English Literature Degree

The English Literature degree at Aberystwyth allows you to explore the literary texts and cultures that fire your imagination, from the medieval period to the present day. Whilst you study your English Literature Degree we'll offer you an opportunity to engage with a wide variety of approaches to literature and cultural history; in addition, the reading and interpretative skills you will learn, together with the creative energies released, will serve you extremely well in a wide variety of job markets. The Department of English and Creative Writing, which rated ‘Excellent’ in the most recent Assessment of Teaching Quality, offers you a flexible programme that combines tradition and innovation, breadth and depth.

Studying the English Literature degree will encourage you to read widely and to think critically about writing and its contexts. We also aim to develop your powers of expression and communication in both speech and writing. Consequently, in addition to essay writing, the presentation of seminar papers and participation in seminar and workshop discussion will be important parts of your work here. 

English Literature Degree - Year 1

The first year offers a broadly based introduction to the subject. The first module, Encountering Texts, focuses on a range of different approaches to reading and writing about literary texts from different periods and is designed to develop research, writing and presentation skills. It acts as an excellent ‘bridge’ course. Other core modules are Ancestral Voices, comprising detailed study of poetry, drama and prose from the period before 1800; and Re-writing, Re-Visioning Texts, exploring the ways in which writers and filmmakers have adapted literary works into new forms and other media. Another key first year module is the popular option Contemporary Writing, which introduces you to a selection of recent poetry and fiction.

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

English Literature Degree - Years 2 and 3

The scheme consists of a linked set of four core modules, covering a sequence of historical periods in the development of English Literature from Chaucer to the present day. Feeding into this historical core are two modules on literary theory and its practical application in the
analysis of literary texts. Your programme is completed by your own choice of specialist option modules from the wide range offered by the Department, and by your final-year dissertation.

The historical period modules, taken in your second year, are designed to introduce you to a wide range of significant literary texts and to open doors into thematic, generic or socio-historical issues that can be pursued in more detail in specialist options. The theory modules deepen your conceptual understanding of English as a discipline, and help you to develop the skills and methods necessary for literary analysis. Option modules allow a more concentrated focus on aspects of the subject that particularly interest you. Their topics are usually closely related to the active research interests and enthusiasms of the tutor concerned. Examples of current options include: Haunting Texts: Victorian and Modern Ghost Stories; Renaissance Magic; Romantic Visions, Dangerous Worlds; Reimagining the World Wars; Detective and Crime Fiction; UK Poetry since the 1970s; (for the full list of nearly 50 options, see the departmental brochure). Finally, your dissertation will be the most detailed, advanced and independent piece of work that you undertake, and will equip you with the necessary skills for higher degree work, if that is your future inclination.

Assessment

Assessment methods 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.