ObjectivesThis degree gives you an excellent knowledge of a wide range of literary texts, from medieval times to contemporary popular culture, while allowing you to choose where you wish to specialise.It also provides a high level of competence in reading, writing and speaking Italian.You will develop critical confidence and the ability to express your views orally and on paper, providing you with skills of the greatest value: in recent years, Reading graduates with qualifications in these subjects have embarked upon a wide assortment of careers, including teaching, publishing, journalism, the media, management, administration and public relations. Increasing numbers of graduates find positions in marketing and the business world, including the travel industry, where their knowledge of Italian can be an important asset.
Entry requirementsThere are different entry qualifications for each programme. Some programmes require you to have a certain amount of knowledge in a subject before you begin the degree programme – this is called a ‘subject requirement’. Other programmes do not have any specific subject requirements. All programmes will, however, expect you to have reached a certain standard in your education and will ask you to achieve certain grades in your examinations. Most programmes have a standard offer so that you know in advance what you are likely to need. Please note that even if you have the minimum entry qualifications, you are not necessarily guaranteed a place on the degree programme.
Academic titleBA English Literature and Italian
Course descriptionYear 1
-English Literature
-Languages of Literature
-What Kind of Text is This?
-Revisioning Shakespeare
-Italian
Year 2
-English Literature
-Renaissance Texts and Cultures
-Modern Drama
-Romantics to Decadents
-Modernity, Crisis and Narrative Fiction
-Writing America
-Film Narrative
-Literary Criticism and Theory
-Communications at Work
-Women's Writing
-Creative Writing and Critical Practice
-Italian
-EITHER Advanced Italian Language II
-OR Intermediate Italian Language
-Italian Cinema
-Italian History & Society since 1945
-Italian Modernism
-Italian Narrative & Poetry in the Nineteenth Century
-Writing Women in Early Modern Italy (1350-1600)
-Women in Contemporary Italy (1900-2000)
-Contemporary Italian Literature
Year 3
-Italian Oral
-Italian Written and Oral Presentation
-Credits from Italian University Course (these make up half the year's work)
-Joint Dissertation preparation
Fourth (Final) Year
-From Troy to Camelot: Medieval Romance
-Renaissance Women Writing
-The Roots of Gothic
-Victorian Sensation Novels
-Children's Literature
-American Poetry
-Jane Austen & the Courtship Novel
-Contemporary Drama
-Italian
-Advanced Italian Language III
-Aspects of the Renaissance in France & Italy
-European Cinema
-Women's Everyday Life in Italy from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution
-Modern Movements in Poetry 1900-1920
-The South since 1860
-Fantastic Literature in Italy 1860s-1980s
-Umberto Eco
-Italian for Managers