English Literature BA(Hons)

Year 1 

The content and structure of the course reflects its aims and ethos, providing a core grounding in approaches, theories, genres and periods in the first two years, followed by opportunities for pursuing individual research and practice interests in the third year.

Your degree includes core literature modules and further option modules through which you will be able to forge a personal pathway. For example you might take creative or writing modules at each level to provide a distinctive creative strand through the degree, which can then be supplemented in your dissertation. Students may also take one option from outside literature in years 2 and 3, with choice across the fields of linguistics, media and language.

You’ll develop presentation skills through seminar groups, which foster and enable a debating culture.

Modules

• Textual Encounters: Reading, Writing, Thinking

  How do texts make meaning? How can we understand the relationships between readers, writers, and texts? This module introduces questions crucial to the study of literature and culture through examining reading, writing and thinking as dynamic and dialogic cultural practices. You'll develop the skills necessary to become an effective writer, thinker and critic, enabling you to develop informed responses to texts and ideas in dialogue with others as members of a collaborative intellectual community.

• 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.

• 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.

• Drama in Society

  This module will introduce you to drama as both performative and literary texts. The module approaches drama through practical, textual and theoretical readings, as well as through placing drama in its social and political contexts. How do plays engage with the world we live in today? The module focuses on twentieth century dramatic texts in order to explore the role and function of drama in society. You will look at, for example, naturalist drama, Brechtian drama, theatre of the absurd, feminist theatre, postcolonial theatre, and in-yer-face theatre.

• Enlightenment to Romanticisms

  This module will introduce you to some of the most important literary and social writings of the Enlightenment and Romantic periods. It situates the work of the major Enlightenment thinkers and Romantic writers, between approximately 1680 and 1830, within their historical and discursive contexts, and explores the political and aesthetic concepts that underpin their work.

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 the second year you’ll begin developing your own pathway and interests through option choices each semester.

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

At the end of your second year you will have the opportunity to study abroad for a year extending your degree to four years.

Modules

• The Nineteenth Century in Literature
• Early Modern Literature
• Twentieth-century Literary Experiments
• British Literature and Twentieth-century History

Options*

One from:

• Queer Writing
• Studying Travel Writing
• Introduction to Journalism
• Creative Writing: Process and Craft
• Literature and Art History
• Image and Text: The Language of Comics and Graphic Novels
• Cinema and Society
• Photography
• Video Documentary Project
• Power and Persuasion
• Narratives, Conflict and Power
• Writing for Stage, Radio and Screen

One from:

• American Literature 1850–1960
• Literature in Practice
• Media in Practice

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

Placements 

In your second  year you can choose the Literature in Practice or Media in Practice placement modules which will allow you to gain professional experience in a relevant workplace environment. Students undertake a placement with local publishers, radio stations, social media marketing departments, PR firms, charities etc.

In year 3 you can choose the Community Placement – Theory in Practice placement module, again aimed at building on your work with professional experience. You'll do 30 to 50 hours of voluntary work with a not-for-profit or community organisation, and 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 

Your final year of literature study allows you to benefit from the skills you have developed and to demonstrate your academic ability through a major dissertation project. 

Modules

• Dissertation

Options*

One from:

• Women's Writing and Feminist Theory
• Writing the Contemporary
• Postcolonial Literatures
• European Literatures and Film

Three from: 

• Creative Writing Project
• Russian Literature
• Literature and the World Wars
• Conflict, Migration, Borders
• Gothic: Texts and Contexts
• 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: Class, Race, Gender and the Politics of Taste
• Community Placement: Theory in Practice
• Public Journalism
• From Script to Screen
• Images of War
• Popular Culture: Europe and beyond
• Autobiography and the Screen
• Media Ethics and Conflict
• World Englishes
• Language and Gender and Sexuality
• Approaches to Analysing Discourse
• Analysing Big Data: Quantitative Methods in Language Research

*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 Bea Hitchman, Dr Ailsa Grant Ferguson, Dr Vedrana Velickovic, Dr Patricia Mcmanus, Dr Nigel Foxcroft, Dr Andrew Hammond, Dr Dora Carpenter-Latiri, Julie Everton, Dr Aakanksha Virkar Yates, Dr Liam Connell, Dr Deborah Philips, Dr Emma Bell, Dr Peter Blake, Dr Craig Jordan-Baker and Dr Jessica Moriarty.

Student view

Ben Thurland

The best teaching I've ever had and the main reason for loving my course.

Lectures and seminars have a relaxed, informal feel about them and are always entertaining and thought-provoking.

Modules were taught with an enthusiasm that was infectious. Texts that I initially thought dry and staid were brought to life through historical contexts, quirky insights and emotive readings. The teaching inspired me and I am starting a postgraduate course in literature in October.

I felt that the seminars were really useful and engaging, and positively encouraged student participation, really delving into the themes and historical background that shaped the texts we studied.

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Course fees

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2022–23.

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.

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