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BA (Hons) English Literature

Explore British and world literature from the Renaissance to the modern day

Explore British and world literature from the Renaissance to the modern day

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Q310
3 years full-time
Bishop Otter Campus (Chichester)
  • Opportunities to study Austen, Dickens, Wilde, Wollstonecraft, Pullman and many more
  • Analyse texts that push beyond realism with options in science fiction, fantasy and gothic literature
  • Learn from expert staff and researchers
  • Smaller class sizes for better learning
students reading books in the park

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Overview

Explore Literature from Britain and Beyond from the Medieval to the Present Day

Explore your passion for literature, discover new literary worlds and engage in critical debate as you analyse texts from a variety of contexts, time periods, and authors.

You will have the opportunity to study texts from the Medieval and Early Modern eras, through the Renaissance and Victorian periods, and into the present day.

Along the way, you will study some of the most well-known names in literature such as Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde and the Brontës.

You will learn from experienced tutors and experts who use the latest research to underlie their teaching to ensure that you have access to the latest debates within the study of literature.

On this course you will:

  • Study some of the most well-known names in literature such as Margaret Atwood, Charles Dickens, and Kazuo Ishiguro.
  • Engage with texts from the Medieval period through the Present Day, by authors from both Britain and across the world.
  • Gain an insight into a variety of genres and styles, including contemporary women’s writing and contemporary fantasy.
  • Learn from our expert team of published writers and leading academics.
  • Engage with contemporary issues such as climate change, race and sexuality.
  • Build your degree around your interests.

The Course

Critically engage with English literature from a range of periods and contexts

Year One

In your first year, you will explore Victorian literature from the Brontës through to Oscar Wilde, as well as examine the exciting space of Modernist experimentation in the twentieth century, French Literature in translation, post-World War Two literature, and the fiction of the present day.

You will also encounter new ways of thinking about the world, human identity, and wider critical and philosophical questions raised within the texts that you study.

Year Two

In year two, you will delve into past cultures, experiencing the rich literature of the Renaissance and encountering Romantics, rebels and reactionaries. You’ll also have the opportunity to read contesting texts by 20th century female authors, as well as a range of World Literature.

You will choose to deepen your knowledge of fantasy, fairy tales or the gothic as well as discussing detective writing, science fiction, ecology and romance: you’ll be fascinated by the other worlds you discover.

Year Three

In your third year, you will select from numerous specialisms and design your own research project on a topic of your choice. Tutors draw on their latest research to allow you to study the contemporary fairy tale, the literature of the First World War, the connections between Psychology and Cultural production, the literature of Venice, Romantic Women’s Writing, the Graphic Novel, and more.

This list is indicative and subject to change.

Select a year

Conflicts and Controversies in Victorian Literature: Charlotte Bronte to Charles Dickens

This module will familiarise you with a series of key texts from the early and mid-Victorian period, covering the 1830s through to the 1860s.

You will focus on some of the major conflicts and controversies associated with this time of significant change, and will consider the different ways in which a range of writers responded to these concerns.

Contemporary Fiction: War, Women and the World – Bowen to MacLeod

This module considers the historical period since the Second World War, focusing in particular on the social, cultural and personal changes in relation to fiction. You will consider literary texts in relation to key contextual and historical information, looking at the new forms developed by contemporary writers in order to write about a period of social change, conflicts and controversies.

Critical Writing: An Introduction

This module is built around the key research, reading and writing skills that are fundamental to the study of English Literature at degree level.

You will start with the basic close reading techniques that you will use throughout your degree. the module then moves on to a consideration of research and library skills. You will also learn how to engage critically with secondary sources. Finally, you will learn how to plan, write, reference and proofread written work.

Decadence and Desire: Late Nineteenth Century Literature

This module will familiarise you with a series of key texts from the late Victorian period, covering the 1880s through to the turn of the century.

It will focus on some of the major conflicts and controversies associated with this time of significant economic, political and social change as you consider the different ways in which a range of writers responded to these concerns.

Investigating Interpretation: Ideas in Literature From Marx to Barthes

The course traces the origin of ideas in literature through three key thinkers: Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. These thinkers will introduce you to the notion that our language is crucial to the way the world is constituted.

Literature Now: Reading and Writing the Present Moment

This module introduces you to the contemporary cultural landscape by exploring recent literary texts and transformations of the literary (film, graphic novels, digital texts, gamification, etc.). Tracing multiple forms of ‘writing’ and ‘reading’, you will gain the capacity to engage creatively with the present and to develop your own critical responses.

Make It New: Modernist Experimentation From T.S. Eliot to Graham Greene

This module explores the first half of the twentieth century, focusing in particular on the radical developments and experimentation associated with modernist literature.

You will engage with the forms developed by modernist writers in order to write about the period of rapid change, conflict and controversy in which they lived.

Subverting the Subject: Ideas in Literature From Barthes to Butler

This module explores the ideas of a key set of thinkers who have sought to subvert traditional conceptions of ‘the subject’. Using literary fiction as a foundation, you will consider all the ways in which the concept of the subject might be determined by outside forces, rather than solely through the individual.

Agents of Change: Women’s Writing in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

This module explores the challenges made by women’s writing, both critical and creative, to established authority over the past two centuries.

Experiments in Fiction: Magic, Detection, Sci Fi and Beyond

This module aims to provide you with an understanding of, and ability to recognise, a range of genres in prose fiction.

You will gain an understanding of genre as a means of classification and understand that the way a text employs genre shapes its meaning.

Fairy Tales: Early Modern to Postmodern

Gain an informed historical and critical perspective on a powerful literary and cultural tradition beginning with the fairy tales written in early modern Italy, continuing through Perrault, D’Aulnoy, Grimm, Andersen to the work of more contemporary authors such as Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood. It also asks where we can turn to for modern fairy tales, through a focus on the use of fairy tale tropes in the work of J.K Rowling and Philip Pullman.

From ‘Angry Young Men’ to Cool Britannia?: A Historical Analysis of British Cultural Activity After 1945

This module provides you with an opportunity to analyse examples of British cultural activity after 1945 within their artistic, political, and historical contexts.

The module discusses a series of key movements of cultural production, for example, ‘the Angry Young Men’; ‘Cold War fictions’; or ‘Thatcherism/responses to Thatcherism’.

Poetry: 1300 to the Present

The module aims to develop your understanding of rhythm, rhyme, free verse, diction, particular verbal effects, timbre, tone, and voice. It will encourage awareness of the centrality of genre to a wide range of poetic practice from the Renaissance to the present day.

Renaissance to Restoration

This module explores the evolution of poetry and prose throughout the Renaissance era and into the Restoration period of the 17th century, as result of major political and religious turbulence.

You will consider the works of Spencer, Marlowe and Shakespeare, who begin to explore gender and history in their work, before moving on to the satirical poetry of Donne, Marvell, Milton, and Rochester.

Romantics, Rebels and Reactionaries

The module will also assess how far second-generation Romantic poets developed the key Romantic theme of reform, as you consider the influence of the French Revolution on the work of British writers during the 18th century.

You will study the work of renowned and revered Romantic poets including Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Wollstonecraft, alongside the work of Mary Shelley and Jane Austen.

Work Placement

The work placement module allows you to develop your skills in a work environment and gain vital experience to put you ahead in your future career. This allows you to gain experience in, for example, a workplace such as a local newspaper or as a writer-in-residence. You will then use the skills you have learnt on your course in order to reflect critically on the world.

World Literature: Roots and Routes From Conrad to Afrofuturism

This module explores the role of literature in making the modern world. Using texts from around the world, you will consider a new sense of the globe, colonial relations, and the new post-colonial world.

You will consider our sense of having roots in the world, especially national roots.

Charting a path through texts from the late nineteenth to the twenty-first century, the module does not aim to ‘represent’ the totality of world literature. Instead, you will study a selection of texts that engage with crucial issues. Within these, you encounter a variety of themes: from the violent imposition of imperial power, to the ecological challenge of global climate change.

British Culture Wars

This module explores conflict within British culture from the start of the 19th century to the turn of the new millennium.

You will consider the reaction to obscene publications and other literary controversies and moral panics of Victorian Britain, through to the liberal reforms in the 1960s and the self-censorship and the baleful influence of Hollywood on British cinema.

Dissertation

The Dissertation enables you to build on your research and writing skills developed during the first two years of the degree. It gives you the opportunity to work independently on a research project of your own choosing (with supervision), to pursue specialist interests and to strengthen and enhance your knowledge of a chosen subject.

Dissertation

The Dissertation enables you to build on your research and writing skills developed during the first two years of the degree. It gives you the opportunity to work independently on a research project of your own choosing (with supervision), to pursue specialist interests and to strengthen and enhance your knowledge of a chosen subject.

European Literary Legacies: Writing the City

This module will deal with connections between the reader, author and cityscape.

Using Venice as an example, as well as key psychogeographic works by Benjamin, de Certeau, Debord, Sinclair and others, you will examine key works created and inspired by Venice over the past four hundred years.

By doing so, you will consider how cityscapes are created and affect conceptualisations of settings outside the boundaries of their original texts.

Fairy Tales: Early Modern to Postmodern

Gain an informed historical and critical perspective on a powerful literary and cultural tradition beginning with the fairy tales written in early modern Italy, continuing through Perrault, D’Aulnoy, Grimm, Andersen to the work of more contemporary authors such as Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood. It also asks where we can turn to for modern fairy tales, through a focus on the use of fairy tale tropes in the work of J.K Rowling and Philip Pullman.

Gothic, Romanticism and Women’s Writing: From Mary Wollstonecraft to Jane Austen

The aim of this module is to introduce you to the exciting range of women’s prose writing in the late 18th century, as you consider the relationship between such writing and the political debates of the period.

You will discover how this writing, while often underrated, was of importance to Romantic aesthetics, often primarily understood and defined in terms of poetry written by men.

The Cultural History of Death

This module explores how literary representations of the historical and social treatment of the dead presents a vivid insight into the cultural behaviour, ideology and social order of different cultural and historical contexts.
You will explore the beliefs and attitudes towards the dead within literature from the Middles Ages through to more contemporary examples and debates.

Unconscious Desires: Psychoanalysis and Culture From Freud to Žižek

This module explores the notion of unconscious desire and the expression of these desires in literature and culture.

You will trace the emergence of the ideas of psychoanalysis in the work of Freud and how various psychoanalytic thinkers have transformed the notion of unconscious desire and used it to grasp literary and cultural forms.

Unforgettable Corpses: Literature, Cultural Memory and the First World War

This module will examine literary products of the First World War, the methods by which the authors reproduced, described and fictionalised their experiences.

The second half of the module will also consider the use of First World War tropes in literature produced in the latter half of the 20th century, compare the application of those narrative devices, and critically assess the later use of those devices.

Writing, Environment and Ecocriticism

This module will offer you the opportunity to explore the ways in which contemporary writers and critics engage with images, issues and concepts of the environment in novels, poetry and non-fiction. You will choose whether you wish to engage with the themes of the module as a critic or a creative writer.

Experience

Find facilities and research centres that support your learning

Rosie

Rosie

English Literature graduate
"Being at a smaller university is something I love, my favourite thing about studying here is how individually recognised you are by the English lecturers. It's always easy to organise a meeting with them and have a quick chat about how you're doing on the course."

Teaching and Assessment

Feel the support of expert staff and researchers

Teaching

Our team of experienced tutors and experts use the latest research to underlie their teaching. This ensures that you have access the latest debates within the study of English Literature.

Much of our teaching takes place in small groups. Our commitment to smaller class sizes allows you to feel more confident to discuss your ideas in a supportive environment.

It also allows your tutors get to know you and how best to aid your development.

Assessment

Our BA (Hons) English Literature course uses a range of assessments methods, including:

  • Essays
  • Textual analysis
  • Commentary
  • Collaborative project work
  • Portfolio
  • Dissertation
  • Manuscript work.

 
Modules are assessed at every stage of the course, allowing you to clearly see your academic progress throughout your degree.

Work Placements

Gain vital experience within the workplace

We encourage our students to get culturally involved and gain experience. You could pursue experience as a student blogger, with student societies, with local heritage projects or with our own vibrant research culture.

In your second year, you will have the option to take a work placement module. This allows you to work as, for example, a journalist or within a publishing environment, then to reflect critically upon the experience.

Guest Speakers

Hear from visiting writers with regular guest events

The University boasts a blossoming writing culture and community, with regular book launches and conferences.

Some renowned authors to have visited the University in recent years include:

  • Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy
  • Matthew Sweeney
  • Helen Dunmore
  • Jo Shapcott
  • Sarah Hall
  • Bernardine Evaristo
  • Vicki Feaver
  • Sarah Hall
  • Kate Mosse
  • Alison MacLeod
  • John McCullough.

Study Abroad

Explore the opportunity to study part of your course abroad

As a student at the University of Chichester, you can explore opportunities to study abroad during your studies as you enrich and broaden your educational experiences.

Students who have undertaken this in the past have found it to be an amazing experience to broaden their horizons, a great opportunity to meet new people, undertake further travelling and to immerse themselves within a new culture.

You will be fully supported throughout the process to help find the right destination institution for you and your course. We can take you through everything that you will need to consider, from visas to financial support, to help ensure that you can get the best out of your time studying abroad.

Careers

Open up your future career options

Our English Literature graduates are highly-valued by employers for their strong problem solving and communication skills and often continue into a wide range of careers.

Career paths include:

  • Publishing
  • Teaching
  • Marketing
  • Journalism
  • Communications and PR
  • Local and national government
  • Copywriting

Postgraduate pathways

  • MA Creative Writing
  • MA Cultural History
  • PGCEs
  • Postgraduate Research (MPhil/PhD)

University of Chichester alumni who have completed a full undergraduate degree at the University will receive a 15% discount on their postgraduate fees.

Course Costs

Course Fees 2024/25

UK fee
£9,250
International fee
£15,840

For further details about fees, please see our Tuition Fees page.

For further details about international scholarships, please see our Scholarships page.

To find out about any additional costs on this course, please see our Additional Costs page.

Entry Requirements

Typical Offer (individual offers may vary)

UCAS
104 - 120
tariff points.
A Levels
BBB - BCC
including English Literature, English Language, English Language and Literature, Creative Writing or Drama at grade B or C.
Access to HE Diploma
Pass
with 12 level 3 credits worth of English units at Merit.
IB
28 points
with English Higher at 4.
IELTS
6.0 overall
with no element lower than 5.5.

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