Critical Approaches (Q3120)

15 credits, Level 4

Autumn teaching

How do we go about reading and interpreting literary text and other cultural phenomena? Is it necessary to understand the historical, political or philosophical context from which a work emerges? Could larger forces affect our interpretation of texts, such as our unconscious desires, our identities including our class, race, gender, sexuality or nationality? What is the politics of literary culture, and what is the politics of interpretation?

On this module, you’ll explore a number of theoretical, critical, or philosophical perspectives by which to ‘approach’ culture. This may include reading:

• psychoanalysis
• marxism
• deconstruction
• intersectional feminism
• queer theory.

You might also consider issues such as climate violence and the environment.

The effects of this module will likely ramify on other elements of your life beyond university.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 117 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2026/27. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

Courses

This module is offered on the following courses:

• Creative Writing BA
• English BA
• English and Creative Writing BA