School of English Literature, Language & Linguistics

Hello Everyone,

Congratulations on your offer of a place at Newcastle University! Following the UK government announcement regarding 2020 Exam results on Monday 17 August, we wanted to reassure you that your offer still stands and we are looking forward to welcoming you to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics in September. If you do want to find out more about the University’s approach please read our statement and our offer holder FAQs. I am a lecturer in Renaissance literature and the module leader for ‘Introduction to Literary Studies 2’ which introduces our first-year students to texts from the medieval up till the Romantic period. The specific texts change slightly every year, and I will circulate a reading list before the Christmas break.

Your Induction
Our flexible and enhanced University Induction programme for new students will provide you with a warm welcome and introduction to Newcastle University and Newcastle University Students’ Union (NUSU). 

From Monday 28 September you’ll be able to access our Induction programme on Canvas – our Virtual Learning Environment. All information and activity will be offered online and we’ll send you full instructions on how to access Canvas the week before term starts. Some activities may include on-campus opportunities, but these will be dependent on physical distancing requirements at the time and will follow Covid-19 safety guidelines.

You’ll also receive school-specific induction information in the near future, designed to introduce you to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics and your degree programme. This will include everything you need to know before starting, including selecting optional modules, accessing your timetable and reading lists.

Frequently asked questions and COVID-19 
We’re regularly updating both our COVID-19 FAQs and our Student Experience 2020 guide with all the latest information you need about starting your course as the Covid-19 situation continues. 

Pre-arrival activities 
I thought it would be useful here to suggest some more general reading and listening that you can do now in order to get to grips with some of the conversations we’re going to be having throughout your undergraduate degree. You by no means need to look at all of these!

General: why we read, and how we frame arguments
Studying literature is not just about encountering new books, it is also about learning how and why we read them. If you have the time, I recommend that you look at Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle’s An Introduction to Literature, Criticism, and Theory (5th edition, 2016) at some point this summer. It is a highly readable guide to literary criticism, with short chapters focusing on themes (e.g. narrative, ghosts, the colony) with concrete examples of how each theme can be applied to a certain text. You can browse a copy on Google Books (which, by the way, is a useful resource for finding academic books online) or you can try searching for this title as a PDF online, before deciding if you want to buy a copy. There are numerous editions of this book: the more recent have some additional chapters, but most of it is the same whichever edition you use.

Thinking about pre-modern race
One of the main questions that we will be exploring in ‘Introduction to Literary Studies 2’ is as relevant to the study of literature as to history: how can we meaningfully engage with texts which seem culturally and aesthetically distant from our own context? Part of the way that we practice this is not just by learning about the historical contexts and literary genres of the past, but also by learning how to spot the way literary critics and historians frame their interpretation of a text.
This summer we have seen how important it is for all of us to confront our colonial legacy in Britain and beyond, and there are renewed calls on universities to decolonise their curriculums. The next few resources are ones that I have found helpful in educating myself about how we can examine earlier historical periods through this critical lens:

1. Geraldine Heng’s The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (2018) is an important text which questions the common assumption that concepts of race and racism only began in the modern era. For a shorter introduction, you can read this exhibition by Heng. 

2. For an excellent demonstration of how two twentieth-century writers (J.R.R. Tolkein and Toni Morrison) approached the issue of race in Beowulf (one of the texts we study in Introduction to Literary Studies 2),read this short article by Dorothy Kim (2019).
3. For another great introduction to the topic of studying Shakespeare and race, listen to this podcast from the Globe Theatre with Farah Karim Cooper, Ayanna Thompson and Noémie Ndiaye. In this podcast they focus on one of the texts we will be studying on ILS2 (Titus Andronicus).

Self-aware history
As students of both English and History, you should find Natalie Zemon Davis’ The Return of Martin Guerre (1983) a great way into thinking about the relationship between literature and history, women’s history, and the fine line between fabrication and trial records. She was the consultant on a film of the same title (released 1982), and her book was written to fill in the uncertainties that were inevitably left out of the film’s more stream-lined narrative. This book provoked a famous discussion between Zemon-Davis and her main detractor, Robert Finlay, about the methods historians use to interpret women’s history. If you do not want to read the full book, this blog post by Claire Potter (2018) is worth reading as it explains why this book and the discussion around it are so important for students. It includes links to that original exchange between Finlay and Zemon Davis too.

These suggestions are intended to make you think about the relevance of studying earlier historical texts and periods today. My colleagues and I would love to hear more from you about what you discover, so please do feel free to get in touch with us through email or social media, for example on the Twitter hashtag #NCLReady.

All the best, and I look forward to welcoming you to Newcastle soon!
Kate De Rycker
Lecturer in Renaissance Literature
School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics

Hello Everyone,

My name is James Harriman-Smith and I’m both an undergraduate admissions director and a lecturer in literature at Newcastle University. Following the UK government announcement regarding 2020 Exam results on Monday 17 August, we wanted to reassure you that your offer still stands and we are looking forward to welcoming you to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics in September. If you do want to find out more about the University’s approach please read our statement and our offer holder FAQs.

Your Induction
Our flexible and enhanced University Induction programme for new students will provide you with a warm welcome and introduction to Newcastle University and Newcastle University Students’ Union (NUSU). 

From Monday 28 September you’ll be able to access our Induction programme on Canvas – our Virtual Learning Environment. All information and activity will be offered online and we’ll send you full instructions on how to access Canvas the week before term starts. Some activities may include on-campus opportunities, but these will be dependent on physical distancing requirements at the time and will follow Covid-19 safety guidelines.

You’ll also receive school-specific induction information in the near future, designed to introduce you to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics and your degree programme. This will include everything you need to know before starting, including selecting optional modules, accessing your timetable and reading lists.

Frequently asked questions and COVID-19 
We’re regularly updating both our COVID-19 FAQs and our Student Experience 2020 guide with all the latest information you need about starting your course as the Covid-19 situation continues. 

Pre-arrival activities
Today I’d like to share a message and an exercise written for you by Dr Zoe Cooper, who teaches the script parts of our English Literature and Creative Writing degree. I hope you enjoy it, and please do take a look at the other material we are making available on Twitter and our other social media platforms.

Now, over to Zoe:
I’m writing this to you from my spare bedroom, in my little red house. I’m looking at the row of other little red houses on the opposite side of my street. I am listening to the seagulls that rest on the roofs in Newcastle because we are so near the sea.
It is a funny time to be thinking about writing for theatre, when we are all trapped inside in our homes, wondering when we will be able to get out. Plays are a little bit different to poetry, novels or even films in that you need people to be in a room together for them to really work. So, what I want to do with the following exercise is to invite you to start to dream about being together again in a room to hear and see a story. I think a good way to do that is to think about location and set.

1. Do a Google Image search for one of the following kinds of location. Pick one of the results that interests you
a. Beach
b. Bedroom
c. School canteen
d. Park
Once you have chosen your location, use your own memories and experiences to write a short prose description of that location. This can either be in one continuous paragraph or using a series of bullet points.

2. Now I want you to think about a character that could exist in that space. Write 1-21 down the side of a page and answering the following about that character
1. Age
2. Name
3. Shoes they are wearing
4. Last time they danced 
5. Brothers and sisters (how many and names) 
6. How do they spend their days? Work? School? Something else?
7. Where do they get their money? 
8. How much do they currently have in their bank account? 
9. When, where and who was their first kiss?
10. Most prized achievement?
11. What makes them angry?
12. If they were an animal what animal would they be? 
13. What is the thing that they want most today? 
14. What is the thing that they want most this year? 
15. What is the thing they want most by the end of their life?
16. What is getting in the way of them getting the thing they want most today?
17. What is getting in the way of them getting the thing they want most by the end of the year? 
18. What is getting in the way of them getting the thing they want most by the end of their life? 
19. What do they need? 
20. Another character enters the space. Describe them
21. Who are they to this character?

3. In theatre we call objects that are used on stage ‘properties’, or ‘props’
Props that get handled, moved or otherwise used during the course of a play are called ‘practical props’. Can you write a description of a significant prop that exists in the space that you have described? Write a short description of that prop and some notes on how it might be handled or changed through the course of a scene set in that space? How does it gain significance?

4. You are now ready to start writing your scene
a. Start with the stage directions, using your notes from question 1. How much description do you need? How much detail? Which aspects of the set are important? Try to be as concise as possible. Do you want your character/s to start in the space? Or will they enter? Do they do anything before they first speak? 

b. Now you can start thinking about the dialogue. If you feel stuck a good scenario for a scene is that character A wants something (by the end of the day, end of the month, by the end of the year) and character B presents character A with an obstacle in some way, either intentionally or unintentionally. 

c. If you can try not to go back and edit your scene until you have got all the way through. This will mean that you can see what the shape of the scene is before you decide which bits to rewrite or cut.
I am really looking forward to meeting you all in the autumn.

Best wishes,

Zoe Cooper and James Harriman-Smith
School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics

Hello Everyone,

My name is Emma Whipday, and I am a lecturer in Renaissance literature at Newcastle University.  Following the UK government announcement regarding 2020 Exam results on Monday 17 August, we wanted to reassure you that your offer still stands and we are looking forward to welcoming you to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics in September. If you do want to find out more about the University’s approach please read our statement and our offer holder FAQs. I teach the ‘Renaissance Bodies’ module to our second years and the ‘Women on Trial’ module to our third years.

Your Induction
Our flexible and enhanced University Induction programme for new students will provide you with a warm welcome and introduction to Newcastle University and Newcastle University Students’ Union (NUSU). 

From Monday 28 September you’ll be able to access our Induction programme on Canvas – our Virtual Learning Environment. All information and activity will be offered online and we’ll send you full instructions on how to access Canvas the week before term starts. Some activities may include on-campus opportunities, but these will be dependent on physical distancing requirements at the time and will follow Covid-19 safety guidelines.

You’ll also receive school-specific induction information in the near future, designed to introduce you to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics and your degree programme. This will include everything you need to know before starting, including selecting optional modules, accessing your timetable and reading lists.

Frequently asked questions and COVID-19 
We’re regularly updating both our COVID-19 FAQs and our Student Experience 2020 guide with all the latest information you need about starting your course as the Covid-19 situation continues. 

Pre-arrival activities I am writing to you today to share some videos I produced about dangerous homes in Shakespeare’s tragedies (and one comedy). I hope that they give you some food for thought before you start your degree in the Autumn:

• Stay at Home Shakespeare 1: Witchcraft Murder and Magic in Macbeth
• Stay at Home Shakespeare 2: The Balcony in Romeo and Juliet
• Stay at Home Shakespeare 3: Virtual Families and Ghost Stories in Hamlet
• Stay at Home Shakespeare 4: Locks, Keys and Privacy in Othello
• Stay at Home Shakespeare 5: Outside in King Lear
• Stay at Home Shakespeare 6: Dangerous Fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

In addition to watching these videos, you might want to have a think about the following questions in relation to any other Shakespeare plays you know:

• What do you think about the relationship between domesticity and violence in Shakespeare? 
• Are his characters safe in their homes, or does home become the place where they are most vulnerable?
• And do we only get to see his characters ‘at home’ on stage when something tragic is about to happen?

Finally, do look out for further material on this topic and others that will appear on our Twitter page, with the hashtag #NCLReady. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, either through social media or by email.

Best wishes,

Emma Whipday
Lecturer in Renaissance Literature School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics

Hello Everyone,

Congratulations once again your offer of a place to study at Newcastle University! My name is Christine Cuskley and I’m a Lecturer in Language and Cognition. Following the UK government announcement regarding 2020 Exam results on Monday 17 August, we wanted to reassure you that your offer still stands and we are looking forward to welcoming you to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics in September. If you do want to find out more about the University’s approach please read our statement and our offer holder FAQs.

Your Induction
Our flexible and enhanced University Induction programme for new students will provide you with a warm welcome and introduction to Newcastle University and Newcastle University Students’ Union (NUSU). 

From Monday 28 September you’ll be able to access our Induction programme on Canvas – our Virtual Learning Environment. All information and activity will be offered online and we’ll send you full instructions on how to access Canvas the week before term starts. Some activities may include on-campus opportunities, but these will be dependent on physical distancing requirements at the time and will follow Covid-19 safety guidelines.

You’ll also receive school-specific induction information in the near future, designed to introduce you to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics and your degree programme. This will include everything you need to know before starting, including selecting optional modules, accessing your timetable and reading lists.

Frequently asked questions and COVID-19 
We’re regularly updating both our COVID-19 FAQs and our Student Experience 2020 guide with all the latest information you need about starting your course as the Covid-19 situation continues. 

Pre-arrival activities 
Lecturers and Professors here in English Language and Linguistics are hard at work updating our teaching programme for the autumn. We have a few things for you to check out in the meantime to get you excited about starting your studies.

Did you know that Newcastle University is one of only two universities in the UK where undergraduates can take a dedicated course on language evolution (the study of how humans came to have the most complex, expressive communication system in the known universe)? This course won’t be on your radar until a few years into your degree, but the questions surrounding language evolution will come up in your earlier courses, from language structure to multilingualism.

If this subject sounds interesting, check out this workshop on language evolution for budding authors in science fiction – it’s part of a short story competition and you can sign up for free! This will allow you to learn a bit about language evolution and maybe dabble in some creative writing in the process. The workshop is run by my collaborator Dr Séan Roberts (Anthropology, Cardiff) and Dr Catriona Silvey, who currently researches language evolution at UCL, and will debut her first novel next year.
Newcastle also specializes in experimental approaches to studying language – we have researchers who use carefully designed tasks to try and figure out more about how language works in the brain, and how both children and adults learn and use language. Right now, one of our postgraduate students is working on a project that looks at how people remember words. It takes about 20 minutes to complete – you can try it out here if you’re curious. If you’re intrigued, you can read some more about our research questions and the larger project the experiment is a part of.

If you enjoy our experiment, you can also look into other behavioural experiments on a site called Prolific Academic, where you can earn some cash for doing longer experiments that span not only linguistics, but psychology and behavioural economics (no expertise required!). Particularly in the current climate, lots and lots of research in linguistics and beyond is going online!
We’d love to hear from you if you’re signing up to the language evolution and sci-fi workshop, and let us know if you find any cool online experiments!

Best,
Christine Cuskley
Lecturer in Language and Cognition
School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics

Hello Everyone,

Congratulations once again your offer of a place to study at Newcastle University! Following the UK government announcement regarding 2020 Exam results on Monday 17 August, we wanted to reassure you that your offer still stands and we are looking forward to welcoming you to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics in September. If you do want to find out more about the University’s approach please read our statement and our offer holder FAQs.

Your Induction
Our flexible and enhanced University Induction programme for new students will provide you with a warm welcome and introduction to Newcastle University and Newcastle University Students’ Union (NUSU). 

From Monday 28 September you’ll be able to access our Induction programme on Canvas – our Virtual Learning Environment. All information and activity will be offered online and we’ll send you full instructions on how to access Canvas the week before term starts. Some activities may include on-campus opportunities, but these will be dependent on physical distancing requirements at the time and will follow Covid-19 safety guidelines.

You’ll also receive school-specific induction information in the near future, designed to introduce you to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics and your degree programme. This will include everything you need to know before starting, including selecting optional modules, accessing your timetable and reading lists.

Frequently asked questions and COVID-19 
We’re regularly updating both our COVID-19 FAQs and our Student Experience 2020 guide with all the latest information you need about starting your course as the Covid-19 situation continues. 

Pre-arrival activities 
We have two activities for you. First, one that spans Language and Literature:
Did you know that Newcastle University is one of only two universities in the UK where undergraduates can take a dedicated course on language evolution (the study of how humans came to have the most complex, expressive communication system in the known universe)? This course won’t be on your radar until a few years into your degree, but the questions surrounding language evolution will come up in your earlier modules, from Language Structure to Multilingualism. 

If this subject sounds interesting, check out this workshop on language evolution for budding authors in science fiction – it’s part of a short story competition and you can sign up for free! This will allow you to learn a bit about language evolution and maybe dabble in some creative writing in the process. The workshop is run by Christine’s collaborator Dr Séan Roberts (Anthropology, Cardiff) and Dr Catriona Silvey, who currently researches language evolution at UCL, and will debut her first novel next year.

And, second, a more literary set of tasks:
In the second semester at Newcastle University, we will be teaching a module called Introduction to Literary Studies 2. A key question on this module is: how can we meaningfully engage with texts which seem culturally and aesthetically distant from our own context? To start your thinking about this question, here are three things we would like you to take a look at:

1. Geraldine Heng’s The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (2018) is a recent and important text which questions the common assumption that concepts of race and racism only began in the modern era. To find about more about this important argument, do read this exhibition by Heng. 

2. For an excellent demonstration of how two twentieth-century writers (J.R.R. Tolkein and Toni Morrison) approached the issue of race in Beowulf (one of the texts we’ll study together), read this short article by Dorothy Kim (2019).

3. For a great introduction to the topic of studying Shakespeare and race, listen to this podcast from the Globe Theatre with Farah Karim Cooper, Ayanna Thompson and Noémie Ndiaye. In this podcast they focus on one of the texts we will be studying together (Titus Andronicus).

We would love to hear what you thought about any of the material we’ve shared with you here. You can in touch with us about these matters, or anything else, through email or on social media. You can also find even more tips and resources on our Twitter page, or by searching the hashtag #NCLReady.

Best wishes,
James Harriman-Smith and Christine Cuskley
School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics