BA English Literature (4 Years Including Foundation Year)

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 0
Political and Social Theory From Plato to the Present Day
An Introduction to the History of the United Kingdom During the Twentieth Century
Major Writers in English Literature
Academic Skills
Western Philosophy: Fundamental Questions, Major Thinkers
Year 1
Critical Writing: The Essay
Literature: Origins and Transformations
Close Reading Skills
Understanding Employability: Preparing for Your Future
Creative Writing Skills (optional)
The Enlightenment (optional)
Contemporary Texts and Contexts
Writing for the Radio (optional)
Year 2
Early Modern Literature
Versions of Modernity
Approaches to Text
United States Literature Since 1850 (optional)
Final year
Romanticism: Poetry and Prose (optional)
The Victorians: Writers and Society (optional)
Expanding the Caribbean (optional)
Dreaming and Writing (optional)
Shakespeare and the History Play (optional)
The History Play After Shakespeare (optional)
Arthurian Literature (optional)
Hollywood Directors (optional)
Teaching
Innovative ways of engaging with texts include editing 16th century sonnets and archival research
Your teaching mainly takes the form of lectures and classes, the latter involving about 20 students
A typical timetable includes a one-hour lecture and a one-hour class for each of your four modules every week
Any language classes involve language laboratory sessions
Our classes are run in small groups, so you receive a lot of individual attention
Assessment
Your assessed coursework will generally consist of essays, reports, in-class tests, book reports, individual or group oral presentations, and small scale research projects
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