Welcome to English and Creative Writing

The Department of English, Creative Writing, and Australian Studies is a department in the School of Humanities which is in the Faculty of Education, Humanities, Law and Theology .

Department Office: Room 253 Humanities (campus map)

English

English can be taken as a major sequence within the Bachelor of Arts.

WHY STUDY ENGLISH?

The study of literature can assist students to think critically and creatively:

• It trains students in the ability to shape their opinions with a real sense of human consequences.
• It offers an understanding of the nature and power of literature, and the way texts may shape attitudes to race, to gender, and to social and economic relationships.
• It enhances the ability to present views clearly and persuasively, and to analyse the arguments of others.

Few literatures are as rich and diverse as literature in the English language, and we explore this in many topics offered by the Flinders University department of English, Creative Writing, and Australian Studies.

COURSE OVERVIEW

A major sequence in English as part of the BA consists of 9 units of first-year English topics and a choice of English topics making up 12 units at each of the second and third year levels.

Topics in First Year review a wide range of texts and periods in literature, from Shakespeare to contemporary writing. Emphasis is given to students’ development of skills in written expression and critical approaches to texts.

In Second and Third Years students may choose from topics ranging from sixteenth-century literature through to twenty-first century literature; topics that focus on life writing and ones that examine the transposition of literature to the screen.

ENGL1003 Imagined Worlds: Approaches to Literature
ENGL1001 Professional English
ENGL1011 Professional English in Law
ENGL1013 Professional English for Teachers
ENGL2007 Professional Writing

ENGL2104 Shakespeare

ENGL2111 Adaptations: Reading Texts and Film
ENGL2260 Twenty-first Century Literature

ENGL2410 Life Writing

ENGL2420 The Anglo-Saxon World

ENGL2508 Crime Fiction and Film

For more information about courses offered in English please see our First Year Handbook (PDF 152KB)   and Second and Third Year Handbook (PDF 163KB) (updated 18/1/2010). 

Creative Writing

Creative writing can be taken as a major sequence within the Bachelor of Arts. Flinders also offers a Bachelor of Creative Arts, which includes a Creative Writing stream designed for students already planning a career in the arts and communication industries. With the Creative writing major, pathways exist for students to move from undergraduate study in writing to a Graduate Diploma or Master of Creative Arts or research MA and PhD.

WHY STUDY CREATIVE WRITING?

The study of creative writing helps students develop the creative, practical, critical and collaborative skills necessary to pursue a career in the communication and creative industries or to advance to Honours or higher degree study. These core skills will be complemented by the skills and knowledge acquired by students taking related literary studies topics in addition to those in other BA disciplines. The major, then, will develop flexible, independent thinkers capable of analysing problems from different perspectives and of critical evaluation of their own and their peers’ work.

Graduating creative writing majors will be able to demonstrate a variety of skills and will have a portfolio of their creative achievements that will make them attractive to employers in the arts and communication industries. In conjunction with an English or other BA major, it will prepare them to be trained as teachers.

Creative Writing topic offerings range from Short Stories and Their Writers, Writing for Children, Fiction for Young Readers, and Travel Writing, through to Life Writing  and Writing and Designing for the Web.

ENGL1007 Short Stories and their Writers

ENGL2300 Writing for Children
ENGL2007 Professional Writing

ENGL2301 The Craft of Poetry

ENGL2410 Life Writing: Reading and Writing the Self
ENGL2503 Introduction to Creative Writing
ENGL2600 Publishing & Editing

For more information about courses offered in Creative Writing please link to our CW Handbook 2010 (PDF 280KB)

Information about the annual Zoopoetry competition, sponsored by ZoosSA and Flinders University, can also be found at http://www.zoossa.com.au/home/zoopoetry