E301 looks at creativity in the English language: what it is, how we recognise it and how to theorise and analyse it. We consider how ‘verbal art’ works in a wide range of texts, from everyday language (conversation, children’s language, letter writing, internet chat) to the ‘high culture’ language of literature.
topE301 The art of English is a course for those interested in English language, linguistics and literature. As this is a Level 3 course, you should have some experience of study in at least one of these. Please see the E301 course description for an overview of the course content and other information regarding entry level, course materials, and qualifications which it can count towards.
For information on topics such as choosing a course, studying with the OU, and general advice on preparing to study your first OU course, visit our New to the OU website.
Get an idea of what E301 is about by reading the document below.
A central view of this course is that creativity is an everyday aspect of how people use the English language and not just the preserve of ‘high art’. This extract by Joan Swann, taken from the start of the first course book, provides an overview of this position. There is an activity for you to try out and this is followed by Joan’s comment on it.
We are exposed to creative uses of language almost from the moment we are born and as infants we exhibit efforts to join in the fun. In this unit Julia Gillen examines different approaches to young children’s creative use of language. In addition to the extract below, which looks at the origins of creative speech, Julia covers such topics as early story-telling, language play in and out of school, make-believe, play in a multilingual society, and children’s lore.
Texting, email, chat-rooms and blogs all offer new forms of communication. Sarah North looks at the influence of communication technologies on how we use language creatively. She discusses attitudes to the impact of texting on spelling, for example. In other parts of the unit she examines who decides on such matters as email style, how text-speak has been used to make poetry, discourse in teen chat rooms, and online identities.
This extract comes from the beginning of the second course book, ‘The art of English; literary creativity’. Janet Maybin and Michael Pearce discuss what it is that makes a text literary. They introduce three important approaches: the ‘inherency approach’, the ‘sociocultural approach’ and the ‘cognitive approach’. In the extract you will find out a little about the ‘inherency approach’, which we hope will whet your appetite to find out more.
In this unit Kieran O’Halloran explores how plot and characterisation are used to produce literary effects. In this extract, the focus is on heroes and villains. In the rest of the unit he focuses on plot structure, character, grammatical analysis, and the use of computers to analyse texts.
“Such is Our Pride, our Folly, or our Fate,
That few but such as cannot write, Translate.”
These words by Sir John Denham (1615-1659) open this unit written by Anna Magyar on the art of translation. In this extract she discusses the dilemma translators face between translating the words and translating the meanings, which is by no means a straightforward matter as the examples of machine translation demonstrate. In the rest of the unit Anna discusses such topics as how texts embody cultural meanings, the difficulty of finding creative equivalences between languages, translation and cultural politics, and the role of the audience.
This is a Level 3 course. Level 3 courses build on study skills and subject knowledge acquired from studies at Levels 1 and 2. They are intended only for students who have recent experience of higher education in a related subject, preferably with the OU. You are expected to have some knowledge of language study, and the course is particularly appropriate if you have taken our course ‘Exploring the English Language’ (U211) (or the discontinued course U210). If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
topOnce you have registered on a course you will have access to Learning with the OU at www.open.ac.uk/learning. This link provides information on topics such as getting started, study strategies, personal and career development, planning studies and moving on.
