This subject aims to build the skills of reading, interpretation and theoretical and contextual analysis that are critical to the study of literary texts, skills that define scholarship in the discipline of English. Focusing on a sustained and careful study of a small number of literary texts the subject provides an in-depth exploration of technical approaches to close reading, cultural and historical contexts for the production and reception of the texts, and different theoretical approaches to their interpretation. The selected primary texts (one novel, one play and a selection of poems) will span two or three literary/historical periods.