BA (Hons) English Literature

International students can apply
Overseas study available

This course offers you the opportunity to study English literature in considerable depth and breadth, including a wide range of texts and genres ranging from Shakespearean drama to American literature or contemporary poetry. In your modules you will learn to analyse and criticise prose, poetry and plays and work independently to research areas of interest. In addition to the range of literature based options, you will also have the opportunity to choose modules that complement your study but range further afield in the areas of languages, film adaptation or creative writing.

Course Structure

Year 1

Year 1 serves as an introduction to the study of English Literature at University level. You will be taught to analyse texts from a variety of genres and use a range of literary and theoretical concepts.

Year 2

Year 2 modules include two core and four option choices. The two core modules focus on Romantic and Victorian Literature and in these you will develop your analysis of aesthetic strategies, style and form, and examine texts in relation to social and historical context. Both modules emphasise close reading and you will be able to work with a variety of genres. You will also be able to choose four other modules from the range of options across the year or if you prefer, replace one with a foreign language option. You also have the opportunity to participate in European exchanges.

Year 3

Year 3 modules more advanced specialist modules and again there are two core modules and four options. At this level, we encourage you to develop independence of mind in critically assessing secondary and theoretical sources. The core modules continue to emphasise close analysis, but encourage an advanced engagement with theoretical concepts and their relevance to the literature. You also have the opportunity to write a dissertation at this level.

Year 1 Core modules

Narrative, Fiction and the Novel

This module examines the history of narrative, from early texts such as Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, to postmodern writers such as Jeanette Winterson. We trace the development of narrative strategies, and cultural themes such as gender and class.

Critical Practice

An introduction to the key study skills on which you will build during your course, including research, referencing, close reading, essay-writing and presentations.

Literary and Cultural Theory

Theories such as psychoanalysis and concepts such as gender are used to explore social and cultural issues raised by a range of works from modern literature.

Introduction to Poetry

A broad survey of historical periods and genres, which prepares you for the study of poetry at degree level, from Shakespearean sonnets to linguistically innovative 21st Century poetry and many points in-between.

Culture, Power and Identity

This module encourages you to think about cultural and social issues raised by the study of literature, and of the relationships between author, text and society.

Introduction to Drama

A broad survey of historical periods and genres, which prepares you for the study of drama at degree level, from Shakespeare's plays to contemporary performance and many points in-between.

Year 2 Core modules

The Romantic Period (Core module)

The Romantic period (c. 1780-1820) was a time of revolution when radical writers began to argue for the natural rights of mankind. This module considers themes including nature, the sublime, childhood, nationhood, empire, and the self within their historical and cultural context, paying close attention to the language of the texts themselves.

Victorian Literature (Core module)

This module considers the relationship of 19th Century writing to issues including class, culture, empire, urban experience, women's writing, decadence and identity. You will gain an appreciation of the diversity of 19th Century literary, social, intellectual, and political activities and reassess received ideas about the Victorians.

Year 2 Optional Modules may include:

Choose four from

Issues In Adaptation 1: Literature On Stage and Screen

The comparative roles of author, screenwriter and director as well as issues such as genre and conditions of production will inform our explorations in scenography, music, and sound production, particularly in relation to communicating complex narrative description and the manipulation of time and space in writing and in film.

Creative Writing

This module offers the opportunity to develop your creative skills, and to deepen your understanding of various genres of writing. Via workshops we will explore genres such as the haiku, short fiction and creative themes such as 'the city'. You will then have the opportunity to practise these genres in your own work.

Introduction to Children's literature

You will become acquainted with the history of children's literature and 21st and 20th Century texts produced for children from pre-reading infants up to early teens. You will be given the opportunity to analyse such texts.

Writing for Performance (Theatre)

Classes are focused on helping you to develop your work via discussion with the tutor and classmates, exploration of craft and techniques used by professional writers, and optional sharing of work. You will meet leading theatre professionals during the module, and at its conclusion you will have a play ready to send out to theatres.

Cinema and Psychoanalysis

This module introduces you to psychoanalysis by way of cinema and to cinema by way of psychoanalysis. It will ask whether key Freudian methods (such as dream interpretation), concepts (phantasy, fetishism, wish fulfilment) and narratives (the Oedipus and castration complexes) can illuminate a series of Hollywood and non-Hollywood films.

Monstrous Bodies

Using a range of texts and genres from the 1790s to the 1890s, this module will consider the importance of the physical human body, in health and sickness. Examining the historical context in which these texts were written, we will look at such topics as medical treatments, drug use, pregnancy, disability, physical strength, race, and gender.

British Writers And Popular Culture From The 1930s to 1980s

We will analyse the histories and meanings of terms such as 'culture', 'popular culture', 'mass culture', 'highbrow' and 'literary'. These terms will be used to investigate a wide range of novels, essays, poems, television programmes, films and plays. Questions around class, gender, sexuality and national identity will be at the forefront of our enquiries.

Chaucer and Society in the late 14th Century

You will develop an awareness of the nature and complexity of 14th Century English society through The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. We will investigate the principal genres of medieval English literature as exemplified in The Canterbury Tales and study the relationship between society and literature in the second half of the 14th Century.

Year 3 Core Module

Modernism

You will explore the formal, conceptual and ideological complexities of the modernist period (1890-1940), analysing different and often contrasting traditions within modernism. The module examines a number of central issues within modernist theory and practice, including the role of tradition, gender, myth, fascination with the primitive, and the interaction of national identity and cosmopolitanism.

Postmodernism

This module explores a range of recent and contemporary films, novels, short stories, plays and poetry and links them with some of the central issues within the debate around postmodernism. These texts will be used to reflect on issues such as authorship, narrative structure, linear progression, and identity problematised by postmodernist texts and theories.

Year 3 Option Modules may include:

Choose four from

Shakespeare and the Play of Thought

This module explores the various ways in which cultural intertextuality informs and shapes Shakespeare's approach to character and action. To gain a broader understanding of how Shakespearean drama can be seen as 'the play of thought,' we will analyse Shakespeare's work in terms of literary theories including new historicism, cognitive linguistics, and gender studies.

21st Century Women's Fiction

Some of the key themes to be explored will include the impact of virtual realities on questions of body politics, representations of violence and death in contemporary women's fiction, futurist landscapes and how new feminist utopias and dystopias feed into established traditions of the form.

New Departures: Reading and Writing Innovative Poetry

This module combines critical and creative study of some of the most exciting poetry written in the last 50 years. The main areas for consideration include: Beat poetry, the New York School and the Language Poets in the USA and Linguistically Innovative Poetry in the UK. Each workshop offers practical exercises to aid understanding of the aesthetic and political decisions being made.

The 20th Century British Working-class Novel

In this module we investigate a range of artistic material which responds to the city as an environment, community and cultural concept and explore our experiences and perceptions of the cityscape through creative praxis. You will have the opportunity to try new approaches and further develop your style as a writer or performance practitioner.

Writing Ireland

This module explores constructions of Ireland and Irishness in literary and cultural texts across the last century, tracing how ideas of nationhood, gender and ethnicity, tradition and modernity have been negotiated in often turbulent historical conditions, dealing with issues such as the Celtic Tiger myth, and Northern culture during the Troubles.

Playwriting

You will create a full length play over the course of the semester, explore playwriting craft, concept, structure, characterisation, dialogue, theatricality and rewriting and revising techniques in depth, and you will also learn more about the playwriting industry, both in the UK and abroad, and have the opportunity to make connections with industry professionals.

Green Writing

This module explores the link between literature and environmentalism, examining globalisation, consumerism, eco-criticism, apocalypse, landscape, vegetarianism, what it means to be human, urbanisation, and the representation of nature. Beginning with Romantic-period literature and visual art, we discuss a range of cultural forms, such as Constable's paintings, travel writing and guidebooks, poetry, novels and recent films.