Course Details in 2026/27 Session

Module Title	LH Digital Witness: Stories of Surveillance
School	Eng, Drama, & Creative Studies
Department	English Literature
Module Code	09 30613
Module Lead	Dorothy Butchard
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	We are often reminded that our lives are being recorded. Whether strolling through a city or scrolling through a webpage, individuals are increasingly likely to be subject to official or unofficial monitoring, while data revealed by movements, actions, clicks, swipes, or shares may be stored indefinitely in spaces beyond our control. Does it matter? And what might help us decide? This module explores experiences of surveillance through the tales we tell about them, looking at the evolution of surveillance in fact and fiction from George Orwell’s totalitarian Big Brother to present-day understandings of Big Data. We will focus on the work of authors, theorists, artists and activists who have anticipated, influenced or resisted surveillance practices over the past hundred years, situating contemporary texts alongside earlier precursors to trace shifting perceptions in literature, film, theory and digital cultures. Over the course of the module, students will encounter a range of aesthetic and theoretical responses to the possibilities of political, social or corporate surveillance, placing these accounts in the context of sociopolitical tensions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Texts on this module will be studied for their fascination with questions of privacy, identity, control and secrecy, and may include writing by Margaret Atwood, JG Ballard, Octavia Butler, Philip K. Dick, Ursula le Guin and China Miéville alongside film and digital works. With key topics including gender and the gaze, self-surveillance, dystopian futures, biosurveillance, and the impact of monitoring on the human body and psyche, this module asks what stories can reveal about the effects of surveillance in culture and society.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: demonstrate understanding of how surveillance has been represented and interrogated in literary and artistic forms from the early twentieth century to the present day. engage with relevant theoretical debates, showing evidence of a sense of historical developments and awareness of specific approaches in surveillance studies. analyse creative responses to surveillance and mass observation, with reference to critical, philosophical and theoretical interpretations studied on the module. discuss how creative representations of surveillance relate to real-world technologies, particularly the arrival of digital technologies in the past thirty years.
Assessment	30613-01 : 4,000 Word Essay : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: 4,000 word essay (100%) Reassessment: 4,000 word essay (100%)
Other
Reading List