BA (Hons) English Literature and Media

In your first year, a core Literature module will equip you to read and interpret both traditional and contemporary literary texts critically as a scholar of English literature. Alongside this you can choose to revisit Shakespeare and consider his cultural relevance today through fictional, cinematic and TV adaptations; or to deepen your understanding of Gothic writing by tracing its origins back to the Romantic era. Core media modules introduce you to media and visual communications. You’ll gain an understanding of the basic processes and technical skills of media production. This includes key concepts and theories of media cultures, including media bias and media effects and learning how to use text and graphics to reach key audiences using different types of software.

In your second year, your ability to work as an effective and confident researcher is honed across both disciplines. In Media you’ll learn about research methods in the communications industry. Plus, there are practical opportunities to learn about publishing, and radio. You get to follow your own interests while you are conducting interviews or focus groups, writing blogs, articles, features or copy, creating magazine layouts or putting together a podcast or video. This might be food, film, travel, politics, lifestyle, or sports. You are encouraged to be creative and think independently. In your English Literature modules you’ll focus on period-based literature from the Renaissance onwards and gain an understanding of literary history, from Elizabethan verse and drama, via Augustan poetry and the emergence of the novel in the 18th century, to the radical transformations of the Victorian age, and the emergence of modernity in the twentieth century. You’ll also have the opportunity to consider ways of reading that go beyond textual analysis or historical context, such as understanding literature through the political or ideological lens of Marxism, feminism and post-colonial theory.