English Literature and Linguistics BA(Hons)

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Year 1

In year 1 you'll take these six core modules, three from each discipline. Core modules will give you the building blocks for each subject – and the rest of your degree – and show you how each can work together. Literature modules are where you'll explore literary texts focusing on their genre. In linguistics, you'll focus on structural approaches to linguistics: phonetics, phonology and semantics.

Modules

• 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.

• 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.

• 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'll develop critical writing skills and knowledge of social, cultural and political contexts in the interpretation of literary works and the wider world. 

• Understanding Language

  This module introduces the study of language (linguistics) and its main branches of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. It will enable you to carry out analysis of real language data using different linguistic frameworks. You'll be encouraged to be more critical of your own language ability and to develop and hone communication skills whilst also developing your written work.

• 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.

• Intercultural Communication

  This module explores intercultural communication in a technologically connected world. Through examining communication in national and individual-level communities and groups, you'll investigate how different narratives and positions emerge. You will explore the challenges and opportunities of intercultural communication in a complex, interconnected and inequitable world shaped by technology and other global forces.

Year 2

Year 2 enables you to further explore the links between the two subject areas. For example, you will have opportunities to work with nineteenth and twentieth century literary texts while considering how spoken and written texts vary in their form and message.

In year 2 of your English Literature and Linguistics degree you can also choose option modules from across our humanities and arts subjects.

Core modules

• The Nineteenth Century in Literature
• British Literature and Twentieth-century History
• Mind and Language
• Deconstruction: Language, Theory, Society

Options*

• Studying Travel Writing
• Twentieth-century Literary Experiments
• Early Modern Literature
• Literature in Practice
• Sign Language Linguistics
• Introduction to Journalism
• Image and Text: The Language of Comics and Graphic Novels
• American Literature 1850–1960
• Creative Writing: Process and Craft
• Multilingualism
• Writing for Stage, Radio, Screen
• Cinema and Society
• Documentary Filmmaking: Theory and Practice
• Power and Persuasion
• Contested Stories

You can also choose option modules from across our humanities and arts subjects.

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

Placement 

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

In your final year you can choose from a range of literature and linguistics modules according to areas of personal interest.

Core module

• Dissertation

Options*

• Pragmatics, Meaning and Truth
• Language, Philosophy, Mind
• Non-truth-conditional Semantics
• Russian Literature and Culture
• Literature and the World Wars
• Conflict, Migration, Borders
• Women’s Writing and Feminist Theory
• Gothic: Texts and Contexts

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

• Victorian Sexualities
• Writing the Contemporary
• Post-war American Literature
• Postcolonial Literatures
• European Literatures and Film
• Adaptations
• (Re)Viewing Shakespeare
• Literature and Philosophy
• Apocalypse, Utopia, Dystopia
• Culture Wars: Revisiting the Great Divide
• Community Placement: Theory in Practice
• Creative Writing Project
• English Language Teaching
• Public Journalism
• From Script to Screen
• Media, Ethics and Conflict
• Approaches to the Study of Meaning
• Language, Culture and Ideology
• Language of Gender and Sexuality
• Analysing Big Data: Quantitative Methods in Language Research
• Conversation Analysis
• Language, Law and the State: The Politics of Force

You can also choose option modules from across our humanities and arts subjects.

Lab facilities

Mithras House is home to all our School of Humanities and Social Science courses. It has a series of ‘labs’, which may be used for teaching on your course or in your independent research work.

Life lab
A comfortable space with lounge furniture intended for qualitative research with larger groups. Due to its relaxed layout and naturalistic environment, the space is suited to research using focus groups, research using observation-based methods and child research.

The space is also used for teaching on some social science courses, as well as for dissertation research for projects.
 
City lab
A space designed for collaborative student learning. It is used by students and staff involved in the university’s Global Challenges programme, our collective mission to contribute towards solutions to tackling the pressing issues facing our world.

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

Stats lab
A specialist workspace with computing equipment for statistical analysis and projects involving video and audio editing software. The lab is accessible as a study space to students on psychology courses. 

It is also available to students studying courses involving video and audio recording and editing, such as politics degrees and our creative writing programmes. The stats lab contains eight soundproof booths for recording or transcribing interviews undertaken as part of dissertation research.  

VR and eye tracking lab
This lab is used for psychological research, specifically eye-tracking research and virtual reality research. Equipment includes an electroencephalography (EEG) headset and Electrodermal Activity (EDA) equipment.

Meet the team

Dr Federica Formato, course leader

Dr Formato was awarded a PhD in Linguistics from Lancaster University in 2014 on gender and language use in the Italian parliament. Before coming to the University of Brighton, she worked in 10 UK universities, including University of Sheffield and University of Manchester.

Federica's research interests include language in connection with gender and sexuality in Italy. She is published on violence against women in sentencing remarks in England and Wales (with Dr Amanda Potts) and on constructions of hegemonic and subordinate masculinities in YouTube comments (with Dr Mandie Iveson). Her first monograph Gender, Discourse and Ideology in Italian was published in 2019 (Palgrave) and her second is titled Feminism, Corpus-assisted research and Language inclusivity.

Read Federica's full research profile.

Course fees

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2024–25.

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

• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate and postgraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• About the university’s fees by checking our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

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