PROGRAMME STRUCTURE

YEAR 1

The first course focuses on poetry and the second on narrative prose. You will develop skills in critical and creative writing and in analysing and arguing about literature while gaining insights into how speaking and performing texts enhances literary study. Both courses contain diverse texts from different periods and cultures. There are also opportunities to develop creative skills in writing poetry and fiction.

YEAR 2

This begins by examining the urgent question of literature’s relationship to environment and energy. Its starting point is how literature has represented and engaged with the human relationship to, and responsibility for, the natural world. It investigates the concept of ideology through an examination of the relationship between a wide range of literary texts and their historical, cultural and political contexts.

YEARS 3 AND 4

If you progress to Honours (years 3 and 4), you will choose from a range of courses in a range of specialist fields. Our courses on, for example, energy humanities, fantasy, children’s literature, contemporary literature, literary theory, global literatures, Irish and Scottish literature and modernism are all taught by staff who are leading researchers in their fields. You have the opportunity to choose from a range of courses in creative writing and to carry out an independent research project.

CAREER PROSPECTS

A degree in English Literature is highly respected in the current job market, not just by employers in the arts, education and media sectors but also in public relations, finance, business and technology. This is because graduates possess valuable skills for the future, such as argumentation, cognitive flexibility, coordinating with others, creativity and critical analysis and we work hard, with the support of our careers support advisers, to prepare our students for a wide range of future employment.