BA English and United States Literature

University of Essex

Bachelor's degree

In Colchester

£ 9,250 + VAT

The best English courses

See all

See all

Description

  • Type

    Bachelor's degree

  • Location

    Colchester

  • Duration

    3 Years

About the course
What is US literature? What makes writing in the US different from other writing in the English language? We begin to answer these questions through exploring the classic texts which established US literature as a distinct tradition, uncovering the issues which are associated with doing so; nowhere is the complex society and culture of the United States better reflected than in its novels, poetry and drama


Essex has always been a major centre for American Studies, and our expertise across literature, film, art, history and politics allows you to unravel and understand the complexities of US society and the American dream

You explore nationalism and regionalism, as well as conflicts of race, gender and religion at the heart of US history and culture

Through this you uncover the deep interconnections in the evolution of US writing and American identities


Discover the literature of the USA from the early realism of Mark Twain and the slave narrative of Frederick Douglass, through the experimental work of Hemingway and Faulkner, to contemporary authors such as Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison

You also cover the English literary canon from Shakespeare and his contemporaries through to twentieth-century literature


Your reading can take you beyond the US and Britain to the rest of the Americas and Europe; at Essex you don’t just study English Literature, you study world literature in English

This means that you can study a truly diverse range of topics, including:
Caribbean writing in relation to European and US texts
Early modern European literature
Translating novels for the screen
Creative use of social media
Modernist cityscapes
Our course offers a varied, flexible and distinctive curriculum, focused on the study of US and English literature, but also enabling you to take options from the other courses within our Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies including creative writing, filmmaking, journalism and drama

Facilities

Location

Start date

Colchester (Essex)
See map
Wivenhoe Park, CO4 3SQ

Start date

On request

Questions & Answers

Add your question

Our advisors and other users will be able to reply to you

Who would you like to address this question to?

Fill in your details to get a reply

We will only publish your name and question

Reviews

Subjects

  • Writing
  • Drama
  • Teaching
  • English
  • Global
  • Comparative Literature
  • Modern Literature

Course programme

Example structure
Studying at Essex is about discovering yourself, so your course combines compulsory and optional modules to make sure you gain key knowledge in the discipline, while having as much freedom as possible to explore your own interests. Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field, therefore to ensure your course is as relevant and up-to-date as possible your core module structure may be subject to change.
For many of our courses you’ll have a wide range of optional modules to choose from – those listed in this example structure are just a selection of those available. The opportunity to take optional modules will depend on the number of core modules within any year of the course. In many instances, the flexibility to take optional modules increases as you progress through the course.
Our Programme Specification gives more detail about the structure available to our current first-year students, including details of all optional modules.
Year 1
Understanding Employability: Preparing for Your Future
Literature: Origins and Transformations
Introduction to United States Literature
Close Reading Skills
Introduction to European Literature (optional)
The Enlightenment (optional)
Year 2
United States Literature Since 1850
Approaches to Text
Early Modern Literature (optional)
Alternative Americas: Independent Film (optional)
Introduction to Caribbean Literature (optional)
Final year
Post-War(s) United States Fiction (optional)
The Imagined South (optional)
Transatlantic Romanticisms (optional)
"There is a Continent Outside My Window" : United States and Caribbean Literatures in Dialogue (optional)
Year abroad
On your year abroad, you have the opportunity to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised. The rest of your course remains identical to the three-year degree.
Teaching
Teaching will mainly take the form of lectures and classes of about 20 students
Innovative ways of engaging with texts include editing 16th century sonnets and archival research
A typical timetable involves a one-hour lecture and a one-hour class for each of your modules every week
Assessment
Your final mark for each module is determined half by coursework and half by examination
A mark for class participation is included in your coursework mark
Previous
Next

Additional information

We are ranked top 20 in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2015), and our students are some of the happiest in the country; we are consistently ranked among the top in the UK for student satisfaction Study abroad Your education extends beyond the university campus We support you extending your education by providing the option of an additional year at no extra cost The four-year version of our degree allows you to spend the third year studying abroad or employed on a placement, while otherwise remaining identical to the three-year course Our Department has an exchange scheme with universities in the U S , as well as in Denmark, France, Finland, Greece, Germany, Spain and Italy through the ERASMUS programme This provides our students with the opportunity to view the world, and literature, from another perspective Studying abroad also allows you to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised Placement year When you arrive at Essex, you can decide whether you would like to combine your course with a placement year You will be responsible for finding your placement, but with support and guidance provided by both your department and our Employability and Careers Centre Our expert staff At Essex, we have an impressive literary legacy Our history comprises staff (and students) who have shaped writing as we know it and has included Nobel Prize winners, Booker Prize winners, and Pulitzer Prize winners Our Department is a vibrant conservatoire of scholars and practitioners who are committed to unlocking creative personal responses to literature, offering talented students the support and confidence to respond both critically and artistically to academic study This distinctive environment is possible because we are a community of award-winning novelists, poets and playwrights, as well as leading literature...

See related categories

BA English and United States Literature

£ 9,250 + VAT

The best English courses

See all

See all