This module offers an innovative blend of approaches, introducing students to skills in archival research as well as to close reading of different types of fiction, film and drama. The aim is to consider the potential for archival research to inform critical skills and interpretive and creative practices, and to reconceptualise the archive not as a stable, unchanging repository but as responsive to the ways in which it is interrogated at any given historical moment.

Students will explore the possibilities and limits of the archive, considering what detail can be revealed as well as concealed by official (institutional) and unofficial records and documents. In a series of workshops the class will benefit from hands-on experience with digital (e.g. Perdita, Records of Early English Drama) and paper archives and will be encouraged to develop research- and primary-source led approaches to understanding the early modern period. Furthermore, in tandem with these archival excavations, the class will read a particular selection of historical fiction and/or dramatic texts/adaptations that recover lost or erased personal histories, including those of women and racial minorities, as well as literature that is motivated by the desire to recover the voices of marginal figures. Workshops with authors and archivists may also be offered. The class will read a selection of theory, critical position papers and fiction and/or drama; assignments will respond to the different elements of the module and will encourage both creative and critical responses.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: • Demonstrate familiarity with genres of writing; • Identify key issues arising in a selection of literary and cultural texts; • Develop research skills, in particular around archival research; • Identify the key issues around archival research; • Locate and critically examine particular kinds of archives for research purposes; • Use specific skills to work with primary documents; • Consider theoretical and ethical approaches to historical and archival research; • Examine the prescribed texts in the cultural, political, and social contexts in which they were produced; • Relate texts to literary traditions; • Interpret and analyse texts through an established process of close reading; • Evaluate arguments relating to interpretation, concepts, and theories with respect to the prescribed texts; • Complete assignments on set topics at the appropriate level.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: • demonstrate critical appreciation of literary artefacts through use of the stylistic, historical and cultural contexts in which literary texts are produced; • locate primary resources, including books and manuscripts; • utilise their learning to demonstrate independent cultural and literary thinking.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: N/A

The module consists of a three-hour seminar per week. The seminar will be mostly student-led and aims to build skills and confidence around original research and archival work, combining these concerns with critical reading of a particular selection of historical fiction and/or drama and film. Seminars will at times take place in the context of the library, and will feature guest lectures by archivists, critics and creative writers. Innovative assessment methods will develop student research and presentation skills and research project design.