English Literature BA (Hons)

What you'll study

Excited to learn more? For a taster of what you can expect to study on our English Literature degree, take a sneak preview of some of the modules you may have the opportunity to study below. You will need to study 120 credits each year, 60 credits in each semester.

The information below reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. Updates may be made on an annual basis and revised details will be published through Programme Specifications ahead of each academic year. Please see Terms and Conditions of Study for more information.

• Year 1
• Year 2
• Final year

Year 1

Our core and optional modules will introduce you to all aspects of the subject and provide you with the skills you need for the rest of your degree studies. The texts you will study are from the Renaissance period to the twenty-first century, and you will read many different forms of literature, learn key theoretical approaches to the material, and develop your skills in close reading, oral communication and essay-writing.

In the first year, you will choose one optional module.

Semester 1

Exploring Language and Linguistics Core

Exploring Language and Linguistics

This module will introduce you to some of the most important aspects of Linguistics, including grammar and syntax, and the history and formation of the English language. This will develop your skills in reading, evaluating - and creating - different kinds of written and spoken texts. A fascinating subject area, and highly useful learning.

Analysing Poetry: Metre, Form and Meaning Core

Analysing Poetry: Metre, Form and Meaning

This module aims to develop your skills in poetic close reading and will introduce you to a variety of forms and genres (including the sonnet, elegy and dramatic monologue).

We will discuss poetry from a wide range of literary periods, from the Renaissance to the present day.

Narrative Forms and Fiction Core

Narrative Forms and Fiction

Narrative forms and fiction allows you to explore the concept of narrative over a range of genres and time periods, including the study of film as well as short stories, memoir and fiction. Find out how narrative works and, if you wish, try your hand at creating your own stories, screenplays and even graphic novels

Semester 2

Literary and Critical Theories Core

Literary and Critical Theories

The module introduces significant classic and contemporary theoretical approaches and key concepts used in the study of literature today, from which you’ll draw throughout your English degree. Explore themes such as Gender and Sexuality, Fantasy and Dreams, and Power and Protest - and apply them to your own interpretations of literary texts.

Writing in History Core

Writing in History

This module will provide you with an outline of English literary history from the late medieval period to the early 20th century. You will discover how various ‘timeless’ literary texts reflect the historical context which produced them, often in surprising and complex ways, while also gaining an overview of the dominant movements and periods of English literature.

Elephants and Engines: An Introduction to Creative Writing Optional

Elephants and Engines: An Introduction to Creative Writing

This module will introduce you to techniques for writing fiction and poetry. These include imagery, character and location - allowing you to write in whatever form or genre you wish, and on any subject matter. Practical workshops and examples from contemporary literature will help you to write, and to develop your writing strengths.

How to do Things with Digital Texts Optional

How to do Things with Digital Texts

This module addresses the ways in which the digital revolution is changing literary studies, and enables you to use digital resources to aid and expand your close reading skills. You’ll also learn how to create your own innovative versions of texts using tools such as Juxta and desktop publishing software.

Introduction to Film Optional

Introduction to Film

This module will introduce you to the approaches, skills and vocabularies essential for the analysis of film. We will consider stylistic and formal elements, cinematic authorship and stardom, and issues of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, covering films of diverse periods and genres.

Year 2

Our combination of core and optional modules will introduce you to all aspects of the subject and provide you with the skills you need for the rest of your degree studies. The texts you will study are from the Renaissance period to the twenty-first century, and you will read many different forms of literature, learn key theoretical approaches to the material, and develop your skills in close reading, oral communication and essay-writing.

In the second year you will need to choose three core modules and three optional modules.

Semester 1

Renaissance Writings (pre-1800) Core

Renaissance Writings (pre-1800)

A fascinating insight into the literary forms and texts of the Renaissance. As well as a range of texts from the Elizabethan period to the Civil War, you’ll look at historical and cultural contexts, in order to understand what these writers are doing in this period of transformation - including the controversy and power of their writing.

Victorian Literature (post-1800) Core

Victorian Literature (post-1800)

On this module you will examine in detail some of the important novels and poems of the Victorian period. We will consider these works in relation to the social and cultural contexts of the nineteenth century, including class, gender, sexuality, religion and science.

Chivalry from Chaucer to Shakespeare Optional

Chivalry from Chaucer to Shakespeare

Discover and explore the codes of chivalry represented in the behaviour of knights in love, justice, and war from the medieval to the early modern period. Authors studied typically include Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Malory, Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare.

Introduction to Linguistics Optional

Introduction to Linguistics

How can we use language to describe and explain the structure and functions of language? Learn how to analyse written texts, film and television by examining the theories of language and applying them to contemporary examples.

Nineteenth Century American Literature and Culture Optional

Nineteenth Century American Literature and Culture

In this period, the United States developed in terms of culture, economy, population - and ambition. This module will examine how writers of poetry, fiction and theatre depicted the events of this century, including the American Civil War, poverty and gender roles. If you want to understand the United States today, start here.

The Weird Tale Optional

The Weird Tale

The module aims to explore the development of the Weird Tale in Britain and the US from the late nineteenth century onwards, attempting to define the form, to examine its history, and to engage critically with its preoccupations.

Semester 2

Eighteenth-Century Literature (pre-1800) Core

Eighteenth-Century Literature (pre-1800)

This module will introduce you to a range of texts from the period 1700-1830. We will discuss them within their original cultural and historical contexts, including revolution, Romanticism and the Gothic.

Modernisms (post-1800) Core

Modernisms (post-1800)

This module is an introduction to the diversity of literary movements, ideas, and concepts grouped under the term 'Modernism'. You will study a range of texts, both fiction and poetry, produced in the early twentieth century when a number of writers broke with tradition and sought new ways of depicting the rapidly changing world around them.

African American Culture Optional

African American Culture

On this module you will explore the complex formal and political questions raised by African American cultural expression produced between 1845 and the present. We will study a wide range of forms and media - literary, cinematic and musical - situating these in their shifting historical contexts, from the nineteenth-century American South to the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement.

America at War Optional

America at War

America has been involved in major military conflicts in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries: World War 1, World War II, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War. This module addresses war writing including the novel, poetry, drama, film, music, photo-journalism, and non-fiction. It enables you to develop critical awareness of the myriad ways in which writers and film-makers have responded to and imagined warfare.

Arts Management Optional

Arts Management

This module covers a range of issues related to arts management including: the economic and political landscape for the arts and creative industries, careers in arts management, funding for the arts, establishing and running an arts-based organisation, arts programming, curating, audience and customer development, finance and fundraising, marketing, time management and project management.

Creative Dissent: Protest, Activism and Art Optional

Creative Dissent: Protest, Activism and Art

This module identifies and addresses the central concepts, terminologies and debates concerning the relationship between art, activism and politics within society through a series of 20th-century and contemporary case studies. Be part of an online blogging community, work collaboratively and develop a reflexive approach to establishing your own perspective on socially engaged and activist forms of cultural practice.

From Print to Digital: Publishing Revolutions Optional

From Print to Digital: Publishing Revolutions

This module provides multiple perspectives on publishing and the spread of ideas through print and the digital in society, and on key concepts and ideas from the publishing world. It traces significant changes that have taken place in the book trade since the invention of printing to the digital revolution and to explore the challenges and opportunities arising from these changes.

Material Culture Optional

Material Culture

Optional module taught by Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies, focusing on the concept of physical and virtual objects. The ideas of consumption and possession are explored, including the notion of the body as a material thing and the nature of gift and exchange.

Philosophy, Literature and the Arts Optional

Philosophy, Literature and the Arts

On this module you will read and discuss some of the key ideas in philosophy that are central to literary study and theory, and to the discussion of art and its role in our lives and societies. We will be examining these alongside a selection of literary texts and visual art (sculpture, painting and photography) which pose, incorporate or illustrate philosophical ideas and questions.

Women's Writing in the Seventeenth Century Optional

Women's Writing in the Seventeenth Century

On this module you will explore a range of writing by women from England in the seventeenth century. The political events of this century enabled women to publish in unprecedented numbers and ways. The module will equip you with a greater appreciation of the type of writing women undertook, and an ability to situate this work in its historical context.

Children’s Reading Optional

Children’s Reading

This module emphasises the social and cognitive importance of reading for child development. It surveys the historical development of reading material for children, and enables you to critically assess the range of sources currently available to them including new and online media.

Communicating Knowledge Optional

Communicating Knowledge

An introduction to the academic publishing sector in which you’ll develop an understanding of the different cultural characteristics and patterns of communication across STM (Science, Technology and Medicine), and the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. The module covers major recent trends in academic publishing and sets academic publishing and scholarly communication in the wider context of science in society, including the way in which science is represented in the media.

Modern Irish Literature Optional

Modern Irish Literature

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Despite its size and relative isolation, Ireland has an enormously rich literary heritage, particularly in the twentieth century, with no fewer than four Nobel prize winners