Bachelor of Arts - History and Literature (QV21)

Students can develop their knowledge of both history and literature, and investigate the ways in which the two disciplines integrate. Students take an Introduction to Literature module and The Enlightenment alongside their history modules in the first year, and continue to combine history and literature modules in the second and third years. There is a range of relevant options to choose from in both departments, and students can decide the focus of their third-year dissertation. Within their history modules they discover both the early modern and modern periods, and explore challenging questions concerning the impact of political, social and cultural change on individuals, social groups, and regions.

As part of the creative, practice-based Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, students are encouraged to form their own critical and artistic responses to texts. The Department offers students the chance to write their own story in response to studying Arthurian Literature; to edit never-before edited sonnets from the 16th century; and to hold history in their hands by working with their valuable collection of original books from the time of Shakespeare.

Other topics from both history and literature students can choose from include:

• Family and communal life in Victorian England • Colonialism and the British Empire • Renaissance Italy • Modernist cityscapes in literature • Writing of the US South

Students are taught by award-winning academics from all over the world: their corridors are truly cosmopolitan. The Department also provides students with opportunities to explore local history and have close ties with the Essex Record Office, one of the best county record offices in the UK.

The Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies offers a varied, flexible and distinctive curriculum, focused on developing students’ abilities in literature, as well as film, creative writing and drama.