English Literature BA (Hons)

What makes English Literature at Worcester special?

When you choose to study an English Literature degree at the University of Worcester, you are not simply choosing to explore a diverse and challenging range of books and authors. You are embarking on a journey which asks you to have new and transformative encounters with texts - on paper and in the digital realm, from around the world and from Worcester itself. You will be invited to think about how their use of language changes our understanding of our lives, the lives of others, and the world around us. With the support of your academic tutors, this journey prepares you for a wealth of careers, with our students taking up jobs in publishing, teaching, marketing, the heritage and charity sectors, and many more. You will also be able to take your studies further on an academic or vocational postgraduate course.

Overview

Key features

Available as a Single Honours degree or as part of a Joint Honours degree with subjects including Creative Writing, English Language, Media & Film Studies, and History
Guest lectures from literary figures such as Owen Sheers, Carol Ann Duffy and Patience Agbabi
Develop expertise suited to a range of careers, from teaching to marketing. You will also be well prepared for postgraduate study
Through our work project module and numerous internship opportunities, you can enhance your employability whilst you study
Excellent industry links, including partnerships with Worcester Cathedral and Hay Festival

Register your interest

Enter your details below and we will keep you up to date with useful information about studying at the University of Worcester.

What qualifications will you need?

112

UCAS tariff points

Entry requirements

Applicants who are offered a place on the course most commonly satisfy one of the following requirements:

112 UCAS tariff points (single and joint honours), including a minimum of 2 A Levels, including a minimum grade of C at A2 English
Applications are also accepted from students with equivalent Level 3 qualifications
Accredited Access and Foundation Courses
Mature Entry Route

Other information

We consider applications on an individual basis, so please contact the Admissions Tutor, Dr Sharon Young, if you are unsure about your qualifications.

What will you study

Year 1	Mandatory Literary Forms and Genres Exploring the Canon Ways of Reading, Ways of Writing Writing Worcester Past and Present	Optional Places and Spaces Bodies and Beings UGTU1001 Introduction to Tutoring Option modules from the Centre for Academic English and Skills.
Year 2	Mandatory Exploding the Canon: Literary Theory and Practice Movement and Migration	Optional Politics, Sex and Identity in the Early Modern World Shakespeare: Stage, Page and Screen Gothic and Romantic Literature Spaces of Modernity Children's Literature Work Project UGTU1001 Introduction to Tutoring Option modules from the Centre for Academic English and Skills.
Year 3	Mandatory Independent Research Project	Optional Justice and Revenge: from Tragedy to the Western Postcolonial Encounters Writing and the Environment War and Conflict Gendering Voices Partnerships and Rivalries Literatures and Cultures: International Explorations Queer Bodies, Queer Texts Literature and Culture – Local Heritage

Year 1

Mandatory

Literary Forms and Genres
Exploring the Canon
Ways of Reading, Ways of Writing
Writing Worcester Past and Present

Optional

Places and Spaces
Bodies and Beings
UGTU1001 Introduction to Tutoring
Option modules from the Centre for Academic English and Skills.

Year 2

Mandatory

Exploding the Canon: Literary Theory and Practice
Movement and Migration

Optional

Politics, Sex and Identity in the Early Modern World
Shakespeare: Stage, Page and Screen
Gothic and Romantic Literature
Spaces of Modernity
Children's Literature
Work Project
UGTU1001 Introduction to Tutoring
Option modules from the Centre for Academic English and Skills.

Year 3

Mandatory

Independent Research Project

Optional

Justice and Revenge: from Tragedy to the Western
Postcolonial Encounters
Writing and the Environment
War and Conflict
Gendering Voices
Partnerships and Rivalries
Literatures and Cultures: International Explorations
Queer Bodies, Queer Texts
Literature and Culture – Local Heritage

How will you learn across your degree?

Year 1 provides a foundation for your degree, consolidating your understanding of literary forms and genres, providing practice in the important skills of critical reading and writing, and introducing you to some key themes.

In Year 2 you will deepen your understanding of literary movements and contexts, and develop your critical skills by applying literary theories. You will also have the chance to broaden your experience of literary studies, by taking specialist modules or studying abroad. A Work Project module is also available.

By Year 3 you will be ready to undertake your individual research project, supported by a specialist tutor, and pursue your own interests in Literature through a range of themed, optional modules.

"Throughout my studies I always felt supported by academic staff who were encouraging, responsive and passionate about their subjects."

Toni Brookes, English Literature Graduate

Meet the team

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course.

Dr David Arnold

David Arnold trained as a Classicist before moving on to doctoral work on twentieth-century American poetry. His research and teaching interests lie in poetry, American literature, ecocriticism and narrative criticism. He has published articles on the literary improvisations of William Carlos Williams and a book on American poetry: Poetry and Language Writing: Objective and Surreal (Liverpool University Press, 2007). His recent work focuses on ecophenomenological readings of modernist writing, and Buddhist American Poetry.

David teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has responsibility for modules in Literary Theory and American Writing. David is a member of both the British Association of American Studies and the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. He is also a member of the Green Voices Research Group.

Professor Nicoleta Cinpoes

Nicoleta Cinpoes joined the University of Worcester in 2007. She teaches Renaissance Literature, is International Exchanges Liaison for the School of Humanities and co-director of Worcester's Early Modern Research Group.

She has edited Doing Kyd: A Collection of Critical Essays on the Spanish Tragedy for Manchester University Press (2016) and is currently collaborating on a new Romanian translation of Shakespeare's complete works, writing introductions to Hamlet (2010), Titus Andronicus, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice and The Comedy of Errors.

Professor Jean Webb

Jean Webb is Director of the International Forum for Research in Childrens Literature which provides a focus for literary, cultural and socio-historical scholarly enquiry into writing for children, internationally. She teaches a broad range of undergraduate modules on nineteenth and twentieth century literature, and is responsible for specialist modules in children's literature. She is also an experienced PhD supervisor and examiner.

Dr Lucy Arnold

Dr Lucy Arnold is a specialist in Contemporary literature, with particular research interests in contemporary gothic, narratives of haunting, contemporary women’s writing and psychoanalytic criticism. Her teaching experience spans a wide range of periods and genres but focusses on twentieth and twenty-first century literature. Her published work to date has concerned the writing of Booker Prize winning novelist Hilary Mantel, with her monograph, Reading Hilary Mantel: Haunted Decades, published with Bloomsbury in 2019.

Dr Sharon Young

Dr Sharon Young is a Fellow of the HEA and her teaching interests include, Renaissance, Restoration and eighteenth-century literature, women's poetry, and literary theory.

Sharon's research focuses mainly on women's poetry of the early modern period, Renaissance revenge tragedy and women's manuscript culture. Sharon has published on female poets and the critical debates of the early eighteenth century and Mary Leapor.

Dr Whitney Standlee

Dr Whitney Standlee is a specialist in literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with particular research interests in Irish women’s writing and migrant literature. Her publications include two recent books on the subject of Irish women’s writing.

Whitney teaches on a range of core and elective modules at all levels, all of which deal at least in part with nineteenth- and early twentieth century literature.

The outside of the Hive library in the sunshine

A librarian is helping a student near some shelves

A corner in the the inside of the Hive Library. A student is working near the windows.

How will you be taught?

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support through the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.

Teaching

You will be taught through a combination of workshops, lectures, seminars, research trips to cultural locations in the region, and film screenings. Interactive workshops take a variety of formats and are intended to enable the application of learning through discussion and small group activities. Seminars enable the discussion and development of understanding of topics covered in lectures. All modules are supported by the use of the virtual learning environment and other learning technologies.

You will also have the opportunity to gain employability skills through work-based learning. The primary focus of this provision is the year 2 Work Project module where students gain valuable experience of work.

In addition, meetings with Personal Academic Tutors are scheduled on at least four occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course.

Contact time

In a typical week you will have around 12 contact hours of teaching. The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected and in the final year you will normally have slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study.

Typically class contact time will be structured around:

4 hours of lectures
8 hours of seminars

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you will be expected to undertake around 24 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve primary reading, research and critical reading, group work, directed study tasks.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Assessment

Each module has one or more formal or 'summative' assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade. Some modules also provide opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments.

Assessment methods include a range of coursework assessments such as essays, exercises in critical reading, and portfolios. Some assessments provide opportunities to write creative pieces of work.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is: