Objectivesencourage engagement with a significant range of literary/non-literary genres, inc. film/music, texts in the English language from the British Isles/US/other English-speaking communities, from Anglo-Saxon times to present day; provide opportunity to study/specialise in literature, theory, film, popular song, and new media; enable study of text in historical/cultural contexts and develop appreciation of significance of such contexts on the representation of allegedly `universal' concepts; to appreciate how our own historical/cultural location affects our understanding of literature; familiarise students with, and enable them to apply, traditional and modern theories of literary/cultural criticism; develop powers of critical/analytical thinking; appreciation of crafting of written utterances and interrelationships between texts; ability to apply such techniques to sophisticated primary/secondary texts; encourage students to respond imaginatively, intellectually, emotionally and independently to the written word and enable them to carry this quality of response into future reading experience; encourage enthusiasm for English and appreciation of its importance in the world today/in the future; foster sophisticated literacy skills (inc., where chosen, creative writing), whilst encouraging correct and appropriate presentation/referencing; develop fluency and clarity in discussion and in oral and written presentation; encourage continuous, developing process of reflection, enabling both responsibility for personal learning and ability to make informed choices for future development; develop skills for employment/further study, both discipline-related and transferable to other contexts; sustain community of constantly-reviewed knowledge and critical appreciation of literature and other cultural forms, eg. through postgraduate study/professional careers.
Entry requirementsSelected entry requirements English language: Minimum IELTS score of 7.0 or equivalent; eg. NCUK EAP minimum Grade of A with range of 70-79 TOEFL: PBT score of 600; CBT score of 250; TWE score of 5.5; IBT score of 100. A level: Grades AAA-AAB. This should include either grade A in English Literature or English Language and Literature. General Studies is welcomed but not normally included as part of the standard offer. AS-levels are not accepted in place of an A-level. Unit grade information: The University of Manchester welcomes the provision of unit grade information which, like all other available information, will inform the consideration of applications. Unit grades will not normally form part of offer conditions, except for Mathematics programmes. GCSE: Minimum of grade A in English Language, English Literature or English Language and Literature. Key Skills qualification: The University warmly welcomes applications from students studying the Key Skills qualification. However, as the opportunities to take these modules are not open to all applicants, currently this is not an essential requirement of the University. International baccalaureate: 37-35 points overall, including 7 points in English Literature at Higher level, plus 6 or 7 in two further Higher Level subjects. Additional entry requirements Additional entry requirements exist for this course. You may view these by selecting from the list below.
Academic titleBA English Literature
Course descriptionThis degree gives students access to the full range of English Studies. Alongside the traditional range of English Literature from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day, students are able to study American, Irish and post-colonial literatures as well as cultural theory, creative writing and film. In the first year, students sample a wide variety of literature and cultural theory and develop a solid basis of knowledge and skill which they then build on in years 2 and 3. All courses are compulsory in year 1, while in years 2 and 3, students select their courses from a range of options. There is a compulsory dissertation in the final year.
Course content for year 1
Please note that the following list is intended to be a guide only - course content or availability may change slightly as we aim to improve and update our courses yearly.
Compulsory (all 20 credits)
ENGL10021 Reading Literature
ENGL10032 Contexts of Writing
ENGL10042 Textual communities: Text, Hypertext and Readers
ENGL10051 Mapping the Medieval
ENGL10171 Academic Development
free choice at level 1
Course content for year 2
Please note that the following list is intended to be a guide only - course content or availability may change slightly as we aim to improve and update our courses yearly.
Optional - 120 credits from any of the following
ENGL20001 Introduction to Creative Writing
ENGL***** Introduction to Old English Texts
ENGL***** Getting Medieval: Chaucerian Visions
ENGL***** Medieval Women
ENGL***** Power and Gender in Early Modern Literature, 1580-1620
ENGL20372 Shakespeare: Genre, Text and Performance
ENGL***** Forms of Poetry, 1700-1900
ENGL***** The Rise of the Novel, 1700-1820
ENGL20482 Gender, Sexuality and Culture: Freud and After
ENGL20491 Writing, Identity and Nation
ENGL***** The Victorian Novel
ENGL***** Life and Death in Anglo-Saxon England
Reading Middle English Manuscripts
AMER30712 African-American Literature, 1900-1980
AMER20072 American Film: Theory and Practice
AMER***** American Political culture
AMER20262 America in the 40s and 50s
AMER20371 America Between the Wars
AMER20481 American Literature and Social Criticism
Course content for year 3
Please note that the following list is intended to be a guide only - course content or availability may change slightly as we aim to improve and update our courses yearly.
Compulsory - 20 Credits
Dissertation
Optional - 100 credits from any of the following:
ENGL***** Reading the English Renaissance Bible
ENGL30052 Early Modern Identities: Bodies Selves and Life Writing 1590-1690
ENGL30071 Gothic, Gender and Identity in Scottish and Irish Writing
ENGL***** Old English Literature: Beowulf
ENGL30122 Creative Writing (Open only to those who took ENGL20001)
ENGL***** The Age of Johnson
ENGL20341 Women's Writing, 1600-1818
ENGL***** English Names and Naming
ENGL***** Three Modern Dramatists: Beckett, Orton, Pinter
ENGL***** Aesthetes and Decadents
ENGL***** The Romantic Imagination
ENGL30641 D H Lawrence
ENGL***** 19th Century Literary and Cultural Theory
ENGL30682 Jane Austen
ENGL30771 Reading Popular Narratives
ENGL***** Sexual Dissidence and Literature, post-1900
ENGL***** Beckett and Modernity
ENGL30972 Contemporary Post-Colonial Fiction and Film
ENGL***** Imperial Encounters: 1850 to the Present
ENGL***** Irish Stories
Reading Middle English Manuscripts
AMER***** Hip Hop and Hollywood
AMER30082 American Self-Representation
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