Module Information

This module is designed for research students in the Faculty of Arts and for AHRB remit students within the Faculty of Social Sciences. It will provide research training in text and discourse analysis, taking account of the multimodal nature of meaning-making. The module has been designed to develop the students capacity for critical reading.

This module will consist of separate sessions focussing on different ways of reading and different approaches to the interpretation and analysis of texts and types of discourse. The notions of 'text' and 'discourse' are taken in their broadest sense as encompassing verbal and visual 'texts', print and braodcast media, film. art and photography and the virtual discourses and images of cyberspace. Two broad principles underpin the module: 1) contemporary social life is increasingly textually-mediated and characterised by multi-modality; 2) in an interdisciplinary research environment, it is advantageous for research students to familiarise themselves with a variety of forms of textual analysis and to be able to examine texts through different lenses. As far as possible, the content of each session will be geared to the research interests of those participating in the module.