The School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing is famous for the quality and adventurousness of its teaching. It embraces several interlinked disciplines; for example, you can choose to study drama or creative writing alongside English and related literatures. The English Literature degree programme explores a wide range of writing from the medieval period to the present day – from the Arthurian Tradition via Shakespeare, Milton, Austen, the Brontës, Joyce, to novelists who are still writing now – and it combines this with a range of innovatory approaches and specialist topics. 

The degree course is studied in an interdisciplinary atmosphere.  Alongside specialists in English Literature, you will also work with teachers and students who are involved with Creative Writing, Drama, Philosophy, Modern Languages, American Studies, Film Studies, History and History of Art.  The options system also allows you to explore one or other of these subjects yourself: in each of the three years, besides your options within the English syllabus, you can choose one module from another discipline, according to your own interests and aptitude.

The whole programme is based on the awareness that literature is not an abstract or unworldly pursuit, but something which happens in the real world. That is why we teach historically, so that literature is seen in larger contexts; and it is why we host regular extra-curricular visits by contemporary writers who read and discuss their work. We also emphasise making literature as well as studying it: there is the opportunity to extend your awareness of literature through your own writing.  To facilitate all this we employ a variety of teaching strategies (small group seminars, larger-scale lectures, writing workshops, individual projects and dissertations). Assessment is carried out in each teaching module (either by coursework, assessed practical project or by occasional short exams) so that there are no ‘finals’.

Course Structure:
 

Year 1

The first year provides a foundation for the study of literature at degree level, introducing important theoretical concepts, offering strategies for both reading and writing texts, and opening up problematic questions of literature’s historical and contemporary relation to the society which produces and receives it.  All students take the module Literature in History, which runs throughout the year and introduces the sustained study of texts in their historical and cultural milieu, and teaches you how to interpret plays, poems and narratives in their historical contexts. You will also take the tutorial module Reading Texts, a small-group tutorial module which helps you to become a more resourceful and independent reader and again, is a year-long module. The third module to be taken in the first semester will be chosen from a range of complementary subjects: American Studies, Drama, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Film Studies, and History. In the second semester, alongside Literature in History, and Reading Texts, most students will choose to study the module Writing Texts, which allows you to focus upon skills of critical and creative writing in addition to exploring the nature of the writing process itself.  During the first year you have the opportunity to begin to pursue distinct ‘pathways’ in your studies relating to areas of individual interest.  

Year 2

In the second and third years, you choose from an extensive range of options to assemble a course that reflects your interests. There are no compulsory modules, but we do constrain your choices so that you encounter a good historical range of different kinds of writing.  In the second year, you choose five modules from the wide range on offer and available modules change regularly in order to stay fresh and relevant.  The main "menu" is made up of lecture-and-seminar modules devoted to quite large topics in literature - for example Shakespeare, 19th Century Writing, or Modernism.  Alongside these there are smaller modules that encourage you to venture outside the literary mainstream: modules for instance about critical theory, dramatic literature, postcolonialism, or journalism.  It is at this point too, that many Literature students choose to take at least one module in Creative Writing: there are regular workshops in prose fiction, poetry, scriptwriting and literary translation.  Even if you would not see yourself as "a writer", you can enrich your study of literature by trying to produce some.  Your final module in the second year is "free choice" which opens up other directions of study to you.

Year 3

Third-year modules are more intensive: you take only four in the course of the year and this will be more specialised seminar-based work. These modules often reflect the research interests of the staff who teach them, and they demand more initiative from you.   There are no lectures: each group works as a seminar and everyone is expected to contribute on the basis of their own reading.  The range of topics is wide - about thirty such seminars run each year - and is constantly changing a little.  Examples of current seminar topics include Regency Women Writers, Trauma, Psyche and Modern Literature, Henry James: Questions of Art, Life and Theory, Medieval Arthurian Traditions, Revenge Tragedy: Ancient and Modern, Biography, The Gothic. At this level there is an emphasis on independent projects and individually tailored dissertations, and you could choose to undertake an 8,000-word dissertation. This means that instead of joining a taught module, you undertake an individual study with a member of staff as your supervisor.  You can also take courses in other disciplines such as film, dramatic literature, creative writing, philosophy, or history.

This programme can also be taken as a part-time course of study (lasting 5-7 years). 

Teaching and Assessment:
Key skills, issues and ideas are introduced in lectures given by all members of faculty, including literary critics, literary historians and writers. More specialist study is undertaken in small group seminars. These are chosen from a range offered within the School and across the University. You will also spend time studying and researching in the library or carrying out practical work or projects. In most subject areas, you are assessed at the end of each year on the basis of coursework and, in some cases, project and examination results. In your final year, you will write a dissertation on a topic of your choice and with the advice of tutors. There is no final examination. Your final degree result is determined by the marks you receive in years two and three.