English Literature (with placement year)

Our English Literature degree is a fantastic opportunity to pursue your love of literature – studying texts from the Renaissance period right through to the twenty-first century.

The course offers our most comprehensive survey of literary-historical development while retaining a high level of optional choice in second and third year. You’ll develop key skills, using different theoretical approaches to interpret texts across a number of genres, and will be able to tailor our English Literature degree to suit your interests.

You will be introduced to important concepts and periods, through a range of carefully designed core modules introducing the fundamentals of poetic language and form, the study of language, literary theory, narrative forms and fictions, and the major periods of literary history. In addition, optional modules such as ‘Introduction to Film’ and ‘How to Do Things with Digital Texts’ examine the significance of how literature can be studied in the digital age.

Modules on offer include core options surveying the major authors and periods in literary history including Renaissance writing and Victorian literature. Alongside the established literary tradition of writers such as Shakespeare, Dickens and Virginia Woolf, you will also have the chance to study writers on the fringes of the literary canon whose work sheds valuable light on important themes, as well as less well-known genres.

Our English Literature degree is designed to introduce you to contemporary debates surrounding classic authors but also to encourage you to new authors whose social, political, and literary significance has only recently been acknowledged.

For a full list of areas studied, see the 'What You'll Study' section of the course page on our website.

Methods of assessment include essays, reflective commentaries, seminar participation, online in-class tests, annotated bibliographies, performance projects, in-class presentations, research projects, workbook/log books, group work, peer assessments and the final dissertation. This course does not include exams.

Exposure to such a wide range of written and oral methods of communication builds a broad set of skills and professional competencies for maximum employability.