English Language and Literature

Reading Lists

Induction Task

Please click on the following link to view your Induction Task: English Language and Literature Induction Task

Reading List

It is a good idea to do some preparatory reading over the summer before you come to university and we have some recommendations relating to both the language and literature parts of your course. Note that in the first semester the compulsory modules treat the two areas, language and literature, separately but after that, you will also be taking modules that integrate them. Do not worry if the list seems long. The most important material is listed under the heading ‘Core Reading’, while the section headed ‘Further Reading’ provides suggestions for things to look at if you want to dig a bit deeper. If you had a good go at the things in the ‘Core Reading’ section and maybe a few things from the ‘Further Reading’ section, you would be preparing yourself thoroughly for the course.

Core Reading

Core Reading for English Language modules

In the first semester, you will study some of the basic building blocks of language (its sounds and structures) and you will have the option of learning about how language changes over time and place.

Here are the set texts we will be using for the compulsory English Language modules:

Autumn Semester

  • ELL112 - Sounds of English

Carr, P. (2020). English Phonetics and Phonology: An Introduction (3rd ed.). Wiley Blackwell.

This book is available via the University Library as an eBook.

  • ELL113 - Structures of English

Sportiche, D., Koopman, H., & Stabler, E. (2013). An introduction to syntactic analysis and

theory. Wiley


Spring Semester

Core Reading for English Language and Literature

Finally, yet importantly, in semester 2 of your first year, you will take a compulsory module that brings the study of language and literature together. It is called ‘Practical Stylistics’ and it covers linguistic techniques for analysing texts – the kind of thing you might have done at A-level but more advanced. The set text for that module is:

  • EGH102- Practical Stylistics

Simpson, Paul (2004) Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students. London: Routledge [ISBN: 0415281059]

You may also choose to study additional English Language modules, and here are the set texts for:

  • ELL110 Varieties of English (Autumn semester):

Beal, Joan (2010) An Introduction to Regional Englishes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. [ISBN: 0748621172]

  • ELL114 History of English (Spring semester):

van Gelderen, Elly (2014) A History of the English Language, Revised edition. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. (Make sure to get the revised edition!)

Suggested additional reading before you arrive

For many of you, this may be the first time you have studied Linguistics, especially if you did not

take English Language at A-level.

So the summer before you arrive is an ideal time to explore what Linguistics is about.

The following books are designed to provide an introductory overview of Linguistics. You do not need to buy these books, and they will not be assigned as obligatory set texts for your modules.

However, should you choose to do so, we are confident they will provide an accessible and enjoyable insight into the kinds of things you will study here.

To help you decide which text(s) you might want, we have indicated what we think each has to offer.

Teaching on this material will begin in the week commencing Monday 28th September.

  • Beal, Joan (2006) Language and Region. London: Routledge

  • Crystal, D (2008) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 5th Edition. London:Blackwell

  • Crystal, D (2008) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 5th Edition. London:Blackwell

  • Fromkin, Victoria., Rodman, Robert., & amp; Hyams, Nina. (2013). An introduction to language (10th Edition). Cengage Learning.

  • Harley, Trevor A. (2010). Talking the Talk: Language, Psychology and Science. Hove & New York: Psychology Press.

  • Yule, G. (2010) The Study of Language, 4th Edition. London: Routledge

Blackwell’s University Book shop, located at Orchard Square, runs a Student Price-match promotion. This offer guarantees that they will price-match to Amazon, Waterstones and other on-line retailers; ensuring students get the cheapest UK price on their texts. They also stock 2nd hand books.

Their contact details are:

Phone: 0114 2787211

Email: sheffield@blackwells.co.uk

Core Reading for English Literature modules

Let us turn now to literature. In the first semester you must take either ‘Renaissance to Revolution’ (which runs for the whole year) or ‘Contemporary Literature’ (which runs for the autumn semester), and the relevant core reading for these modules is listed below. We strongly recommend that you read texts before you get to Sheffield where possible. The editions detailed here will be the ones we use in class, so those are the best ones to use.

  • LIT120 Renaissance to Revolution

If you opt to take this module, most of the texts you study on will be available in the Norton Anthology of English Literature (Provided by the School of English) or via the module’s Virtual Learning Environment, which you will be able to access once you have registered as a student in September.

In addition, for the Spring Semester, you will need to buy the following texts (the prices are the recommended retail price, new, but you should be able to find cheaper and second-hand copies; see above, too, about Blackwell’s price-match promise):

  • Burney, Fanny, Evelina, ed. E.A. Bloom (Oxford World’s Classics, 2002), £8.99

  • Equiano, Olaudah, The Interesting Narrative, ed. Brycchan Carey (Oxford World’s Classics, 2018), £8.99


Below is a list of the texts that we’ll be studying on LIT120 across the two semesters. If you can find copies in your local library or on friends’ and relatives’ bookshelves, you may want to take a look at some of them before you arrive; many of the texts are also available via internet resources such as www.luminarium.org.


Autumn Semester (texts listed in the order in which we will study them)

  • John Donne, (selected poems)

  • Ben Jonson, Volpone

  • Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

  • Aemelia Lanyer, ‘The Description of Cookeham’ from Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum

  • Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander

  • Philip Sidney, extracts from Astrophil and Stella

  • John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

  • Mary Wroth extracts from ‘Pamphilia to Amphilanthus’


Spring Semester (texts listed in the order in which we will study them)

  • Aphra Behn, The Lucky Chance

  • Aphra Behn, Oronooko

  • Frances Burney, Evelina

  • Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative

  • Thomas Gray, ‘Elegy in a Country Churchyard’

  • Eliza Haywood, Fantomina

  • Andrew Marvell, selected poems, including ‘An Horatian Ode’

  • John Milton, Paradise Lost, Books 1, 2, 4, 9

  • Alexander Pope, Rape of the Lock (1712 edn; 2 cantos)


  • LIT117 Contemporary Literature

This module explores a diverse range of texts (prose, poetry, drama) with a focus on works published in English since 2000. In this module, we explore some of the most urgent and controversial issues of our times which might include: the climate emergency; identity politics; state violence and armed conflict; political activism and social justice; artificial intelligence and the post human; animal lives and ecology; migration and displacement.


If you are interested in this module, you might like to sample one or more of the following texts below or check out one of the episodes from the acclaimed series Underground Railroad (Amazon Prime Video, 2021):


    • Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Jonathan Cape, 2006) *

    • Jennifer Egan, “Black Box” (Available here https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/06/04/black-box-2 )

    • Ella Hickson, “Oil” (Nick Hern, 2016)*

    • Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts (Melville House, 2016) *

    • Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric (Penguin, 2015) *

    • Roger Robinson, A Portable Paradise (Peepal Tree, 2019)

    • Debbie tucker green, “Truth and Reconciliation” (2011)*

    • Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad (Doubleday, 2016)


Texts marked * are available for free in digital format via the University Library and there are multiple print copies of all of the texts in the Library. If you prefer to purchase your own print copies for personal use, you can buy any edition of the primary texts including second-hand versions. Blackwell’s University Bookshop will be offering a bundle price to match online retailers and secondary reading suggestions will be provided for each week on the module Blackboard site. The first text we will read is “Black Box” which you can access for free via the link above

Further Reading

Further Reading on Language

If you get through the basic reading recommended above, you might want ideas to take you further. If so, here they are! In the language components of the course, you will often hear people talking about ‘Linguistics’, the technical study of how languages work. For many of you, this may be the first time you have studied any Linguistics, especially if you did not take English Language at A-level. Therefore, the summer before you arrive is an ideal time to explore what Linguistics is all about. The following books are designed to give you an introductory overview of this subject, and have been written by some of the leading figures in the field.

These books will not be assigned as obligatory set texts for your modules and you should NOT rush out and buy them all. However, if you can get hold of at least some of them, we are confident they will provide an accessible and enjoyable insight into the kinds of things you will study as part of a degree that includes Language and Linguistics. We have indicated below each one what we think it has to offer.

  • Beal, Joan (2006) Language and Region. London: Routledge.

This provides a very accessible guide to the study of variation in British Englishes (it’s aimed

at A level students), and provides a gentle introduction to topics covered in the module

Varieties of English.

  • Crystal, D (2008) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 5th Edition. London:

Blackwell.

This ‘does what it says on the tin’, providing a useful reference guide for unfamiliar concepts

or terminology. Linguistics is a subject that tends to use rather a lot of specialist terminology,

which can take a while to get used to. One for Santa’s list?

  • Crystal, D (2010) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, 3rd Edition. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

This is a very general, but very comprehensive overview of contemporary linguistics. It is

useful as a reference book to look up unfamiliar concepts or areas of study, as well as a guide

to further reading. It is richly illustrated and written in a very accessible and engaging style by

one of the UK’s most famous linguists. Highly recommended.

  • Fromkin, Victoria., Rodman, Robert., & Hyams, Nina. (2013). An introduction to language (10th Edition). Cengage Learning.

This is a great overview of linguistics with chapters on all areas that you’ll study at Level 1 and

beyond. You’ll find it very useful as supplementary reading for Structure of English and

Sounds of English in your first year, and then find it gives you a useful overview of other

topics you’ll study in more advanced modules in years 2 and 3.

  • Harley, Trevor A. (2010). Talking the Talk: Language, Psychology and Science. Hove & New York: Psychology Press.

This provides a lively and accessible overview of some of the key topics in linguistics,

covering the uniqueness of human language; its structure, acquisition, geographical and

social variation, patterns of everyday usage, and its place in contemporary social debates.

  • Yule, G. (2010) The Study of Language, 4th Edition. London: Routledge.

Now in its fourth edition, this popular introductory text offers a very accessible overview of

key topics in linguistics. It covers the origins of language and the distinctiveness of human

versus animal communication. It provides a very digestible yet detailed introduction to the

sounds of language – how they are produced and how they form meaning. It provides a

similar overview of key aspects of grammar and word meaning, as well as the way speakers

make use of context to create and interpret meaning. The book also provides a solid

introduction to sociolinguistics (the study of language variation and change). Highly

recommended introductory text. animal communication. It provides a very digestible yet detailed introduction to the sounds of language – how they are produced and how they form meaning. It provides a similar overview of key aspects of grammar and word meaning, as well as the way speakers make use of context to create and interpret meaning. The book also provides a solid introduction to sociolinguistics (the study of language variation and change). A highly recommended introductory text.

Further Reading on Literature

One of the biggest challenges involved in reading English Literature at university is getting up to speed with the mythological, generic, and religious contexts that literary works past and present draw upon. You can be sure that the degree at Sheffield will give you knowledge and understanding of literature from the Renaissance to the present day, but our focus will naturally be on the particular texts studied on each course. We will always encourage you to read around these texts, but there might not always be time during the semester to absorb all the cultural sources that underlie them. The summer before you arrive is an ideal time to look to fill some of the gaps in your knowledge, and to read works from periods that you may not know from school or from your own reading. Many of you may not have studied Literature at A-level and so familiarising yourself with some literary texts would be good preparation for picking this study up again in your degree. You do not need to buy these books if you do not want to; your local library will be very happy to see you.

Sample some of the following:

· Classical literature in translation, e.g. Books 4 and/or 6 of Virgil’s Aeneid, a book or two of Ovid’s Metamorphoses; some of Homer’s Odyssey;

· A book or two of the Bible (King James translation recommended), e.g. Genesis, Psalms, one of the books of the New Testament (e.g. Gospel according to John, Mark, Matthew, or Luke; the Acts of the Apostles);

· Some medieval literature (e.g. some of Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, such as Book 1, on the birth and rise of Arthur, ‘Tristan and Iseult’, or ‘Lancelot and Guinevere’).

· If you can, go to the theatre to watch some Renaissance or Restoration drama.

· Read an early novel and compare it with a version on TV or film (e.g. Lawrence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and Cock and Bull Story, dir. Michael Winterbottom; Henry Fielding, Tom Jones and the 1997 TV series, or 1963 film, dir. Tony Richardson)

The degree programme at Sheffield also gives you the opportunity to study film. See what you think of the BBC’s list of the twenty-first-century’s best films:

(http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160819-the-21st-centurys-100-greatest-films).

If you have not seen them before, check out Memento (2000), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Fish Tank (2009), Coriolanus (2011), Wuthering Heights (2011), Mad Max Fury Road (2014), Victoria (2015), Lady Bird (2017).


Have a wonderful summer, and we’ll see you in September!