Bachelor of Arts (BA)

BA English Literature and American Studies

English Literature and American Studies at Manchester combines literature with history, politics and popular culture of the United States.

  • Duration: 3 years
  • Year of entry: 2025
  • UCAS course code: QT37 / Institution code: M20
  • Key features:
  • Study abroad

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Fees and funding

Fees

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £26,500 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

Policy on additional costs

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships/sponsorships

Course unit details:
Gender, Sexuality and the Body: Theories and Histories

Course unit fact file
Unit code ENGL20482
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 2
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

This course explores two analytical concepts central to our understanding of what makes us 'modern': gender and sexuality. We analyse specific examples of 20th century fiction, film, and popular culture in order to consider topics such as: desire, identity, sexual classification, repression and liberation, racial and classed bodies, transgression, normality and deviance, and trans politics. We also consider some of the key theorists of sexuality, including Freud and Foucault. Throughout the course key feminist and queer theorists are introduced in relation to debates about changing understandings of the three categories in the course title.  

Aims

 

  • To introduce students to a range of theoretical work on gender, sexuality and the body informed by, or critical of, sexology and psychoanalysis;

  • To encourage students to assess such material critically;

  • To introduce students to a number of 20th century cultural texts which - self-consciously or otherwise - foreground issues of sexuality, gender and the body;

  • To encourage students to develop strategies of reading cultural texts informed by theories of sexuality, gender and the body.

 

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, the successful student will have demonstrated:

  • An understanding of some of the main issues raised by theoretical accounts of sexuality and gender;

  • A grasp of the distinctions between different schools of thought in this area;

  • An ability to analyse cultural texts in ways informed by theoretical work of sexuality, gender and the body;

  • An appreciation of the implications for cultural criticism of the distinctions between the different schools of thought in this area.

 

Employability skills

Analytical skills
Students taking this unit will be able to analyse and evaluate arguments and texts. Above all, committed students will emerge from this course unit with an advanced capacity to think critically, i.e. knowledgeably, rigorously, confidently and independently.
Group/team working
Students taking this unit will be able to work courteously and constructively as part of a larger group.
Innovation/creativity
On this unit students are encouraged to respond imaginatively and independently to the questions and ideas raised by texts and other media.
Leadership
Students on this unit must take responsibility for their learning and are encouraged not only to participate in group discussions but to do so actively and even to lead those discussions.
Project management
Students taking this unit will be able to work towards deadlines and to manage their time effectively.
Oral communication
Students taking this unit will be able to show fluency, clarity and persuasiveness in spoken communication.
Research
Students on this unit will be required to digest, summarise and present large amounts of information. They are encouraged to enrich their responses and arguments with a wide range of further reading.
Written communication
Students on this unit will develop their ability to write in a way that is lucid, precise and compelling.

Assessment methods

Closed Reading Exercise 40%

Essay 60%

Feedback methods

Written and face-to-face (upon arrangement)

Recommended reading

Theories:

Michel Foucault History of Sexuality, vol. 1.  London: Penguin, 1998

Michel Foucault, Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-Century French Hermaphrodite.  New York: Vintage Books, 2010
Sigmund Freud, The Psychology of Love (London: Penguin Books, 2006)

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents.  Trans. by David McLintock.  London: Penguin, 2002
 

Novels:

Audre Lorde Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. London: Penguin Modern Classics, 2018.

Films:

Orlando  (1993, dir. Sally Potter)

Looking for Langston (1989, dir. Isaac Julien)

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Assessment written exam 2
Lectures 22
Seminars 11
Independent study hours
Independent study 165

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Ben Nichols Unit coordinator
Jacqueline Stacey Unit coordinator

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