Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - English Literature

Year 1 provides the foundations for studies of literature with modules designed to develop skills in reading efficiently, critical analysis, research and writing. This is achieved through the study of a wide range of fiction, poetry and drama from across the historical periods. Students will study both literature in its context, as well as the latest literary theories, as two different ways of finding out what and how a text means.

In Year 2, students will study what literature is ‘out there’ in modules devised to furnish learners with a clear overview of the range of the literary periods. Unless students know how literature changed and developed from the beginning, then they cannot understand why it became what it is now. Students will learn how and why the dominant literary form, the plays of William Shakespeare and others, turned to the novel as the next dominant literary form. Students will explore the Romantic era which changed everything, and was thought to be the highest point of literary achievement.

In Year 3, students will write a dissertation on the topic of their choice – based on what they have learned from the coverage and thematic modules in the second year. This will be a piece which students will work on with their chosen tutor, and will take the whole year to write.