Media and English Literature BA(Hons)

How this course is delivered

COVID-19 has changed everything. We’ve made some changes to the way our courses are taught to keep everyone safe and that will help you stay connected and involved in university life.

From the start of term in September, you’ll learn through a blend of on-campus and digitally enabled remote learning that will provide lots of opportunities to interact and engage. Together with carefully managed access to libraries, labs, workshops and studios this means your studies are as collaborative, practical and flexible as possible.

Year 1 

In year 1, you will study the principal concepts and approaches to the study of the media in both theoretical and practical ways. These core media modules illustrate the complexities around representation, narrative and communication. The core literature modules will enable you to engage with a variety of genres and approaches, and to unravel meaning with a variety of critical and theoretical tools and approaches.

Modules

• Digital Storytelling: Theory and Practice

  This module will introduce you to the practice of digital storytelling contextualised through a wider examination of amateur media.

  Through exploring the histories and cultures of such practices and an investigation of autobiographical storytelling, you will explore the ways in which self-representation can be given expression through digital storytelling.

• Representation: Understanding Media Works

  In this module you will focus on representation as a key concept and approach for contemporary media studies. Coupling a study of representation with the media’s relations with forms of individual and collective identity, the module will introduce you to the several roles the media play in the twenty-first century.

  • Theories of representation.
  • Modes of representation of identity (forms to be considered include gender, sexuality, ‘race’, national and class identities).
  • Key analytic concepts for understanding how representations work (discourse, ideology, hegemony, political economy and media industries).
• 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.

• Narrative and Screen Media

  This module will introduces you to narrative theory as applied to screen media texts. You will examine competing narrative theories as a way of understanding systematically and critically a range of different screen media genres across fact and fiction. By examining and deploying archetypal plot theory, you will gain insights into the ways in which screen media tell familiar stories in sometimes unfamiliar ways.

• 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.

• 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.

Year 2 

In year 2, you take a broadly period-based approach to the study of media and literature. You will study the history and theory of film, followed by a module examining digital media and culture. You'll also develop your understanding of literature in context, from the sixteenth century to the present. You'll also start to develop the independent study and research skills required in your final year dissertation or creative project.

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

• Cinema and Society
• The Nineteenth Century in Literature
• Digital Media and Culture
• British Literature and Twentieth-century History

Options*

Two from:

• Studying Travel Writing
• Queer Writing
• Twentieth-century Literary Experiments
• Introduction to Journalism
• Narrative, Conflict and Power
• Reading the Graphic Novel
• Documentary Filmmaking: Theory and Practice
• Spoken and Written Language
• Mind and Language
• Linguistics and Grammar: Concepts and Analyses
• Literature and Art History
• Regional Englishes
• Television Studio Production

• Creative Writing: Process and Craft
• Introduction to Journalism
• Reading the Graphic Novel
• Writing for Stage, Radio and Screen
• Media in Practice
• Power and Persuasion
• American Literature 1850–1945
• Literature in Practice
• Photography

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 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.

Final year

In year 3, besides your dissertation, you have the choice of a wide range of options, from popular culture to postcolonial literature, and from personal documentary to television news production.

Modules

• Dissertation
• Ethics, Power and Professionalism

Options*

Three from:

• Apocalypse, Utopia, Dystopia
• Literature and the World Wars
• From Script to Screen
• Women’s Writing and Feminist Theory
• Gothic: Texts and Contexts
• Popular Culture: Europe and Beyond
• Public Journalism
• Post-war American Literature
• Postcolonial Literatures
• Adaptations
• Community Placement: Theory in Practice
• World Englishes
• Language of Gender and Sexuality
• Approaches to Analysing Discourse
• English Language Teaching
• Victorian Sexualities
• Conflict, Migration, Borders
• Writing the Contemporary
• Culture Wars: Class, Race, Gender and the Politics of Taste
• Russian Literature
• Literature and Philosophy
• Approaches to the Study of Meaning
• Images of War
• Autobiography and the Screen
• European Literatures and Film
• Media Ethics and Conflict
• Brighton Rocks
• Restoration Dramas
• (Re)Viewing Shakespeare

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

Watch Media and English Literature students talking about their experiences of the Community Placement module.

Meet the team 

Patricia McManus, course leader

Patricia's teaching crosses contemporary media theory and mass-mediated forms of narrative, with particular interests in feminist, Marxist and post-Marxist theoretical traditions.

Her research has primarily examined the history of the novel, particular the interaction with film and of television drama in terms of story-telling practices.

Vy Rajapillai

Vy Rajapillai lectures in media and English language. Her research interest is in the area of identity construction and second-generation immigrants. She is involved in a collaborative project with Queen Mary University, titled Consuming conflict: second generation Sri Lankan immigrant identities.

Student work

Student film-making

Our student film-makers have the opportunity to show their work on Brighton's popular Big Beach screen over the summer months.

You'll find samples of work from this course on our arts Vimeo page.

International requirements and visas

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

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies. 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. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included in the fee, while studying a course in the School of Humanities are listed here.

• For a number of courses you will have the opportunity to attend field trips and off-site visits. These are optional and are not required to pass your course but under normal circumstances we would expect a budget of approximately £150 per year will cover the costs of particular trips. The amount spent would be based on location and number of trips taken.
• You will have access to computers and necessary software, however many students choose to buy their own hardware, software and accessories. The amount spent will depend on your individual choices but this expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses.
• In most cases coursework submissions are electronic but you may wish to print notes and should budget up to £150 per year for printing.
• Course books are available from the university but you may wish to budget up to £200 to buy your own copies.

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships, as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2020–21.

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.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

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