 credit points of 2000-level core units ENGL3697 Imagining Jerusalem
• 6 credit points of 2000-level selective units ENGL3701 Major Australian Authors:Depth Study
• 12 credit points of 3000-level selective units ENGL3703 Writing Australia Climates
ENGL3705 Writing Country: Indigenous Ecopoetics
ENGL3706 African American Literature
Units of Study (each unit is 6 credit points)
ENGL3707 Text, Action and Ideology
ENGL3708 Love and Desire in Early Modern England
1000-level units of study
ENGL3709 Global Literature and Times of Perpetual War
Core
ENGL3710 Utopias and Dystopias: Literature; Films; TV
ENGL1017 The Idea of the Classic
ENGL3711 Travellers’ Tales
ENGL3712 Television Fictions
Selective
ENGL3713 Shakespeare
ENGL1007 Englishes: Language Society Text Time
ENGL3714 Victorian Novel
ENGL1012 The Gothic Imagination
CLST3614 Middle Welsh
ENGL1013 Global Literatures in English
CLST3615 Old Irish
ENGL1014 Creative Writing
JCTC3603 Representing the Holocaust
ENGL1016 Imagining the Black Atlantic
ENGL1018 The Medieval Imaginary
ENGL1019 Jane Austen, Then and Now
ENGL1021 Reading Drama
05
Interdisciplinary project unit of study English Units Focusing on the Novel
If you are completing two majors and both of your
ENGL 1017 The Idea of the Classic
majors are from the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences, please select the Interdisciplinary Impact ENGL 1019 Jane Austen, Then and Now
unit of study for your first major, and the Industry and ENGL 2654 Novel Worlds
Community Project unit of study for your second major.
If you are completing two majors but only one of your ENGL 3657 The Brontes
majors is from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,
please select the Interdisciplinary Impact unit of
study for that major. If you are completing one major English Units Focusing on Medieval Literature
only and that major is from the Faculty of Arts and ENGL 1018 The Medieval Imaginary
Social Sciences, please select the Interdisciplinary
Impact unit of study for your major.
ENGL 3633 Introduction to Old English
ENGL 3695 Medieval Tales of Wonder
FASS3999Interdisciplinary Impact
FASS3333 Industry and Community Project English Units Focusing on American Literature
ENGL 1016 Imagining the Black Atlantic
Advanced Coursework units of study ENGL 1013 Global Literatures in English
SLAM4003 Meaning in the Anthropocene ENGL 3706 African American Literature
SLAM4004 Working the Arts
CAVA4001 Art Writing and Artists English Units Focusing on Creative Writing
ENGL 1014 Introduction to Creative Writing
Advanced Coursework Project units of study ENGL 2666 Creative Writing Theory and Practice
SLAM4001 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents, Futures A ENGL 3696 Advanced Creative Writing
SLAM4002 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents, Futures B
FASS4901 Advanced Industry and Community Project A
FASS4902 Advanced Industry and Community Project B
We encourage you to construct pathways through the
major according to your own developing interests in the
subject. This may take a number of forms – here are a few
examples:
Bachelor of Art with an English major pathway
Year 1 Sem 1 ENGL1017 The Idea of the Bachelor of Arts Core: 1000 level unit 1000 level unit in another
Classic FASS1000 Studying the major/minor from Table
Arts and Social Sciences A or S
Sem 2 English major 1000-level 1000 level unit 1000 level unit 1000 level unit in another
unit major/minor from Table
A or S
Year 2 Sem 1 ENGL2674 The Life of Texts 2000 level unit 2000 level unit/OLE* 2000 level unit in another
major/minor from Table
A or S
Sem 2 English major 2000-level 2000 level unit 2000 level unit/OLE 2000 level unit in another
unit major/minor from Table
A or S
Year 3 Sem 1 English major 3000-level English major 3000-level 3000 level unit in another 2000/3000 level unit in
unit unit major from Table A or S* another major/minor from
Table A or S
Sem 2 English major 3000-level FASS3999 Interdisciplinary 3000 level unit in another 3000 level unit in another
unit Impact major from Table A or S major from Table A or S
* Table S: University shared pool of majors, minors and units of study
** A second major is required but a minor is optional
***These units may be taken in third year, and minor units or electives may be taken in fourth year
06Advanced coursework Pathways through the Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of
Advanced Studies
If you undertake a fourth year, you will be undertaking
Advanced Coursework requires completion of a minimum a combined Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Advanced
of 24 credit points, including: Studies (BAS). To fulfil the requirements for the BAS you
must:
• a research, community, industry or entrepreneurship • complete a second major
project of at least 12 and up to 36 credit points. • complete 48 credit points in one of two pathways
- Honours; or
Students completing Advanced Coursework in this subject - Advanced Coursework
area should complete 12 credit points of advanced
coursework units of study and 12 credit points of advanced In the Bachelor of Advanced Studies offered through
course project units of study.. the School of Art, Communication and English (SACE),
students will engage in advanced seminars that
complement their individual research in project units.
In SACE, this may be within the study of arts-based
practices such as visual art, film, performance and
writing, as well as literature, or live and digitised
media. Students will have the opportunity to apply
disciplinary knowledges and methodologies to the
legacies of the past, present and possible futures in
the areas of communication, technology, literature and
art in creative ways.
Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Advanced Studies
with an English major pathway
Bachelor of Arts Core:
ENGL1017 The Idea of the
Sem 1 FASS1000 Studying the Arts Elective/ minor** Table S major* 2
Classic
and Social Sciences
Year 1
English major 1000-level
Sem 2 Elective Elective/ minor Table S major 2
unit
Open Learning
Sem 1 ENGL2674 The Life of Texts Elective / minor Table S major 2
Environment units
Year 2
English major 2000-level Open Learning
Sem 2 Elective / minor Table S major 2
unit Environment units
English major 3000-level English major 3000-level
Sem 1 Elective / minor Table S major 2
unit unit
Year 3
English major 3000-level FASS3999 Interdisciplinary
Sem 2 Elective / minor Table S major 2
unit Impact
Selective : SLAM4004
Project Unit: SLAM4001
Working the Arts and
Sem 1 SLAM Project: Pasts, Elective Table S major 2***
Humanities or CAVA4001
Presents, Futures A
Art Writing and Artists
Year 4
Selective : SLAM4003 Project Unit: SLAM4002
Sem 2 Meaning in the SLAM Project: Pasts, Elective Table S major 2***
Anthropocene Presents, Futures B
07Honours
An honours year in English allows you to 4000-level units of study
specialise further in your area of interest. ENGL4109 Modern and Contemporary Drama
It offers students the opportunity to work ENGL4113 Approaches to Critical Reading
independently and creatively in a community ENGL4114 Approaches to Literary History
of scholars that includes both their peers and ENGL4115 Approaches to Global English Literatures
English discipline staff. A number of honours ENGL4116 Approaches to Genre
graduates each year continue on to postgraduate ENGL4117 Henry James and the Art of Fiction
study in Australia or abroad. ENGL4119 Shakespeare and His Contemporaries
ENGL4121 The Secret History of the Novel
During their honours year, students will write ENGL4122 Critical Contexts for Creative Writing
a thesis of 15,000 words, complete three ENGL4125 Sentiment and Sensation
4000-level seminar units and participate in the ENGL4126 Shakespeare and Modernity
mid-year honours conference. ENGL4128 The Idea of the South: Faulkner’s Legacy
ENGL4129 Introduction to Old English
Honours admission requirements ENGL4131 Language and Subject
Admission into honours is via the Bachelor of Honours thesis units of study
Advanced Studies and requires the completion of ENGL4111 English Honours Thesis 1
a major in English with an average of 70 percent ENGL4112 English Honours Thesis 2
or above and completion of a second major.
Note: not every unit is offered every year.
Prior to commencing honours, you will need
For a full list of 2023 units see right hand
to ensure you have completed all other
Honours
column. For further information, see:
requirements of the Bachelor of Arts or other - sydney.edu.au/handbooks/arts/subject_areas_
eh/english.shtml
bachelor degree as well as 12 credit points of
Open Learning Environment (OLE) units which
is a requirement of the Bachelor of Advanced
Studies. It is possible for students with a BA and
just one major to apply for standalone Hons. For
further details, go to https://www.sydney.edu.au/
courses/courses/uc/bachelor-of-arts-honours.
html. For more information, contact the English
Honours Coordinator.
Requirements for Completion
Honours in English requires 48 credit points from
this table including:
• 30 credit points of 4000-level Honours
thesis units
• 18 credit points of 4000-level Honours
seminar unit
08Honours option, Bachelor of Arts (example pathway)
ENGL1017 The Idea of the Bachelor of Arts Core:
Sem 1 Elective Table S major* 2
Classic FASS1000 Studying the Arts
Year 1
Sem English major 1000-level
Elective Elective Table S major 2
2 unit
Open Learning
Sem 1 ENGL2674 The Life of Texts Elective Table S major 2
Environment units
Year 2
Sem English major 2000-level Open Learning
Elective Table S major 2
2 unit Environment units
English major 3000-level English major 3000-level
Sem 1 Table S major 2 Table S major 2
unit unit
Year 3
Sem English major 3000-level FASS3999 Interdisciplinary
Table S major 2 Table S major 2
2 unit Impact
4000-level English seminar 4000-level English seminar
Sem 1 ENGL4111 English Honours Thesis 1
unit unit
Year 4
Sem 4000-level English seminar
ENGL4112 English Honours Thesis 2
2 unit
* Table S: University shared pool of majors, minors and units of study
Michelle de Kretser, source: Commons Images
09Writing Studies at the University of Sydney
Writing Studies is an interdisciplinary minor • WRIT1000 Introduction to Academic Writing
which draws from established research in a • WRIT2001 Writing, Truth, Falsification
wide range of fields including rhetoric and • WRIT3000 Business and Workplace
composition, classics, philosophy, religious Communications
studies, digital cultures, Australian studies, and • OLET2127 Communicating with Wikidata
higher education studies. • OLET2119 Professionalism in the Workplace
• OLES2129 Writing for the Digital World
Students will learn to combine various research
methods including rhetorical, discourse and Learning outcomes
textual analysis to examine written, spoken and
visual texts at various stages of production, from • Critically engage with conventions of
conception to transmission and consumption. academic and professional writing and the
We teach students to consider, apply and creation of texts.
control stylistic options in relation to prose style, • Identify the historical, analytical, and ethical
Writing Studies (Undergraduate minor)
figurative language, voice, register, tone and dynamics of written, oral, digital and visual
word choice. We encourage students to think communication, its material and cultural
creatively and imaginatively to produce effective contexts, and its associations with power.
written assignments according to the specific • Produce persuasive, audience-focused
guidelines of a range of academic disciplines. written, oral, digital and visual texts that
Students will understand rhetoric as the reflect a sound understanding of key
theoretical foundation of writing and recognize rhetorical debates and theories.
how rhetoric is used in various textual practices • Write collaboratively with peers on team
and discourse communities. projects and across cultural, academic and
professional discourse communities.
The Writing Studies Minor will cultivate the • Develop a reflective writing process, honing
ability to identify the historical, analytical, and both self-editing and peer-editing skills.
ethical dynamics of written, oral, digital and • Produce reasoned, rhetorically sound
visual communication, as well as its material arguments across a range of genres applying
and cultural contexts and its associations language consistent with appropriate
with power. Our units of study will strengthen disciplinary, cultural and professional
students’ academic and professional writing conventions.
and increase their confidence in critical • Write, edit and revise a range of texts in a
thinking, argumentation, global awareness, and professional online portfolio.
composition. Students who complete this minor • Apply principles from rhetorical theories to
will be able to critically engage with conventions create clear, concise and informative spoken
of academic and professional writing and and written texts.
produce reasoned, rhetorically sound arguments
across a range of genres, learning to apply Writing Studies as a minor
language consistent with appropriate disciplinary,
cultural and professional conventions. A minor in Writing Studies requires 36 credit
points from this table including:
Students are also encouraged to take these
optional elective units offered by the English
• 12 credit points of 1000-level units
discipline available from the Arts and Social
• 12 credit points of 2000-level core units
Sciences Electives list in Table S of the
• 12 credit points of 3000-level core units
Interdisciplinary Handbook as well as the Open
Learning Environment units available from Table
First year
O of the Interdisciplinary Handbook.
In your first year of Writing Studies, you will
develop an understanding of how rhetoric is used
10to render written and other forms of communication more texts in relation to the historical, geographical, cultural,
effective. We will discuss theories about the development political and social contexts in which they were produced.
of writing and you will learn to consider, apply, and control Such approaches will enrich your understanding of
stylistic options in relation to prose style, figurative contextual elements of communication and enable you to
language, voice, register, tone, and word choice. You will effectively develop your own discipline-based inquiry, and
also be introduced to cognitive theory and how it informs to discover, produce, and deliver your arguments.
our study of writing. These units will prepare you for
second and third year by teaching you to think critically Third year
about communication and to evaluate and produce The third year of Writing Studies will consolidate your
arguments across a range of genres, including digital knowledge of the theories and philosophers that undergird
environments. In the first year, you will learn to cultivate our understanding of writing and communication. Our two
imaginative approaches to developing communicative 3000-level core units will introduce you to major critiques,
texts that are persuasive and appropriate for diverse debates and key thinkers in the study of writing. You will
audiences and contexts. engage with discourse around the construct of rhetoric
in scholarship, media, and politics, the relationship
Second year between hermeneutics and rhetoric, and criticisms of “big
Having developed an understanding of the place of rhetoric.” You will then apply these theories of rhetorical
rhetoric in effective communication, the second year reasoning and argumentation in evaluating discussions on
of Writing Studies will focus on tracing the development current issues and develop arguments on select issues
of contemporary rhetoric, from the classical era to that you will defend effectively, sensitively and with ethical
contemporary theories and practices of rhetoric. These, and logical integrity. In this conclusive year, you will
as well as cognitive and linguistic theories of writing, will demonstrate your advanced skills in research and analysis
underpin our approach to teaching research methods by linking information in an original way and exhibit your
and ethical reporting practices. Through these units, you arguments in visual, oral and written forms.
will develop a deeper understanding of the relationship
between rhetoric and writing. You will evaluate persuasive
Writing Studies Minor (example pathway)
Year 1 Sem 1 WRIT1001 Writing and Bachelor of Arts Core: 1000-level unit in 1000-level unit in
Rhetoric: Academic FASS1000 Studying the another major/minor another major/minor
Essays Arts from Table A or S from Table A
Sem 2 WRIT1002 Writing and 2000 level unit in Elective unit from Table 1000-level unit in
Rhetoric: Argumentation Major 2 from A or S another major/minor
Table A or S from Table A
Year 2 Sem 1 WRIT2002 Arguments 2000 level unit in Elective unit from Table 2000-level unit in
that change the world Major 2 from A or S another major/minor
Table A or S from Table A
Sem 2 WRIT2000 3000 level unit in 2000/3000 level unit in 2000-level unit in
Contemporary Rhetoric Major 2 from Major 2 from another major/minor
Table A or S Table A or S from Table A
Year 3 Sem 1 WRIT3002 Rhetorical 3000 level unit in 3000-level unit in 2000/3000-level unit
Traditions Major 2 from another major/minor in another major/minor
Table A or S from Table A from Table A
Sem 2 WRIT3003 3000 level unit in 3000-level unit in 3000-level unit in
Visual Rhetoric and Major 2 from another major/minor another major/minor
Contemporary Society Table A or S from Table A from Table A
1000 level units of study 2000 level units of study 3000 level units of study
• WRIT1001 Writing and Rhetoric: • WRIT2000 Contemporary Rhetoric • WRIT3002 Rhetorical Traditions
Academic Essays • WRIT2002 Arguments that • WRIT3003 Visual Rhetoric and
• WRIT1002 Writing and Rhetoric: Change the World Contemporary Society
Argumentation
1112
Department of English School of Literature, Art and Media Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University of Sydney
412023 Units of Study
Undergraduate units of study taught within the discipline**
Semester 1 Semester 2
ENGL1016 Imagining the Black Atlantic ENGL1013 Global Literatures in English
ENGL1017 The Idea of the Classic ENGL1014 Creative Writing
WRIT1000 Introduction to Academic Writing ENGL1018 The Medieval Imaginary
WRIT1001 Writing and Rhetoric: Academic WRIT1000 Introduction to Academic Writing
Essays WRIT1001 Writing and Rhetoric: Academic Essays
ENGL2666 Creative Writing: Theory and WRIT1002 Writing and Rhetoric: Argumentation
Practice ENGL2650 Reading Poetry
ENGL2674 The Life of Texts ENGL2675 Literary and Textual Theories
ENGL2676 Climate Fictions WRIT2000 Contemporary Rhetoric
OLES2129 Writing for the Digital World CLST3614 Middle Welsh
WRIT2002 Arguments that Change the World ENGL3633 Introduction to Old English
ENGL3607 Modern Irish Literature ENGL3655 The Literary in Theory
ENGL3623 The 18th Century: Scandal and ENGL3696 Advanced Creative Writing
Sociability ENGL3703 Writing Australian Climates
ENGL3642 Medieval Literature: Dreams and ENGL3705 Writing Country: Indigenous Ecopoetics
Visions ENGL3706 African American Literature
ENGL3709 Global Literature and Times of WRIT3003 Visual Rhetoric and Contemporary
Perpetual War Society
ENGL3713 Shakespeare ENGL4111 English Honours Thesis 1
JCTC3603 Representing the Holocaust ENGL4112 English Honours Thesis 2
WRIT3002 Rhetorical Traditions ENGL4113 Approaches to Critical Reading
CLST3615 Old Irish ENGL4116 Approaches to Genre
ENGL4111 English Honours Thesis 1 ENGL4119 Shakespeare and His Contemporaries
ENGL4112 English Honours Thesis 2 ENGL4122 Critical Contexts for Creative Writing
ENGL4114 Approaches to Literary History ENGL4129 Introduction to Old English
ENGL4115 Approaches to Global English SLAM4001 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents, Futures A
Literatures SLAM4002 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents, Futures B
ENGL4117 Henry James and the Art of SLAM4003 Meaning in the Anthropocene
Fiction
ENGL4125 Sentiment and Sensation
SLAM4001 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents,
Futures A
SLAM4002 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents,
Futures B
SLAM4004 Working the Arts and Humanities
Intensives
OLET212 Communicating with Wikidata (July)
OLET2119 Professionalism in the Workplace (October)
For units in the program taught by other disciplines, please see that discipline’s handbook.
*Please note that some units of study are not taught every academic year. Some units are taught on
a rotational basis.
**Subject to change,
13Unit of Study descriptions
1000 Level Units must be difficult, innovative, representative, or popular;
how they shape our judgements about literary tradition
ENGL1012 The Gothic Imagination and value; and why they remain implicated in debates
This unit explores the Gothic, a transgressive literary mode about sexuality, race, national identity, and class.
that imagines haunted or hostile social worlds. Beginning
with the early Gothic craze and ending with its popular ENGL1018 The Medieval Imaginary
on-screen renewal, we consider the aesthetics of horror This unit introduces students to the literatures of the
and terror, and investigate the questions these texts raise peoples who lived in the British Isles in the Middle Ages
about identity, place, and the imagination. (c.500-1500).We will focus on the transformations of
myth & legend in this period & study different medieval
ENGL1013 Global Literatures in English approaches to storytelling. In particular, we will explore
Global Literatures in English is a transnational and cross- how medieval writers imagined & re-imagined their
period unit that examines how literary and cultural works societies in different cultural contexts. Starting with the
from different periods and and different geopolitical Old English heroic poem Beowulf, students will read
contexts engage with Empire and its aftermath. translations of early & late medieval poetry and prose. We
will analyse medieval literature in society, intersections
ENGL1014 Creative Writing between history & the imagination, the treatment of
Creative writing, reading and thinking are core skills. gender roles & relations, & Christian influences on ‘pagan’
This unit offers a practical and critical introduction to stories, among other issues.
the development of a reflective creative writing practice
across a range of different literary forms. Students will be ENGL1019 Jane Austen, Then and Now
guided through the process of generating ideas, drafting, What does it mean to read literature historically? And what
workshopping, editing and revision to produce a portfolio does it mean to relocate classic texts to contemporary
of creative writing. The unit will emphasise creative writing contexts? This unit will address these questions by
as a dynamic mode of engaging with forms and ideas. focusing on the example of Jane Austen, one of Britain’s
most celebrated novelists. We will analyse how these
ENGL1016 Imagining the Black Atlantic novels engage the literary, social and political debates of
From the 16th through the 19th centuries, the Transatlantic the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Then,
slave trade meant roughly two-thirds of those who through consideration of recent adaptations, students will
crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas were African. analyse the reading processes that allow some novelists to
This unit introduces students to the complexities of race escape their history.
and representation by examining the responses to and
expressive forms arising from the social, political and ENGL1021 Reading Drama
cultural interactions of African, Caribbean, American In this unit, you will read some great plays. There will be
and European peoples that together produced what Paul some classic drama and some very recent plays as well.
Gilroy termed the Black Atlantic. We examine a range We pay attention to what it means to read dramatic texts.
of literary and film texts from Britain and the Americas By doing this, we develop our skills in critical reading at
from the 18th century to the present to consider slavery the same time as addressing some fascinating questions,
and its legacies, plantation cultures, and the cultural and such as: What is the relationship between text and
historical work of ‘blackness. performance? How is dramatic “character” established?
What are the different ways in which dialogue can work?
ENGL1017 The Idea of the Classic
Why are some books considered classics while others are WRIT1000 Introduction to Academic Writing
hardly read at all? How is the idea of the classic linked to This unit teaches the fundamentals of academic writing.
debates about history, representation, excellence, and Frequent, short writing assignments are designed to help
taste? This core unit answers these questions through students engage with the writing process at the sentence
in-depth, guided readings of a small number of major texts and paragraph levels and and to make appropriate style,
that have, at one time or another, been celebrated for grammar, punctuation, and syntax choices. Students
their classic status. We consider whether literary classics will learn how to research a topic, document sources
14in keeping with academic honesty principles, and edit ENGL2638 Literature and Cinema
and revise their own writing, as well as the writing of This unit will examine issues arising from a comparative
others. This UoS is appropriate for both native and non- study of literature and cinema, including: the continuities
native English speakers and offers a solid foundation for and discontinuities between the two mediums; the cultural
academic writing in any discipline. and historical contexts of literary and cinematic texts;
authorship, auteurism and aesthetic authority; adaptation
WRIT1001 Writing and Rhetoric: Academic Essays and intertextuality; the figurative styles of literature and
The persuasive power of the English language emerges cinema; narrative and narration in literature and cinema;
from its richness and variation. This unit introduces genre study.
students to rhetorical theory as a resource for the
creative construction of meaning. Students will learn to ENGL2650 Reading Poetry
discover topics, arrange ideas, and analyse the delivery A range of poetry will be offered each year concentrating
of arguments across a variety of contexts. We examine on an historical period, an individual poet, and a close
print, visual media, political debates and engage in virtual study of a poetic form. Readings of individual poems will
exchanges with universities around the world. involve both intensive study of technical and linguistic
characteristics, as well as of the broader historical, social,
WRIT1002 Writing and Rhetoric: Argumentation ideological and personal contexts and issues which they
This is a fully online unit of study. It focuses on advanced reflect. As well, there will be discussion of on-going
rhetorical reasoning and the theory, construction, literary-critical debate about poetry and its function.
and delivery of sound arguments, which are critical to
success in the university and the workplace. Designed ENGL2654 Novel Worlds
to improve writing and critical thinking abilities, the unit This unit of study explores the rise of novel reading in
teaches students to craft persuasive, ethical, and engaging English as an educative, aesthetic and passionate practice
arguments. It will focus on the production and reception from the 17th century to the present. The unit moves
of arguments across a range of genres, including digital chronologically to examine how novels and the world
environments. Online tutorials feature collaborative came to be understood as mutually constitutive, how
writing and editing exercises on global, participatory novels create and sustain attachments amongst their
writing platforms. readers, how the genre of the novel became available for
interrogations of national, gendered, “racial”, sexual and
class identity, of liberty and intellectual emancipation, and
2000-Level
of pleasure.
ENGL2617 Postmodernism
ENGL2666 Creative Writing: Theory and Practice
This unit will explore some of the most interesting
This unit fosters students’ practice and knowledge of
and innovative theoretical, literary and multimedia
creative writing through interactive workshops, seminars
texts of the last half century. Some of the topics to be
and lectures led by established writers and academics.
explored include the relationship between modernism
The emphasis is on writing as a creative mode of
and postmodernism; movements, communities and
intellectual, historical and aesthetic engagement with the
subcultures; experimentalism and activism; small press
contemporary.
publishing and independent cinema; politics, history and
cultural value; genre, style and intertextuality; auteurism
ENGL2672 Postcolonial Modernisms/Modernities
and the ‘death of the author’.
This unit examines literary and cultural expressions of
modernism/modernity in sites that were or continue to be
ENGL2627 Screening Sexuality
colonised. We will study how notions such as race, gender,
This unit explores the relationship between cinema and
class, sexuality, nation, and religion shape ideas of being
sexuality in classic films through detailed, historicised
modern, and how 20th and 21st century aesthetic works
readings. Questions to be investigated include the erotics
register the contradictory yet interconnected experiences
of cinematic genre and form; the sexual politics of
of modernity.
representation and spectatorship; stardom, scandal and
cult appreciation; cinema and sexuality as technologies of
modernity; cinema, sexuality and pedagogy.
15ENGL2674 The Life of Texts Universal, the data can be reused, copied, modified, and
Literary texts are lively objects. They move not only distributed and stored in Wikidata. Wikidata is multilingual
through the hands of multiple readers and makers, but so can be used for translations. It can be used with
they also exist in dynamic relation to the past and the specific datasets or to ask interesting questions like ‘What
present as well as to the institutions that curate, preserve is the capital city of every chocolate manufacturer and
and produce knowledge about them. This core unit aims how many people live there?’
to understand the interpretive and theoretical questions
opened up by these complex lives. What happens to WRIT2000 Contemporary Rhetoric
literary texts? Where do they come from? And where This unit will introduce students to contemporary theories
are they going? We examine the politics of literacy, and practices of rhetoric, examining the work of Kenneth
readership and archival curation, questions of materiality Burke and Chaïm Perelman, among others. It will trace the
and ephemerality, and the interpretive and creative development of contemporary rhetoric from the classical
possibilities opened up by the shift from print to digital era, comparing these approaches through examples of
forms. social, political, and popular rhetoric across a range of
genres. Students will develop a better understanding of
ENGL2675 Literary and textual theories the relationship between rhetoric and writing and how to
This unit of study introduces concepts and debates that apply rhetorical principles to the analysis, interpretation
been influential in theorizations of textuality and production of a range of texts.
and discursive production in English studies. How have
the representational, affective, social and ideological WRIT2001 Writing, Truth, Falsification
capacities of literary and other texts been conceived? What does it mean to live in a ‘post-truth’ world? Students
What relations have been posited with their historically- in this unit will analyse a wide range of written artefacts
situated readers, writers and subjects? Students will be and cultural objects created across the centuries,
introduced to problems of identity, (un)reason, power searching for thematic points of rupture and continuity
and critique as they impinge on textuality and meaning, across the ages. They will develop the critical means of
and consider the implications these might have for coming to terms with what it means to come of scholarly
the humanities, including for the choice to adopt the age in the ‘post-truth’ era.
theoretical stance itself, in a period of environmental crisis
and mounting authoritarianism. WRIT2002 Arguments that Change the World
What do great poets, preachers and politicians have in
ENGL2676 Climate Fiction common? Using case studies of enduring persuasive texts
Climate change raises fundamental challenges for from the pulpit to the courtroom to the concert hall, this
the reading, writing and study of literature. This unit unit introduces students to rhetorical hermeneutics as
investigates the ways in which ‘climate’ features in, or a method of interpretation. The unit extends their ability
shapes, fictional texts across place and time, into to interrogate and think critically about various text types
the present era, attending also to the texts, knowledges and their affective qualities. It cultivates intensive and
and perspectives of first nations peoples. Can climate effective research and reporting practices, through which
fiction shape public debate? Are its forms implicated students develop discipline-based inquiry questions to
in fossil-fuel-driven capitalism? We will ask how novels, effectively discover, invent, produce, and deliver their own
films among other types of texts engage cultural, popular arguments.
and scientific discourses to represent and imagine the
environmental, social justice, existential, intercultural and
interspecies implications of climate change at regional,
national and planetary levels.
OLET2127 Communicating with Wikidata
This unit teaches students to load, use and interpret
information using Wikidata. This free, open source
repository gathers and stores content in the public
domain. It will benefit students in any discipline who are
interested in harvesting statistics freely and –as
Wikidata uses SPARQL –without the need for query items
to be contained in data bases. Published under CC0 1.0
163000-Level a range of literary and social backgrounds. The unit
will begin with a survey of the classical and biblical
background, to works which may be defined as dreams
ENGL3607 Modern Irish Literature
or visions as well as examining the relationship between
This unit of study charts the development of Irish
the two genres and their transformations from the Middle
literature from the late nineteenth century to the present
Ages into the Renaissance.
day, in the form of drama, short fiction, novels, poetry,
biography and autobiography. Prominent themes include:
ENGL3655 The Literary in Theory
the emergence of the modern Irish nation through
This unit will introduce students to significant movements
resistance, civil war, and independence from Britain;
in modern and contemporary literary theory to think
Northern Ireland and the Troubles; expatriation and exile;
about what it means to speak of the literary. The unit of
wit and verbal dexterity; the fate of specifically “Celtic”
study begins by examining the question of “literariness”
sensibilities; and the relation of writing to history (ancient,
through its exposition and defence by a number of
colonial, the Famine, Republicanism).
scholars. We will pursue the applications of their
ENGL3608 Transpacific American Literature
arguments through a selection of theoretical models,
Students will apply advanced literary methods to address
including queer and gender theory, psychoanalysis, and
the broad ways in which American Literature in the 19th,
race theory, to consider the cultural and ideological work
20th and 21st centuries has engaged with the opening
imaginative literature undertakes.
of transpacific space. Themes will include the nature
of westward exploration, the emergence of planetary
ENGL3633 Introduction to Old English
perspectives and how these have affected US culture.
Old English was the language of England from the fifth
Students will build on their knowledge of literary study
century until the twelfth. This earliest phase of the English
to consider the key methodological question of how
literary tradition evolved against a background of cultural
relationships between nation and narrative should be
encounters: as the Anglo-Saxons encountered the culture
defined.
of Rome, as they adopted and adapted the Christian
religion, and as they reflected on their origins on the
ENGL3623 The 18th Century: Scandal and Sociability
European continent. This unit introduces students to the
In eighteenth-century Britain, authors were brought
language spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons, and
into new relation with readers. Commercial publication,
presents the opportunity to translate and read Old English
now central to literary production and dissemination,
texts.
meant texts reached an anonymous and potentially
limitless readership. How did awareness of this new public
ENGL3657 The Brontes
dimension shape literary texts? Students will evaluate the
The novels of the Bronte Sisters are among the most
constitutive role of scandal and sociability in the period’s
enduringly popular Victorian texts, yet they have an
most important texts. We will focus on the development
ambiguous critical status. The perception that the
of the novel as a sociable form, and assess recent theories
Brontes are labile and cloistered writers, best interpreted
addressing public engagement in eighteenth-century
psychoanalytically, raises questions about the relationship
literature.
between biography and literature, and the ways in
which notions of social and historical relevance play
ENGL3635 Old Norse
into judgments about literary value. We will think about
Old Norse is the name given to the language of medieval
canonical and popular literary status, biography and
Scandinavia which was spoken by the Viking invaders
authorship, gender and writing, and Victorian society.
of Britain in the early Middle Ages. Old Norse literature
presents a rich variety, from mythological and legendary
ENGL3695 Medieval Tales of Wonder
poetry to Icelandic sagas. This unit extends students’
Medieval Romance includes narratives of adventure
understanding of the Germanic culture which the
and ideals of courtly love within a context infused with
Anglo-Saxons brought to Britain by introducing them
wondrous potential. In this unit students will explore a
to the language of medieval Iceland, the literary centre
selection of romance texts, exploring themes of gender,
of medieval Scandinavia, through texts written in Old
the fantastic and literary history. Students will analyse
Icelandic.
recent developments in theoretical approaches to
Medieval romance, including monster theory and affect
ENGL3642 Medieval Literature: Dreams and Visions
theory. Texts will be studied in Middle English with class
This unit will study the literature of dreams and visions
support.
of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period against
17ENGL3696 Advanced Creative Writing ENGL3707 Text, Action, and Ideology
This unit builds on previous knowledge gained in This unit of study explores text-production as a social
ENGL2666 Creative Writing: Theory and Practice and/ and ideological act, with particular reference to English-
or other English units, offering students the opportunity speaking contexts. We will ask how competing social
to complete a creative project in fiction, poetry, creative and political interests shape specific textual practices,
non-fiction, or a combination of these. and consider the ideological influences impinging on
theoretical discourse about language and textuality.
ENGL3697 Imagining Jerusalem
Jerusalem has long fascinated travellers, artists, and ENGL3708 Love and Desire in Early Modern England
pilgrims, both as a real and as an imagined city. For some, In this unit, we learn, and discuss, the languages used to
this fascination lies in the religious symbolism of the investigate love and desire in early modernity. We explore
city, while in the contemporary period Jerusalem is also works, including drama and poetry, by Shakespeare and
increasingly shaped by the role it plays in the conflict in his contemporaries, discovering the relationships that they
the Middle East. This unit focuses on how literature and make between emotion, reason, language, politics and
film from Australia, Europe, Israel, North America, and sexuality.
Palestine imagines Jerusalem as a past, present, and
future city. ENGL3709 Global Literature and Times of Perpetual War
ENGL3701 Major Australian Authors: Depth Study This unit explores how literary and cultural works address
This unit provides students with the opportunity to the state of perpetual war of the historical present.
undertake in-depth study of the life, work, career and Focusing on Third World decolonisation contexts, we
reception of one or more major Australian writers, such will consider how writers and artists interrogate the
as Peter Carey, Helen Garner, Christina Stead, Patrick gender, racial, and national ideologies that fuel violence,
White or Judith Wright. While focusing on close reading and how literary, cultural analysis contributes towards
of texts that have come to be regarded as outstanding understanding the global, unevenly distributed effects of
both nationally and internationally, students will also use war.
methodologies will include career biography, reception
history, and the analysis of key works of literary criticism ENGL3710 Utopias and Dystopias in Literature
and the economy of literary prestige. and on Screen
This unit critically explores modern and contemporary
ENGL3703 Writing Australian Climates utopias and dystopias in literature, TV and cinema. It
In Australia increasingly intensive droughts, floods and examines the history, aesthetics and politics of utopias
fires regularly impact daily life. How do writers grapple and dystopias, focusing on questions of the development
with anthropogenic climate change and to what extent of new spaces and social orders, technology, the
can literary texts reflect and help mitigate environmental environment, surveillance, the post-human and IT. It
crisis? Examining a diverse body of work and assesses different conceptions of the future in relation to
incorporating First Nations perspectives, this unit explores the present and the past. The unit addresses questions
literary representations of Australian environments and about the representation of the future in different media,
ecologies in the context of our warming world. Drawing and asks students to imagine the future as both dream and
on interdisciplinary perspectives from the environmental nightmare.
humanities, we will consider how texts engage with issues
including the continued impact of colonialism on Country, ENGL3711 Travellers’ Tales
multispecies relations and environmental justice. This unit explores travel writing as both historical genre
and creative practice. Over three separate modules
ENGL3706 African American Literature focusing on questions of ethnography, psychology and
We examine a range of African American-authored texts, gender and ranging across the globe, it considers how the
including films, from the 18th century to the present to archetypal journey story is reshaped in particular cultural
consider the relationship of race and writing, and the ways and political contexts. Students will have the opportunity
African American cultural expression contributes to and to demonstrate their learning via both critical and creative
interrogates American cultural history. Issues covered assessment
include enslavement and freedom, and segregation and
Civil Rights.
18ENGL3712 Television Fictions FASS3333Industry and Community Project
This unit will consider how systems of meaning have been This unit is designed for third year students to undertake
generated in TV narratives. It will address theoretical a project that allows them to work with one of the
questions regarding production and authorship, but most University’s industry and community partners. Students
of this unit will focus on how particular aesthetic forms will work in teams on a real-world problem provided by the
underwrite the construction of television fictions across partner. This experience will allow students to apply their
factual narratives (news, sport), drama, comedy and academic skills and disciplinary knowledge to a real-world
serials. issue in an authentic and meaningful way.
ENGL3713 Shakespeare FASS3999 Interdisciplinary Impact
Shakespeare is sometimes taken to be a writer with a Interdisciplinarity is a key skill in fostering agility in life
particular capacity to represent human nature. In this unit, and work. This unit provides learning experiences that
you will test the limits of this assumption by considering build students’ skills, knowledge and understanding
some of the following: Shakespearean inhumanity; of the application of their disciplinary background to
Shakespeare’s animals; Shakespeare and the natural interdisciplinary contexts. In this unit, students will work
world; Shakespearean scepticism. At the same time as in teams and develop interdisciplinarity skills through
considering and questioning Shakespeare’s treatment of problem-based learning projects responding to ‘real world
the “human”, you will also discover new and productive problems’.
ways to read his complex figurative language. Shakespeare
writes for the stage, but he does so in a very particular WRIT3000 Workplace Communications
way. This unit will allow you to engage with how, as well Effective communication in the modern workplace
as what, he writes. involves more than the production or reproduction of
formulaic documents. To be persuasive, communication
ENGL3714 The Victorian Novel must be tailored to address the needs of differing
The novel was the preeminent literary form of the audiences while sustaining a coherent and credible
Victorian period, unrivaled in its aesthetic influence corporate narrative. This unit teaches the concepts of
and cultural importance. In this unit, we’ll read a rhetorical awareness and user-centered design to enable
representative selection of notable Victorian novels in students to craft a range of audience-focused, persuasive
order to understand what “the Victorian novel” is, why speeches, documents and visual texts for an increasingly
it rose to prominence during a period of rapid societal technologized workplace.
change, and how its narrative techniques and thematic
concerns continue to shape the genre today. WRIT3002 Rhetorical Traditions
From Aristotle to Vico, Joyce to Oodgeroo, multiple
ENGL3705 Writing Country: Indigenous Ecopoetics traditions of rhetoric have influenced society. In this unit,
This unit surveys Australian Indigenous representations experts in medieval, modernist, new and cultural rhetorics
of Country in poetry, fiction, art and film. We consider will help you understand how rhetorical traditions emerge
Indigenous expressions of Country through comparative as you form your own argument about language, thought
ecocritical, transnational and trans-Indigenous and behaviour.
frameworks, and examine how Indigenous philosophies of
Country can contribute to thinking about issues such as WRIT3003 Visual Rhetoric and Contemporary Society
environmental crisis and climate change. How are we to make sense of our visually-
orientated world? Debating theoretical, historical,
JCTC3603 Representing the Holocaust and methodological developments in the fields of
Few historical events have inspired as many literary and writing studies and rhetoric, we will develop a clearer
artistic interpretations as the Holocaust. This unit will understanding of the vital role that visual and nonverbal
explore and critically assess how a broad range of forms, rhetoric plays in the contemporary realm.
including but not limited to literature, film, fine arts,
museums and memorials represent the Holocaust. In
addition to a critical evaluation of these diverse artistic
representations, the historical development of these
forms will be considered as well as their national and
transnational contexts.
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