English Literature BA(Hons)

Why study with us? 

• Our staff are highly regarded writers and award-winning teachers with a commitment to excellence.

• We have regular visits from writers to deliver salons and writing workshops – from Man Booker prize winners to thriller writer Peter James, who sponsors an annual prize. Our writers-in-residence scheme is built into the course.

• The year 2 Literature in Practice module allows you to gain professional experience in a relevant workplace environment.

• You will study texts in many different and rewarding ways: generically, within critical disciplines (for instance, sexuality and gender), multi-culturally and historically. And as well as the major landmarks of English literature, your course could cover travel writing, journalism, queer writing, or the contemporary.

• We share undergraduate and postgraduate learning experiences through the Literature Research Seminar Series and the Literature and Pedagogy Series.

• You’ll explore a wide range of approaches to reading texts whilst developing your own range of writing and expressive skills, developing a sense of yourself as an autonomous critical and analytical reader and writer.

• Assessments encompass a range of literary skills – from traditional essays to writing poetry, from journals to project work, from writing a book to writing reviews, from presentations to novel writing.

• You have the opportunity to undertake a year abroad in year three, extending your degree to four years.

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

• Practices of Reading and Writing

  In this module you will build on and identify skills and techniques essential to the study and expression of writing, focusing through close reading on writerly techniques to apply to your own critical and creative practices.

  Practical workshops on reading and writing skills will be supplemented by creative workshops and master classes led by professional writers, enabling you to develop confidence with your reading and writing processes and develop research and presentation skills through individual and collaborative work.

• Narrative and Narratives

  This module acts as a bridge from your earlier experiences of reading narrative texts and will encourage you to reflect on those early experiences. You will be introduced to a variety of narrative texts and genres (including early forms such as fairy-tales and myths) and to key issues in narrative theory. The module offers you an awareness of narrative as central to being human and allows you scope to explore narratives in creative and personal as well as critic always in a journal.

• English Poetry in Context

  This module will enable you to build on your earlier educational experiences of poetry and to extend your appreciation of and critical confidence with the mode. You will examine a diverse range of British poetry, analysing poetry and its responses to socio-historical contexts.

• 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 our applicant portal.

Year 2 

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

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
• Regional Englishes
• Photography
• Video Documentary Project
• 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.

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

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

Staff profile

Dr Kate Aughterson

Course leader

The author of Renaissance Woman, Kate’s teaching and research interests cross disciplinary boundaries, linking scientific, textual, philosophical and political discourses. She has lectured in art history and literature focusing on seventeenth century drama, with regard to gender, sexuality and performance culture.

Student view

Ben Thurland, English Literature BA(Hons)

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.

International requirements

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

Course fees

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2019–20.

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/EU 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.

What's included in the fee?

When costs such as health or DBS checks, or use of specialist materials are incurred as a mandatory requirement of the course they are included in your tuition fee.

You may incur additional costs depending on the optional modules or activities you choose. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. Before you apply check with the school that provides your course using the contact details in the Find out more tab (at the end of this page) for advice about what is included and what optional costs you could face so you can budget accordingly.

See our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps

Accommodation

University building

Falmer campus