English Literature BA(Hons)

Why choose this course?

This intellectually rigorous and stimulating course provides the opportunity to study a wide range of English Literature, from Chaucer to the present, and examine the relationship of literature with culture, politics and individual identity. You can choose to study English Literature alongside another subject and will have the chance to study abroad at a partner university in your second year.

You can also choose to study this course as a joint honours degree alongside another subject. See the course combinations section for more information.

Find out why you should study English at Kingston University:

What will you study?

Year 1 introduces you to a wide range of literary texts and builds upon your skills in close reading, argumentative essay writing and conceptual frameworks. You will consider the concept of 'the canon', debating what makes 'great literature'; learn to analyse a range of texts from different historical periods and critical perspectives; and improve your ability to write argumentative and analytical essays about literature at degree level.

In Year 2 the course becomes more specific, exploring literature within the social, cultural, critical and political contexts in which it was created. There are two types of core modules in this year: one provides a conceptual introduction to literatures of place and self, as informed by staff research specialisms; the other improves your independent research skills by allowing you to focus on a text of your choice as selected through consultation with a supervisor. You can also choose to study specialist periods of literature, covering English literature from the medieval period to the present day. During your second year, you will also have the opportunity of spending a period of time abroad at one of our prestigious partner universities in Europe or further afield.

Year 3 explores literary and cultural theories, which will feed into a 'capstone' project or an extended piece of writing, such as a dissertation. You will also be able to study global literatures, and will have the opportunity to choose from a range of special study modules. These modules change each year to reflect staff research interests, but currently include topics such as Victorian popular literature, Bruce Springsteen and contemporary American culture, and Jane Austen.

You will also have the opportunity to study a foreign language for free during your time at the University as part of the Kingston Language Scheme. Options currently include: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish.

Please note that this is an indicative list of modules and is not intended as a definitive list. Those listed here may also be a mixture of core and optional modules.

Year 1 (Level 4)

• Debates in Literature
• Great Books?
• Reading and Interpretation
• Writing and Rhetoric

Year 2 (Level 5)

• Independent Research Studies
• Locating Literature/Speaking Subjects
• Eighteenth Century Literature and Romanticism
• Late Medieval to Early Modern Literature
• Twentieth to Twenty-First Century Literature
• Victorian to Modernist Literature

Year 3 (Level 6)

• English Literature: Global Literatures
• Great Expectations: Theory and Research in Practice
• Special Study: American Dreaming: Suburbia, Literature and Culture
• Special Study: Contemporary Identities: Race, Gender and the Self in Contemporary British Fiction
• Special Study: How NOT to Read a Book: a Survey of Contemporary Literary Criticism
• Special Study: Iris Murdoch and the Novel of Ideas
• Special Study: Jane Austen
• Special Study: Other Victorians: Sex, Crime and Empire
• Special Study: Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama
• Special Study: Writing Women in the 20th and 21st Century

As a student on this course you will be part of the Kingston Writing School, a vibrant community of outstanding writers, journalists and publishers.

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