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English Literature

Courses in English Literature

Joint degree combinations allow you to engage with two subject areas, opening up different opportunities as you develop complementary skills sets and experience in two areas.

Why study English Literature?

In studying literature, you’ll investigate how readers construct meanings in their writing, and how these are transformed by different cultural and social contexts.

By taking literature alongside another discipline, for example media studies or sociology, you’ll have the chance to choose complementary options in critical theory and practice. By developing your insights in this subject, you will gain a range of key transferable skills that you’ll be able to apply to careers including journalism and communications.

What will I learn?

Over three years of study, you’ll be introduced to a range of theories and research, engaging with progressively more complex understanding of key critical debates to develop your understanding of writing and texts.  

You’ll also learn about social context – how external and individual factors affect what people understand from language and writing, and how writers address particular audiences and issues.

Options include creative writing, journalism, writing and social purpose, studying travel writing and American literature 1850–1960.

By developing your critical abilities in comprehension and writing, you will gain transferable skills that will support career aspirations in a range of areas.

Placements

During your second year, you have the opportunity of a work placement reflecting an area of personal interest, which a member of staff will help you to find.

Who will teach me?

Literature staff in Hastings are leading figures in their areas of literary specialism. We encourage pro-active learning so that our students gain independence and critical skills. You’ll be taught in lectures, seminars and in individual tutorials. Members of our team have been nominated for Excellence in Teaching awards, we have a strong record of publication and research, and the department plays a central role in the development of our literary community.

Career options

Literature students can achieve success in a range of careers. You’ll have a good foundation to consider further specialist training in journalism, publishing, communications or work in cultural industries. Some graduates take further study within the arts or a teaching qualification. You may also be able to work in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).

Key staff

“I have always been inspired by literature and, as the first person to go to university in my family, I can identify with the ethos of the University of Brighton in Hastings. We encourage a contextual approach to the study of literature, which bears a natural sympathy to my work in marginal writers and working class cultures. The community feeling at the Hastings campus, coupled with the enrichment offered by a joint honours programme, leads to a diverse and exciting exchange of ideas between staff and students. I have learnt more from my students in Hastings than anywhere else!"

Katy Shaw, English literature senior lecturer

 

Module in focus

Powerful Texts

Zoe Willard, second year, Education and English Literature, says:

This is a first year module studying texts that represent or consider power, cause a powerful reaction or were written during a time of powerful changes, such as 9/11 or during the post-war years. Texts studied on this moduleincluded Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Cormac McCarthy's The Road.  

Other themes included education, gender, language, ethnicity and trauma, amongst others.

This module enabled me to study texts in a new light and to understand how a text can influence society. It also developed my interest in contemporary literature.

Meet one of the tutors, Irralie Doel