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English Literature and Creative Writing: Books

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The University of Manchester Library is home to a significant collection of books for English Literature and Creative Writing.

E-book Spotlight

Front cover of A Guide to Creative Writing and the Imagination

A Guide to Creative Writing and the Imagination

Teaching creative writing for the multicultural, global, and digital generation, this volume offers a fresh approach for enhancing core writing skills in the major forms of Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Drama. Creative Writing and the Imagination aims to provide students with organic, active learning through imitation and examples which not only emphasize writing and reading but look to other art forms for inspiration. This volume's key features include: Strengthening key underlying capabilities of what we mean by imagination: physical and mental alertness, clarity of perception, listening skills, attention to detail, sustained concentration, lateral thinking, and enhanced memory. Taking direction from other art forms such as African American musical improvisation, Brancusi's sculptural idea of "finding form," key idea from drawing such as foreground, background, and negative space-and some of the great lessons learned from National Geographic photography. Incorporating techniques drawn from unusual sources such as advertising, military intelligence, ESL, working with the blind, stage magic, and oral traditions of remote indigenous cultures in Oceania and Africa. The work is intended for a global English market as core or supplementary text at the undergraduate level and as a supporting frame at the M.F.A. level (Provided by publisher).

Front cover of Insufferable: Beckett, Gender and Sexuality

Insufferable: Beckett, Gender and Sexuality

Insufferable: Beckett, Gender and Sexuality rethinks the role of gender politics in the oeuvre, demonstrates Beckett's historical importance in the development of the 'antisocial thesis' in queer theory, and shows the work's attachment to sexuality as temporarily consolatory but ultimately unbearable. The Beckett oeuvre might seem unpromising material for gender and sexuality studies, but this is exactly what makes it worth considering. This Element brings to Beckett questions that have emerged from gender, queer, and trans theory, engages with the history of feminism and sexuality studies, and develops a theoretical framework able to account for what we have previously overlooked, underplayed, and misinterpreted in Beckett. In the spirit of being 'on the lookout for an elsewhere', it makes a case for a queerly generative de-idealisation of Beckett as an object of critical study (Provided by Publisher).

This title was acquired through the Library's Order a Book service.

Locating and borrowing books

You can use Library Search to search for both print and eBooks as well as a range of other resources including articles, journals, and databases.

Guide to printed collections

The Library uses the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme (Dewey for short) to arrange books and other resources on the shelves so you can locate them easily.

The vast majority of books relating to English Literature and Creative Writing and related subjects can be found in the Main Library

 

Subject Areas Classmark(s) Location
English and medieval languages 420 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 2
Literature, rhetoric and criticism 800 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
Rhetoric and collections of literature (incl. creative writing) 808 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
English and medieval literatures 820 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
English poetry 821 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
English drama 822 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
English fiction  823 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
English essays 824 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
English speeches 825 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
English letters 826 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
English humour & satire 827 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
English miscellaneous writings 828 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
Old and middle English literature 829 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
Philosophy and theory of history 901 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 3
Recreational and performing arts 790 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 4
Public performances 791 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 4
Stage performances 792 Main Library - Blue Area - Floor 4

 

More information: Locating books on shelves

For help with finding your way around the Main Library, please use our new Interactive Map.

Course reading lists

You can access your course reading lists in Blackboard: 

Access your Reading Lists

Reading Lists

E-book collections

The Library provides access to numerous e-book collections that host many titles relating to English Literature & Creative Writing and other subjects. Follow this link to browse different collections you can explore to find e-books relating to your studies. 

E-book collections

E-book collections

Order a Book

If the Library doesn't already hold a copy of the book you need, fill in the Order a Book form and we will get it for you.

University staff should use the Order a Book (Staff) form.

Order a Book

Theses and dissertations

Theses can be a valuable source of information for your research and are very useful points of reference for when you come to write your own thesis.

For detailed information on how to access theses from the University of Manchester, and from other universities in the UK and internationally, please visit our Theses Library Guide

 

Theses

 

 

Doctoral/Research Theses

  • Electronic versions of many open-access University of Manchester research theses, submitted from the 2010 session onwards, are available on Research Explorer, the University of Manchester’s research database.

 

Theses from other UK/International Institutions

  • ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global (PQDT Global)

    A searchable and browsable database of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day. It also offers full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997. It contains a significant amount of new international dissertations and theses both in citations and in full text. Designated as an official offsite repository for the U.S. Library of Congress, PQDT Global offers comprehensive historic and ongoing coverage for North American works and significant and growing international coverage from a multiyear program of expanding partnerships with international universities and national associations.

Creative Commons Licence This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence.