BA History of Art with English Literature

Art History provides a first-class rounded education and excellent intellectual training. While the primary focus is on the visual arts, the subject also touches on many other traditional humanities disciplines such as literature, history, religion, languages, classics, psychology and philosophy, with which it provides natural subject combinations. Students acquire skills of critical and historical analysis and the ability to evaluate evidence and present arguments fluently, both orally and in writing.The English Literature minor complements the critical and interpretive approaches in art history through the analysis and assessment of selected topics in the subject. The study of literature engages with aspects of cultural context, style, expression and formal values comparable to those with which art history is concerned, and literary sources inform, influence and often inspire the visual imagination. At the same time, the visual arts have exerted influences on writers, and in both literature and the fine arts critical values and writing are often closely related. Ideas in art and literature share comparable sources and complementary values which inform understanding and interpretation, and valuable comparisons can be made between different vehicles and media of communication.