Explore a range of writers from across the globe and every period of history, from the middle ages

right
up to the present, with our BA English Literature course.

Our English Literature degree will enable you to examine in greater detail authors and genres that you
may already know (from tragedy to Gothic, from Shakespeare and Dickens to Plath and Beckett). But it
will also introduce you to aspects of literary studies that may be less familiar to you, from children's
literature to publishing studies and the history of the book. Our academics have published research on
everything from medieval poetry to contemporary American fiction, and they will help you to develop
your own literary enthusiasms.

On this course, you will also have the option to study creative writing throughout your degree. Our
lecturers and professors of creative writing are all writers who work at the highest professional levels.

Your first year will ensure that you have the advanced skills in literary analysis necessary for
undergraduate work as you explore the major genres of English literature:

 prose

 poetry

 drama

 non-fiction.

You will think about the different ways that literary texts respond to their cultural contexts and how
they accrue new meanings in the process of interpretation. Other, optional areas of study can include
creative writing, American literature, translation, book history, and comparative literature.

In your second year, your studies can range from medieval poetry to contemporary fiction and cover a
wide range of topics and approaches to reading.

In your third year, your studies can be more diverse and specialised. For example, you can do archive
work or look at the politics of literature.

Everyone in the Department of English Literature, from new lecturers to professors, teaches at every
level of the degree. This gives you the benefit of our expertise and makes you part of the conversation
about the ways that English studies are developing.