English and World Literatures degree

English and World Literatures Degree - Q200 (BA)

In studying the English and World Literatures degree you will gain a truly global perspective on literary studies in English. The English and World Literatures degree allows you to explore the work of leading international writers from Africa, Asia, Australasia, the Caribbean and North America, as well as the most urgent literary voices from the British and Irish archipelago. This scheme offers an exciting combination of a ‘traditional’ English degree and a course of study that reveals the diversity of English-language writing emerging from global locations of culture.

English and World Literatures degree - Year 1

The first year offers a broadly based introduction to the subject of World Literatures in English. There are three core modules: the first, Issues in Contemporary World Literatures, plays a crucial role in introducing you to the study of global varieties of imaginative writing in English during the 20th and 21st centuries. It also instructs you in the critical skills needed to encounter this body of literature. Organised along geographical, historical and thematic lines, the module examines a range of international writing from Africa, Australasia, North America and Asia, illuminating issues of colonial legacies, myths of race, the meanings of ‘home’, political solidarity and social mobility. The module pays close attention to diverse literary genres (novel, short story, poetry and drama).

Alongside this designated World Literatures module, you will take Encountering Texts, which focuses on a range of different approaches to reading and writing about literary texts from different periods and which develops research, writing and presentation skills. The third core module is Ancestral Voices, which comprises detailed study of poetry, drama and prose from the period before 1800. You will also choose from a range of optional modules, including Rewriting, Revisioning Texts, which focuses on the ways in which literary texts have been adapted into different media (including film), and Contemporary Writing.

All of these modules are taught by lectures and weekly seminars and are assessed by a combination of coursework and an end-of-module examination paper.

English and World Literatures degree - Years 2 and 3

In the second year, the degree consists of a ‘core’ taken by all students, comprising the following modules:

  • Postcolonial Literatures: Perspectives and Paradigms expands your understanding of the range of world literatures in English by focusing on postcolonial environments, cultures and literatures in light of a range of key narratives (novels, memoirs, poems, plays and critical interventions) from Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Australasia and the Caribbean
  • Reading Theory/Reading Text 1, allows you to develop the skills and methods necessary for literary analysis, and which asks such questions as ‘What is it we’re doing when we analyse texts, and how has this process of interpretation and analysis changed over the centuries?’
  • And two core historical courses from a range of four – Medieval and Renaissance Writing; Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature; Nineteenth-Century Literature; and Twentieth-Century British Literature – all of which introduce you to representative texts from the main periods of the English literary tradition. You will also take two approved specialist option modules from a wide range of choices.

The final year of the scheme comprises:

  • a core theory module, Reading Theory/Reading Text 2: World Literatures, which addresses the ways we go about theorising World Literatures in the age of globalisation;
  • the Dissertation, which gives you the opportunity to engage with an extended piece of writing on a subject of your own choosing related to World Literatures, and which equips you with advanced research and bibliographical skills;
  • and two approved specialist option modules from the Department’s list.

Assessment

Assessment methods across the second and third years combine examination papers (seen and unseen) with continuously assessed coursework and group oral presentations – a recent innovation that students find particularly useful as they prepare for the job market.

Entry Requirements

300 points with B in English Literature

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