English Language and English Literature BA(Hons)

Year 1

You will study a diverse range of genres and approaches that will introduce you to the study of English literature at degree level. You will develop the critical and theoretical tools that will help you to enhance your analytical reading and practical writing skills. 

Modules

• Language in the Social World

  This module introduces issues around language and society. You will develop an understanding of language as a social phenomenon, including the interplay of individual linguistic choices and social structures. You'll also expand your abilities to synthesise materials, think critically and communicate effectively about the relationship of language and society.

• Investigating Language

  This module provides a solid foundation in research methodologies and methods. It will develop your abilities in reading, processing and critically assessing analytical research. It will also build your skills in investigating language and linguistic patterns.

• Stories and Storytelling

  How do stories create and communicate experiences, identities and cultural meaning? How do they work to perpetuate and challenge social structures? On this module you'll study fairy tales, myth, novels, short stories and visual narratives (for example, film, comics and graphic novels, gaming) to discuss these questions. Through reading and guided research you'll identify and pursue your own interests in critical, creative and reflective ways and produce a reading and research journal.

• Understanding Culture

  This module introduces the relationship of language and culture through the discipline of linguistic anthropology. You'll build skills in key areas such as linguistic determinism and relativism, the ethnography of communication and communicative competence. Through this intellectual framing (a concept introduced in the module), you will be able to make connections about your own cultural experience of language use.

• Poetry-Politics-Protest

  This module explores poetry from a diverse selection of writers, time periods and cultures. Learning how to analyse and interpret poetry and understand poetic forms and techniques, you'll discuss poetry as a political act, form of protest and agent of social change to discover the dynamic possibilities of poetry as a relevant means of communication and connection essential in our changing world. Students co-create this module and you'll develop your own practice through curating a poetry anthology.

• Literature and Theory

  This module will introduce you to the key philosophical and theoretical approaches to the reading of literary texts, and situates that knowledge within a historical overview of literary criticism. By the end of the module you will be able to apply theoretical vocabulary and knowledge of critical concepts in the interpretation of literary works.

Our courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis in order to make sure that what you learn with us is relevant and that your course enables you to develop appropriate skills. When you apply to study with us, we will inform you of any new developments in your chosen programme through Student View.

Your first year will also engage you in the principal concepts that are relevant to your study of English language. 

The core English language modules will enable you to develop the meta language to describe language features and their use in different genres.

You will also explore the historical perspective of the development of the English language.

Year 2

You will study literature from the sixteenth century to the present, with a strong emphasis on historical and cultural contexts. The second year also provides an essential grounding in understanding language in society and how it varies according to both context and the user. The focus of several year 2 modules is also on enabling independent study and research in preparation for the skills required in the final year dissertation or creative project.

In your second year you can also choose option modules from across our humanities and arts subjects.

Core modules

• Language Minoritisation and Revitalisation
• The Nineteenth Century in Literature
• Researching English Language Use
• British Literature and Twentieth-century History

Options*

• Studying Travel Writing
• Queer Writing
• Twentieth-century Literary Experiments
• Creative Writing
• Television Studio Production
• Documentary Filmmaking: Theory and Practice
• Power and Persuasion
• Narratives, Conflict and Power
• Literature and Art History
• Introduction to Journalism
• Cinema and Society
• Image and Text: The Language of Comics and Graphic Novels
• Writing for Stage, Radio and Screen
• Media in Practice
• American Literature 1850–1945
• Literature in Practice
• Photography 

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Placements 

In year 2 you can choose a placement module which will allow you to gain professional experience in industries such as publishing, broadcasting, social media marketing, PR and the charity sector. 

Recent placement hosts include:

• Action Medical Research
• Action Tutoring
• Airstream Photo Booth
• Brighton Dome and Festival
• British Forces Broadcasting Services
• Epoque Press
• Factory Films
• The Old Market Theatre
• Little Green Pig
• Men’s Health Magazine
• Prsnt

In year 3 you can choose the Community Placement module aimed at further building your professional experience. This is 30 to 50 hours of voluntary work with a not-for-profit or community organisation. The placement is assessed and contributes to your degree.

Mia Kurian, graduate

“My placement was with Metropolitan City Church Brighton as their Social Media Manager. I learnt a lot about myself and my interests and the type of career I may want to pursue. I got to try my hand at website design, something I had never done before, and it was a great opportunity for me to expand my creativity. Professionally, I gained a lot of experience that has been extremely useful in my career today. I learnt about creating brand cohesion and creating a brand image from scratch, something I’ve never done before.

"I absolutely loved it. It was an incredible learning experience as well as insightful. It allowed me to learn a lot about myself and the future I want. My placement manager was lovely and supportive and allowed me the freedom to explore my creativity.”

Final year

You will study postcolonial literature, with a particular emphasis on literature from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Building on the knowledge developed over the first and second year, you will study different approaches to analysing how different types of discourse are constructed.

You will also identify a topic for your self-motivated research project – a critical dissertation or a creative and analytical piece. 

Modules

• Dissertation

Options*

• World Englishes OR Approaches to Analysing Discourse
• Conversation Analysis
• Language, Law and the State: The Politics of Force
• Language Policy and Planning
• Analysing Big Data: Quantitative Methods in Language Research
• Creative Writing Project
• Apocalypse, Utopia, Dystopia
• Postcolonial Literatures
• Post-war American Literature
• Literature and the World Wars
• European Literatures and Film
• Women's Writing and Feminist Theory
• Gothic: Texts and Contexts
• Public Journalism

• Russian Literature and Culture
• Language of Gender and Sexuality
• From Script to Screen
• English Language Teaching
• Culture Wars
• Conflict, Migration, Borders
• Victorian Sexualities
• Writing the Contemporary
• Russian Literature and Culture
• Autobiography and the Screen
• (Re)viewing Shakespeare
• Language, Culture and Ideology
• Literature and Philosophy
• Adaptations
• Media Ethics and Conflict
• Community Placement: Theory in Practice

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Meet the team

Dr Irralie Doel, course leader

Irralie is Senior Lecturer in English literature and leads the literature subject area at the University of Brighton. She researches twentieth and twenty-first century women’s writing and feminist theory, poetry, poetics and politics, and creative writing.

Other staff who teach on the course include: Dr Joseph Ronan, Dr Vy Rajapillai, Dr Barbara Chamberlin, Dr Tim Wharton, Simon Wilkinson, Dr Jelena Timotijevic, Dr Andrew Hammond, Dr Dora Carpenter-Latiri, Dr Aakanksha Virkar Yates, Dr Liam Connell, Dr Deborah Philips, Dr Peter Blake, Dr Ailsa Grant Ferguson, Dr Nigel Foxcroft, Dr John Wrighton, Dr Janis Darvil-Mills, Dr Michael Hallam and Paul Slater.

Student views

Rosanna Wood

"Having lecturers who are really passionate about what they teach is great, it makes such a difference when you know that they love their subject and are enthusiastic about it.

"You can make the course what you want it to be, focusing on texts you’re really inspired by, choosing assignments which allow for plenty of creativity and tailoring your degree to be more language- or literature-based by taking the options which interest you the most.

"I loved the city and the feel of Brighton. It is such a vibrant, exciting place to live, especially for a literature student with all its theatre, poetry evenings, short story nights and the arts festival. I studied one module where local poets, writers, actors and comedians came in to give workshops to help us learn about writing creatively in different ways for different purposes, and each one of them could recommend things to read, but they could also tell you where to go in Brighton to find out more and meet other writers.

"I would love to teach literature at secondary and college level if I could. I hope to stay on at Brighton to do a PGCE course after my degree and then go on to be a teacher.”

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2023–24.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Campus where this course is taught

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