English Literature and Creative Writing BA(Hons)

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

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Top reasons to choose this course

• Staff are active writers – you will learn from published novelists, poets and screenwriters.

• Strong local publishing connections – we organise a programme of visiting writers and publishing professionals. Take a look at some of our prizes and partnerships.

• Scrivener talks give you the chance to speak to a professional writer about their work.

• International exchange opportunities at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece; Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands; Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands; and University of Lyon 2, France.

• Our focus on employability, including a placement, ensures you will graduate as an emerging writer with a strong skillset.

• Extracurricular activities such as the Performance and Community Research and Enterprise Group and the student-led Creative Writing Society.

• Alumni making a difference – graduates from our programmes include Paris Lees, Merci Roberts, Munroe Bergdorf and Tanaka Mhisi.

• Excellent student support and a warm and encouraging community.

• Weekly round-up of writing competitions and opportunities  encourage you to promote your work and consider future careers.

• Workshops and spoken word events help you find your writing voice.

• Professional feedback on any aspect of your writing from our resident Royal Literary Fund Fellow.

Year 1

Your first year focuses on understanding the different approaches to literary texts from both a creative and critical standpoint. You will study a wide variety of texts, including film, novels, poetry, theatre, short stories and autobiography.

Modules

• Brighton Writes

  Brighton is a vibrant and unique place that has impacted on British and European culture as well being at the forefront of social changes since the eighteenth century. This module is a literary and cultural exploration of Brighton as a place. You will engage and connect with Brighton’s history, literary culture and your own creative writing practice. The module benefits from several city trips which will bring learning materials to life.

• Poetry-Politics-Protest

  During this module you will explore 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, a form of protest and an 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 will develop your own practice through curating a poetry anthology.

• Storying The Self

  This module will introduce you to practices of storying the self in writing and digital media. Through creating a first person story combining audio script, music and still image, you will engage with the expressive complexities of autobiographical representation. The module will also give you the creative writing tools to experiment with storying the self in a variety of written genre.

• Writers on Writing

  Explore the concept of a professional writerly identity and consider a ‘writing life’ in personal, local and global terms. Through studying and contact with professional writers, you’ll investigate writing as self-expression, craft, process and profession. You’ll create a writerly identity/persona and develop your writing towards your future career, including discussing various modes and genres, including prose, poetry, drama, and image-text works such as comics and graphic novels. You will also look at the writing life and its implications on the global stage, for example as an act of resistance to inequalities.

• The World, the Text and the Critic

  Taking inspiration from Edward Said’s book The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983), this module enables you to explore some of the key debates in contemporary literary studies. Organised around decolonial, feminist, queer, ecocritical and other approaches to texts, you will develop critical writing skills and knowledge of social, cultural and political contexts in the interpretation of literary works and the wider world. 

• Literary Histories of Cultures and Identities

  You will explore the development of cultures and identities and look at how literature engages with and responds to these at key historical moments. You’ll investigate elements of, for example, personal, collective and national identity; class; gender; sexuality; ethnicity; and social transformation. You will also consider the influence of relevant intellectual and social movements and ideologies.

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.

Year 2

In your second year you can tailor your degree to your interests. There are placement opportunities available as well as field trips to theatres, museums, schools and community projects.

You can also choose option modules from across our humanities and arts subjects, and at the end of your second year you will have the opportunity to study abroad.

Modules

Core modules

• Stories that Transform: Reading and Writing for Change

  You will explore a variety of writing styles and genres during this module and consider the potential storytelling has to transform readers and writers. You will experiment with different writing styles, voices and techniques to develop your storytelling craft. These could take the form of styles such as prose, poetry or script, but may also include narrative forms that blend image and text.

• From Postcolonial to Black British Literature

  You will study the diversity of writing that has emerged from the experience of British and Western European colonisation, including the rich tradition of Black British writing that has dealt with the aftermath of Empire and colonial legacy. You will explore the political and cultural debates which inform postcolonial theory and literature and the ways in which writers engage in canon re-formation and decolonisation. 

• Professional Practice and Placement

  In this module, you will undertake a work placement or creative project where you’ll put into practice the skills and knowledge you’ve learned throughout your degree. It will enable you to follow up on areas of particular interest and gain insight into the kinds of roles and work you may wish to enter into in future. It will develop your employability skills, confidence and knowledge of your professional and personal self.

• Research: Special Topic

  During this module, you will gain specialist knowledge and problem-solving skills by designing, researching and delivering a small project in a selected area guided by current staff research or community partnerships. You will develop skills as a scholar by taking part in a formal peer review process and you’ll explore and reflect on the different ways to communicate your research to others.

Options*

• Introduction to Journalism

  This module is a practical introduction to journalism and the media industry and will provide you with the skills to plan and write news and feature articles on various topics for different media audiences. You will look at the work of press officers, how to write press releases and feature articles, the ethical aspects of journalism, how to interview effectively and how to write for specific audiences.

• Genres

  You will study a range of genre and sub-genre specialisms in drama, poetry and prose, with a view to developing your own creative practice in one or more of these. You’ll reflect on the place of genre in storytelling and in the publishing ecosystem and on the distinctions between highbrow, lowbrow and commercial writing. You’ll also look at how genre conventions may be productively or unproductively used and how genre may be used as a cultural lens.

• Travel Narratives Through Time and Space

  This module will introduce you to a range of texts including semi-fictional travel adventure stories, pilgrimage narratives, prescriptive tourist guides, letters from abroad, travel journalism, blogs, memoir, scholarly travelogue, fiction and visual representations (film, photos). You will explore how gender, class, colonialism and post-colonialism shape the travel narrative, the intercultural experience of the traveller, migration and mobility.

• Queer Writing

  In this module you will explore a tradition of LGBTQ+ writing in the context of the history and politics of sexuality and queer identities over the past two centuries. The module uses key dates in that history to examine and debate how representation and writing have been both tools of oppression and liberation. Primary texts and films/TV shows could include The Well of Loneliness, Stone Butch Blues, The Black Flamingo, Swimming in the Dark and Fairytales for Lost Children.

• Twentieth Century Literary Experiments

  This module explores a selection of twentieth-century writing, focusing on some of the key experiments in modernist and postmodernist writing and looking at these as part of a wider cultural change. You will explore ways to situate literary innovation within a social and historical context and look at some prominent themes. You’ll also study technical and formal innovation in poetry and prose.

• Power and Persuasion

  In this module, you will explore how power and persuasion are created, legitimised and challenged by examining a range of discourse types. You will study theoretical approaches to understanding the art of persuasion, drawing upon the literature of rhetoric and notions of power. You’ll examine different types of media, apply theoretical and analytical perspectives and locate the texts and their creators within their political, social and cultural contexts.

• Comics, Cultures and Societies

  This module introduces comics cultures and the many ways they can reflect social contexts. You'll explore comics from different places and times and across cultures, drawing on the themes and issues that reflect the social context they are created in. As you examine each area, you'll focus on comics genres, aspects of representation, audience expectations and the narrative structures used. 

• Children’s Literature and Culture

  What is children’s literature and who is it really for? This module examines the construction of childhood, adolescence and adulthood as political and representational categories and explores the development of children’s and young adults literatures as distinct modes of cultural production. What agency do children have over their images and culture? How far is children’s literature a product of adult nostalgia? What is at stake when adults speak about, for or as children?

• Women’s Writing and Feminist Theory

  You will explore women’s writing and feminist theory, looking at areas including politics, gender, sexuality, roles, identities and cultures in this module which is co-created with students. By examining and participating in feminist practice and debating the ways in which feminisms have informed and transformed the content, form and purpose of women’s writing, you will work together to research, analyse, evaluate and enact practices and processes of feminisms and women’s writing across different genres.

• Image and Text: The Language of Comics and Graphic Novels

  This module looks at the visual language of comics and graphic novels, exploring how images and text work together. You will consider ways in which layout, structure, language, colour and form (print, digital) shape the way we see, read and understand these stories. You’ll also explore creative processes and have the chance to experiment and play with this media – no previous experience in making comics is needed.

• Writing for Stage, Radio and Screen

  You will develop the ability to write engaging and inspiring scripts across stage, radio and screen during this module. You’ll analyse a range of produced work and relate your own practice to that of other writers. The module will provide you with a sense of the creative and professional opportunities available in writing for each of the three media.

• Poetry and Process

  This module focuses on writing poetry that works on the page as well as in performance. You will learn the effects of using varied approaches to the line and stanza, and different types of poetic device, technique and structure. You will produce your own original poetry designed to move a reader who doesn’t know you and cultivate critical skills to apply to your own writing practice.

• Literature and Art History

  Literature and Art History introduces the interrelationship between literature and fine art and addresses two key issues: how to study a text’s broader cultural setting and how to use art history to enhance literary analysis. You will explore topics including the illustrated manuscript, visual realism, the literary imagination, ‘painterly’ literature, ‘poetic’ painting, language and the word as art objects, writers’ responses to art, and the impact on literature of radical modes of visual representation, such as abstraction and minimalism.

• Transforming Texts

  This module introduces you to the fields of translation studies, adaptation studies, intertextuality and theories of textual reworking. It encourages you to consider strategies for remaking, retelling and reworking texts. You’ll consider the formal, political and social implications of moving textual material from one form to another, thinking about the practical demands of transforming information from textual media into visual media, including questions of copyright.

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

Placements 

Spend a year on placement

Gain valuable experience and earn money during an optional placement year following year 2. You’ll return to the final year of your degree with added confidence, real-world experience and valuable contacts. 

A placement year significantly improves your CV, giving you a distinct advantage over others when applying for jobs and starting your career. It will also help you to develop the softer skills such as communication and teamwork.

For the assessed part of your placement, you will create a reflective piece of work on professional practice and skills. 

The university has links with a wide range of organisations including in health, culture and heritage, housing, councils, the police, the probation service, policy think tanks and charities.

Our dedicated Placements and Employability team will support you in getting a placement that meets with your interests and career ambitions. They can help with CVs and cover letter writing, applications, online testing and more. Plus, they’ll provide support and guidance when you’re on placement and make sure that everything is going well.

Other placement opportunities

During the Professional Practice and Placement module in your second year, you will 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
• British Forces Broadcasting Services
• Epoque Press
• Factory Films
• The Old Market Theatre
• Little Green Pig
• Men’s Health Magazine
• Prsnt.

Mia Kurian, graduate

“My community engagement 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

In your final year you will work towards your dissertation and choose from a wide range of option areas. In the second semester, you will collaborate with your peers on a conference where you will showcase your research and writing at a public event.

Modules

Core modules

• English Literature Dissertation

  In this module you will undertake an academic investigation which will extend and evaluate your understanding of your chosen topic(s). You will also design, manage and complete independent research in this area. Workshops will offer guidance on planning a project, writing an academic blog, research practice and methodology and formulating research questions, and you will be allocated a supervisor to support you throughout your project.

• Creative Dissertation

  In this module, you will work closely with a supervisor to undertake an academic investigation to develop your understanding of your chosen subject area(s) and your sense of yourself as a researcher, writer and artist. Workshops and seminars will provide guidance on framing the enquiry, the use and interpretation of published critical and theoretical material, structure of the dissertation and critical debate.

• Brighton Rocks: Final Year Show

  This module will enable you to critically reflect on your academic and personal development throughout your time at Brighton University and the ways in which you are equipped to meet personal, local and global challenges. You will gain experience presenting, exhibiting or performing your work in a conference setting and, together with other students, will organise a final year show.

Options*

• Literature and the Global Contemporary

  In this module you will look at case studies of selected contemporary texts including fiction and non-fiction, as well as novels, poetry, film and drama that address a range of global issues. You will consider the contexts from which the texts have been written and examine how they address specific audiences through their rendering of place and/or their engagement with contemporary political issues and UN sustainability goals.

• Applied Comics: Comics in the Social World

  On this module you will consider the many ways comics and graphic novels inform, engage, connect and disseminate issues within and across the social world. You'll explore the role of comics in different fields and disciplines and think about their use in the wider social context, reflecting on the ways that comics in all forms may be used in your personal and professional worlds. 

• Adaptations

  In this module you will study literary adaptations, comparing and contrasting narratives and their transformation through the process of adaptation to film and to various audiences. You will analyse the reception of adaptations in media reviews and scholarly critiques and explore and deconstruct the ‘fidelity argument’.

• Citizen Journalism: Theory and Practice

  You will develop your understanding of the ethics, politics and practices of public and citizen journalism during this module. You will engage critically with theory and research, exploring key concepts of accountability, accuracy, trust, misinformation, bias and the responsibility of citizen journalism before working independently to create your own portfolio.

• Creative Writing Project

  During this module, delivered via a series of master classes, you will choose a specific style or genre and develop an extended piece of creative writing that fulfils the criteria for published work. Styles can include poetry anthology, a TV, film, radio or stage script, a short story or the beginning of a novel. Working in groups, you will discuss your processes and share your writing and there will be opportunities to submit your work for the student anthology, competitions and open mic nights.

• Conflict, Migration, Borders

  This module examines the mass displacement of refugees from areas of conflict and the search for sanctuary in the EU. Through a variety of genres, including novels, short stories, testimonies and films, you will explore ways in which cultural production is charting the experience of conflict and displacement and analyse how writers and film-makers challenge the discourses underlining the development of Fortress Europe.

• Environment, Landscape and Nature Writing

  This module considers how landscape is depicted in the literary arts and how these representations can shape nation, culture and identity. Landscape can be overlooked as ‘scenery’ or a literary device forming a ‘setting’, but landscape and our perceptions of it harbour complex ideas about who and where we are. You will explore ideas through walking, sensory engagement, identifying landscape features and understanding what it is it to have a ‘sense of place’.

• Autoethnography

  In this module, you will research autoethnographic work and design a research project that links your personal experiences with a specific cultural/social group and your writing development. Guided by workshops, feedback and tutorials, you will present your autoethnographic project to a seminar group where your ideas will be discussed to help you produce your final assessment piece.

• Gothic Texts and Contexts

  In this module you will critically reflect upon the social relevance of Gothic texts and how they articulate, develop or challenge notions of the ‘Gothic’ from the eighteenth century into the twenty-first century. You will look at texts such as Paradise Lost, Dr Faustus, The Castle of Otranto, The Monk, Frankenstein, Christabel and Carmilla; Gothic works by fine artists such as Turner, Goya, Fuseli and Blake; and Gothic popular culture via films and TV shows like Nosferatu and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

• (Re)viewing Shakespeare

  In this module you will re-view Shakespeare by looking at his drama within the playing and political contexts of 1590 to 1615 and explore our contemporary interpretations of his work by understanding the place and meaning of ‘Shakespeare’ in our culture. You will see his plays performed during theatre visits and write a review of one of the works you have seen or studied.

• Victorian Sexualities

  You will build on your experience of the nineteenth century in this module by focusing on the important and controversial discourse of sexuality. You will explore some key representations of sexuality in literature, medical and legal discourse and art and will construct a case study to demonstrate your critical awareness of these issues and the debates surrounding them.

• Literature and Social Change

  This module investigates how literature functions in local contexts, taking into account community, social change and active citizenship. You will look at a diverse range of texts and concepts to explore how literature engages with and contributes to change making. Applying your learning to solve problems and reflect on your practice, you will complete a live brief which is devised through collaboration between tutors, the Employability Team and a community partner.

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

Lab facilities

Mithras House has a series of lab rooms which can be used for teaching on your course or in your independent research work.

Life lab
A skills-based lab for practice-based teaching, social work, psychotherapy and counselling, and employability. The Life lab is fitted with lounge furniture to provide a comfortable space for conducting qualitative research with larger groups. The lab can be used to conduct research activities with children of all ages and can be used for meetings and events. The room also contains a dedicated space to conduct assessed role play or interviews with children.

City lab
This is a qualitative research methods and creative methods resource for all students, staff and researchers, as well as research participants, including children, community groups and the general public. It can also be used for meetings and events. The City lab contains a kitchen, a teaching/meeting room with enhanced acoustic isolation and two meeting spaces that can be separated with a screen or combined to accommodate larger groups.

Design lab
Housing our extensive collection of historic dress and textiles, which are used in some teaching on our History of Art and Design courses, this has the space and equipment for you to work on textile projects. Displays created by students on these programmes are on view in the social spaces of the building.

Community lab
A space designed for collaborative student learning, this is used by students and staff involved in the university’s Global Challenges programme – our collective mission to contribute towards solutions to tackle the pressing issues facing our world.

Stats lab
A specialist workspace with computing equipment for statistical analysis and projects involving video and audio editing software. The lab contains eight acoustically treated booths for both recording and transcribing interviews undertaken as part of dissertation research and for recording and editing podcasts.

Applied cognition lab
A dedicated research space for psychological research involving measures such as electrodermal activity (EDA) and electroencephalography (EEG). The space is designed to allow the participant and researcher to sit at separate desks whilst psychophysiological data is being collected. 

VR and eye tracking lab
The VR and Eye-Tracking Lab is used for psychological research using equipment, such as eye-trackers and virtual reality headsets. The space has adjustable lighting and a blackout blind for maintaining consistent lighting conditions during eye-tracking research, as well as sensors set up in the room to allow individuals to move freely around the room during virtual reality research.

Meet the team

Course fees

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Brighton Boost – cost of living help for our new undergrad students. Find out about how we can help with your study, accommodation or travel costs and more...
• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• Read our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf) for more on University of Brighton tuition fees.

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