Fantasy (Q3208)

15 credits, Level 6

Autumn teaching

This module is about creating our own portals into other worlds. Through a combination of craft workshops and lectures from across the faculty, you’ll explore fantasy’s power to estrange, enchant and illuminate.

How does fantasy blur with adjacent genres like science fiction, horror or romance? Is fantasy fiction a peripheral subgenre, or the mainstream of literary and cultural production, from ancient myths and folktales to today’s blockbuster dragons and superheroes? When we enter fantasy worlds, are we escaping the real world, or discovering new ways to understand the real world? With its frequent obsessions with kings and nobles, Chosen Ones, and fallen empires, is fantasy an inherently conservative or reactionary genre – or can fantasy be a force for radical change?

We’ll explore all kinds of fantasy, including:

  • epic ‘secondary world’ fantasy
  • urban fantasy
  • dark fantasy
  • magic realism
  • tales of the everyday with an extra edge of dreaminess.

Teaching

33%: Lecture
67%: Practical (Workshop)

Assessment

30%: Practical (Portfolio)
70%: Written assessment (Project)

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 267 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We鈥檙e planning to run these modules in the academic year 2026/27. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We鈥檒l make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

Courses

This module is offered on the following courses: