Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - English Language and Literature

Students will be taught by research-active academics who bring fresh thinking to accessible, engaging courses. Students will be introduced to writers who will open doors to contemporary worlds and cultures remote from their own, and also help them explore more familiar literature in ways that challenge their preconceptions.

Students will enrich their study of English literature in its cultural and historical contexts through modules on the history of the English language. Students will balance their reading of poetry and drama with analyses of how language is used in the media, to inform or persuade. The common link between the two disciplines will be their analysis of language and how it operates in literature and in real life.

A core module in the first year will equip students to read and interpret both traditional and contemporary literary texts critically as a scholar of English literature. Students will also be introduced to English Linguistics, the scientific study of our language, from how language develops in children, to the ways it reflects society and how it changes over time.

The second-year core modules will focus on English grammar and the sounds of English, and students will also study period-based literature from the Renaissance onwards, gaining an understanding of literary history, from Elizabethan verse and drama to the emergence of modernity in the 20 the century. A core module in English Literature will introduce students to a range of theoretical lenses which they can apply to their further study of texts.

Students will have the chance to specialise in their final year, tailoring their degree to reflect their own interests. English Literature options include children’s literature, young adult fiction, 21 st century American literature and literary adaptations, amongst others.

Alongside these, a module on Corpus Studies in English Language will allow students to bring their literature and language interests together. Using Sketch Engine, a text analysis tool that enables students to search vast databases of language, they'll be able to search literary texts to identify how particular words have been used in novels or literature. With more than 15 billion words available to students, they’ll be able to ask questions no one has asked before and pursue uniquely creative research projects.