Overview
This course will bring the great authors and works to life, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present, on an imaginatively taught course that will prepare you for a range of careers.
Careers
Our graduates go on to careers in teaching, journalism, TV and radio, the music industry, arts administration, gallery work, fundraising, HR, publishing, library management, marketing and PR, public services, tourism and IT.
We work with many cultural organisations, including the Heritage Lottery Fund and the John Clare Trust. There’ll be work experience and special placement opportunities with some of these, as well as the chance to network with future employers.
Modules & assessment
Year one, core modules
- Introduction to English Literature 1
- Introduction to English Literature 2
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Introduction to Literary Criticism
This module will introduce you to studying English Literature at University, and allow you to develop skills such as reading critically and communicating clearly. In the first semester you'll get an overview of the degree structure and examine some key critical terms, problems and approaches for students of English. These include, for example: the literary canon and value; narrative theory; realism and representation; genre; the production of meaning; relationships between literature, history and the world; selected approaches to literature, (including formalist, new historicist, feminist, psychoanalytical and postcolonial criticism) and relationships between literature and identity. You'll explore these topics through a selection of critical texts and short extracts from plays, novels, short stories and poems (extracts provided). You'll attend a one-hour lecture and a two-hour seminar each week, including a library induction session. -
Tragedy
This module will introduce you to the diverse ways in which tragedy has been produced and theorised, from Ancient Greece to the present day. You’ll begin by considering staging conventions and cultural contexts of tragic plays produced in Ancient Greece, as well as Aristotle’s ideas about tragedy. You’ll then consider how tragedy has been produced in other times and cultures, with an emphasis on the dramatic output of Renaissance England and the production of tragedy in the modern period. Possible areas of investigation include the potentially subversive nature of tragedy, its relationship with justice or its impact on love, gender and sexuality. Through wide-ranging investigations of ‘the tragic’, you will gain knowledge of a variety of tragic plays, develop an understanding of theatre history, conventions and theory, and consider how these materials relate to wider social, cultural and historical issues. - Western Civilisation
Year two, core modules
- Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama
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Romantic Conflicts
Conflict can be found in all literature. However, in the Romantic period it seems to have been the essence of the spirit of the age. Percy Shelley called the French Revolution of 1789 ‘the master theme of the epoch in which we live’, and indeed many critics and historians date the beginning of the Romantic period from then. In fact Britain was at war with France for most of this period (from 1793 to 1815) trying to undo the revolution, restore a king, and with him, the old aristocratic ruling class. Class conflict was in the air well before 1789 as William Hazlitt notes: ‘the French revolution might be described as a remote but inevitable result of the invention of the art of printing.’ What he means here is that an overwhelming public consensus had to be achieved before a revolution could occur and the only way to achieve this is through the mass dissemination of ideas – through literature. Conflict can occur in any arena: class, race, debates over animal welfare, the lecture theatre (for example the debates between Hazlitt and Coleridge) and of course in personal relationships. Therefore, the scope of this module is a large one. You will be invited to read as widely as possible in this period and not merely stick to the set texts or the subjects of lectures and seminars. -
The Victorian Experience: Texts and Contexts
On this year-long module, you'll engage with Victorian texts and their various contexts in both breadth and depth. You'll examine texts in relation to key historical developments and the issues to which these developments gave rise and currency. In the first semester, your main literary focus will be on poetry (such as Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning), interspersed with a consideration of relevant contextual topics and debates (such as industrialisation and gender issues). In the first half of the second semester, your work will be devoted to mid-Victorian fiction. You'll compare novels by, for example, Dickens and Gaskell, which offer different models of realism and different versions of a search for identity, with reference to the contextual issues introduced in the first semester. For the rest of the module time, you'll explore literary and contextual developments in the late Victorian period, assessing generic innovations (the 'new' drama of Wilde and Shaw, short stories by Kipling, Vernon Lee and Olive Schreiner) in relation to contextual novelties, such as the new woman, the new imperialism, socialism and aestheticism. -
Postcolonialism
On this module you'll explore the meanings that were once attached to the British Empire and how some 19th and early 20th century writers expressed their often contradictory and ambivalent attitudes to the imperial project and the responsibilities of running an empire. These writers may include Rudyard Kipling, E.M. Forster, Flora Annie Steele, and George Orwell. You'll then read and analyse selected texts by writers from nations which have won their independence from Britain (for example Derek Walcott and Ama Ata Aidoo), comparing them with texts written from European perspectives. You'll also be introduced to the ideas of post-colonial theorists such as Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and Homi Babha, and discuss influential critical concepts such as orientalism, the subaltern and mimicry. At the end of the module you'll examine the significance of multicultural ideas and examples of writing produced by both first- and second-generation immigrants to Britain, possibly including some film or television material. Your assessment will take the form of a 3000-word essay. - American Literature
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News and Feature Writing
This intensive reading and writing module will introduce you to the techniques of print journalism, focusing on news reports and feature articles. The skills required for effective news and feature writing are a key component of writing craft in any genre of fiction or non-fiction. It's a discipline that improves the imaginative work and communicative power of those who practice it. You'll explore the significance of journalistic writing in contemporary life using examples from a range of British tabloid, broadsheet and local publications. You'll practise sourcing news reports, developing feature articles and sub-editing for style and content. In seminar workshops, you'll combine analysis of journalistic techniques with practical writing exercises, covering topics that include: researching and pitching a story; interviewing; puns and rhythm; and economical use of language. Early on, you'll produce a set of briefs that must be approved by the seminar leader, then produce copy for these briefs and, in editorial teams, giving and receiving constructive criticism.
Year three, core modules
- Major Project
- After the Deluge: Writing, Film, Culture and Society Since 1945
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Contemporary Fiction
In this module you will look at a range of fiction written in the last 10 years, examining formal and thematic issues and the relationships between them. You will consider narrative experimentation (the recycling of old stories and forms), the representation of history, posthumanism, globalization, technology. Since there is inevitably an absence of established critical texts on the contemporary works studied, you will consider alternative sources of critical opinion (academic journals, the internet, broadsheet and broadcast journalism); and the ways in which new novels demand and shape new criticism. Your assessment will consist of a 3000-word essay at the end of the semester. -
Modern Science Fiction
In this module you will study the development of modern science fiction, concentrating on major texts from the postwar period. You are expected to acquire a detailed knowledge of the history of science fiction and a critical understanding of the problems of defining it in relation to other forms of literature. You are also expected to gain an understanding of the distinctive pleasures which science fiction offers its readers. The emphasis is on science fiction as a literature of ideas. In this module you will be concerned primarily with science fiction as a literary form rather than with its manifestations in other media, but the demands of adapting science fiction to other media will be considered. You will read short stories, novels, and critical essays enabling you to develop a detailed knowledge of science fiction from the 1930s to the present day, and gain an understanding of some key science fiction tropes and sub-genres. - Women's Writing, Gender and Sexuality
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Working in English and Media
This module, with a focus on work experience, will help prepare you for targeted entry into the world of multimedia, film, television, cinema, radio, video, teaching, publishing, arts administration and related creative and cultural industries. You'll identify, negotiate and carry out a work placement, or produce a commissioned product, in a chosen area, with guidance from the relevant Course Leader and Module Leader, who will provide ongoing consultation, supervision and support in association with the University's Careers Service. You'll develop a portfolio and write a critical essay, both of which you'll submit at the end of the semester. Your portfolio should include: your CV; copies of a range of academic work (including a DVD showreel, where appropriate); evidence of extra-curricular activities; evidence of work experience. Presentation is crucial to your portfolio, and you should make use of all available multi-media when refining your work. This module will form part of your ongoing programme of Personal Development Planning.
Assessment
We’ll assess your progress through essays, exams, professional development portfolios, individual and group projects, and your dissertation.
Where you'll study
Your faculty
Using our expertise and connections in Cambridge and beyond, we nurture creativity and critical thinking to educate, entertain, inspire and understand people, as well as improving their lives.
In the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, we nurture creativity through experimentation and risk-taking, and encourage critical thinking to educate, entertain, inspire and understand people, as well as improving their lives.
Where can I study?
University Centre Peterborough
University Centre Peterborough (or UCP) is our modern campus in the heart of an historic city.
Fees & funding
Course fees
UK & EU students, 2018/19 (per year)
£8,000
How do I pay my fees?
You can pay your fees in the following ways.
Tuition fee loan
You can take out a tuition fee loan, which you won’t need to start repaying until after your graduate. Or alternatively, there's the option to pay your fees upfront.
Funding for UK & EU students
Most new undergraduate students can apply for government funding to support their studies and university life. This includes Tuition Fee Loans and Maintenance Loans. There are additional grants available for specific groups of students, such as those with disabilities or dependants.
We also offer a fantastic range of ARU scholarships, which provide extra financial support while you’re at university. Find out more about eligibility and how to apply.
Entry requirements
80 UCAS tariff points. Required subject(s): A level English, English Language or English Language/Literature at grade C, or a full Access Certificate in a related subject GCSEs required: 3 GCSEs at grade C or above in English, Mathematics and Science.
Important additional notes
Our published entry requirements are a guide only and our decision will be based on your overall suitability for the course as well as whether you meet the minimum entry requirements. Other equivalent qualifications may be accepted for entry to this course, please email answers@anglia.ac.uk for further information.
We don't accept AS level qualifications on their own for entry to our undergraduate degree courses. However for some degree courses a small number of tariff points from AS levels are accepted as long as they're combined with tariff points from A levels or other equivalent level 3 qualifications in other subjects.
