English Literature

Year 1 provides the foundations for your studies of literature with modules designed to develop your 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. You 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, you will study what literature is ‘out there’ in modules devised to furnish you with a clear overview of the range of the literary periods. Unless you know how literature changed and developed from the beginning, then you cannot understand why it became what it is now. You 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. You will explore the Romantic era which changed everything, and was thought to be the highest point of literary achievement.

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