English Literature

Year 2

Compulsory modules

• Literature and Environments: Pastoral to Climate Fiction

  You will develop an understanding of the way humans and non-humans shape and are shaped by their environment, and how this is reflected and explored in literature. You’ll study a variety of genres and kinds of writing across different eras and cultures. This may include:

  • classical pastoral 
  • eco-poetry 
  • climate fiction 
  • non-fiction nature writing
  • speculative fiction.

  You will explore the historical, social and political issues that influence written representations of relationships with the environment, and you'll consider the formal and stylistic features of this writing. You’ll apply and extend this learning through a community engagement project involving literature and environments.  

• Transgressive Texts: 400 years of Breaking the Rules

  In this module, you’ll consider what it means for texts to break the rules. You’ll learn the ways that literature has transgressed social, cultural and formal literary boundaries and conventions. This may include topics such as:

  • censored and banned texts
  • gender, sexuality and transgression
  • literature and protest
  • modernist and avant-garde transgression
  • genre blending and subversion.

  You’ll examine shifting ideas of transgression in different historical periods, and will explore how these ideas are shaped and altered by cultural, aesthetic, legislative and scientific factors. Through these investigations, you will explore the power of literature to challenge authority and influence today's world.

• Research Methods in Literature and the Digital Humanities

  In this module, you’ll learn how to use leading and transferable tools and techniques within textual studies and digital humanities. You’ll explore, experiment with, and develop expertise in using different digital archives, tools and software for literary study. You’ll develop skills in: 

  • research
  • creative thinking
  • project planning
  • digital literacy
  • information handling.

  You’ll apply and extend these skills by designing and undertaking innovative, small-scale research investigations into literature and other cultural artefacts.

• Professional Development in Practice: Oxford Stories

  As the second module in your "Supportive Challenge" pathway, this experiential course immerses you in the real-world complexity of "wicked problems" - challenges far too multifaceted for a single discipline to solve alone. You'll engage in hands-on, cross-disciplinary projects, collaborating directly with academics, peers, and external partners from diverse fields to explore issues beyond your primary subject area.

  Through this collaborative practice, you'll strengthen your self-efficacy, resilience, and adaptability when navigating complex, unpredictable environments. You'll leave this module with a deeper insight into your own core values, a broader perspective on your chosen discipline, and the practical problem-solving skills needed to thrive in the modern workplace.

• OR

• Professional Development in Practice: Curiosity and Critical Thinking

  As the second step in your "Supportive Challenge" pathway, you will tackle complex, real-world "wicked problems" that require insights beyond a single discipline. Through hands-on, cross-disciplinary projects, you will collaborate directly with academics, peers, and external industry partners to address multifaceted challenges facing contemporary society.

  This immersive collaboration builds your self-efficacy, adaptability, and resilience, giving you the confidence to navigate unpredictable professional environments and work effectively in diverse teams. Ultimately, you will gain a deeper understanding of your own values, articulate your unique strengths, and master the practical problem-solving skills needed to thrive in the future world of work.

Optional modules

• Angels and Demons in Romantic and Victorian Literature (1789-1901)

  This module will introduce you to the Romantic and Victorian periods through the theme of the supernatural. You’ll investigate the radical technological, social and scientific changes during these periods, and the new uncertainties which arose from these changes. You will discover how writers and artists explored the resultant challenges to established certainties and distinctions between:

  • faith and doubt
  • good and evil
  • right and wrong.

  You'll examine this through their portrayal of metaphorical angels and demons.
  
  You’ll also study a range of novels, short stories, plays and poems, and different kinds of writing, such as Gothic novels and poems and Sensation novels.

• Shadow and Substance in Literature and Drama

  What shapes the stories we tell? This module explores the forces behind literature itself, from scientific ideas to the emotions, memories and experiences that make us human.
  
  You'll read across a sweeping stretch of literary history, from medieval and early modern texts to contemporary writing. Topics across the module include haunted spaces and ideas of home, to nature and the natural world, to questions of artificial personhood and the technologies that define our lives. You'll move between the domestic and the civic, the familiar and the otherworldly, building a richer picture of how literature holds all of these forces in tension.

• American Literature: Sonic Cultures

  In this module, you will study a range of American literary texts from the 19th century to the present day, and you'll consider their historical and cultural contexts. You will develop detailed knowledge of the literature and culture of America, exploring key topics such as: 

  • race and ethnicity, especially in Black and Native American writing
  • slavery and its legacies
  • American self-mythologising and national identity
  • the effect of the Cold War on American writing
  • the Harlem Renaissance.

• Fairy Tales and Children’s Literature: Archetypes, adaptations and effects.

  This module enables you to develop your critical understanding of fairy tales, and of young children’s literature more broadly, from its first Golden age in the Victorian period to the present day. You will also explore the formal workings of these stories, with a focus on elements such as: 

  • retellings and adaptations 
  • illustrations
  • narrative techniques
  • formal experimentation.

  You’ll also consider the ideological and socio-political influences upon how such stories are revised and adapted as they travel across different eras and cultures.

• Creative Writing 2: Exploring Genre, Form and Style

  In this module, you’ll develop your talent and range as a creative writer. You’ll build on the skills you gained in your Creative Writing 1: Voice and Craft in Poetry and Prose module in Year 1. You’ll experiment with a number of forms and prose styles, including:

  • crime writing 
  • travel writing 
  • science fiction
  • historical fiction.

  You’ll also explore techniques of writing poetry through forms such as the ballad and the sonnet. You’ll enhance your creativity, and reflect on your creative choices, as you critically examine what you and your fellow students write.

• Independent Project

  This module gives you the chance to do independent research on a literary topic that fascinates you. With the supervision and support of a lecturer, you will design your own project, choosing your own topic and approach. You will study your selected topic in depth, and will demonstrate your new critical understanding through an assessment method of your choosing, such as a:

  • blog
  • video documentary
  • long essay
  • performance
  • report.

  You will develop skills in project planning, self-motivation, critical and creative thinking, and research.

Optional Year Abroad

Optional modules

• Year Abroad

  This module offers the opportunity to study abroad, experience a new culture, and apply your skills in different contexts to enhance your employability. It will help you develop self-management, cross-cultural communication, and interpersonal skills.
  
  You’ll receive support to secure a place at a partner institution abroad, where you can choose modules related to your degree or explore new areas that complement your studies.
  
  Studying at an international university will help you enhance your interpersonal skills through cross-cultural communication with students and tutors, allowing you to build lasting relationships. You'll also improve your study skills by focusing on your chosen areas of interest, gaining valuable international experience that will strengthen your CV.

  This year abroad module lasts for one academic year and is taken after the conclusion of your second year of study, once you’ve completed all your level 5 studies. Your year abroad is not credit-bearing.

Final Year

Compulsory modules

• The Literary Citizen

  You'll bridge your English Literature degree with the contemporary professional world through hands-on, authentic activities drawn from both inside and outside the classroom. Drawing on your full university journey, you will gather concrete evidence of your core attributes, competencies, and transferable skills (ACTS). You'll then channel these insights into a personalized plan of action, learning to articulate your literary expertise, personal motivations, and strategic strengths in formats tailored directly to graduate employers.

  This reflective process delivers a crucial step-change in your self-efficacy and career readiness right as you prepare to graduate. You'll leave university with strong self-knowledge, clear direction, and the ability to confidently communicate your value to future employers. Ultimately, you will gain the insight and practical tools necessary to identify relevant opportunities and make an immediate, meaningful impact in whichever field you choose next.

• Deep Reading

  You'll build your knowledge to an advanced level by:

  • Practice Intensive Reading: Focus your attention on a single literary work or tightly related body of text through slow, deliberate analysis.
  • Investigate Context and Reception: Analyze the historical, political, and material conditions under which texts are produced, while tracing their adaptations, reception histories, and cultural afterlives.
  • Apply Advanced Theory: Deploy targeted critical and theoretical approaches to interrogate key scholarly debates.
  • Construct Original Claims: Formulate persuasive, independent arguments detailing why these literary works remain relevant today.

  You'll discover how text, context, and reader reception dynamically interact to create shifting layers of meaning across time. You'll acquire the analytical precision, theoretical fluency, and sophisticated argument-building capabilities necessary for high-level literary research.

Optional modules

• Major Research Project

  This module gives you the chance to do research on a topic that fascinates you. Over the course of your final year, you’ll work independently on a research project, with the help of a tutor. Whether you’re delving into gothic literature, gaming or the dystopian worlds of George Orwell, your major research project will grow out of your specific passion, and you’ll gain excellent self-discipline and organisational skills for work. You’ll gain core skills for your career, including:

  • research
  • critical analysis
  • time-management 
  • planned and focused writing.

  You can choose the mode of assessment through which you will demonstrate your new expertise. This could be a long piece of writing in the style of a dissertation, or alternatively you could produce a presentation, podcast, blog, exhibition or something else that suits your project and preferences.

• Advanced Options 1

  This module gives you the chance to study specialist areas of literature in depth. The topics available are drawn from the research expertise of your tutors, enabling you to engage with leading insights and approaches in the field. Available topics may alter from year to year, but recent topics have included:

  • The Theatrical City
  • The American Civil War in Literature, Memory and Myth 
  • Literature and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

• Advanced Options 2

  This module gives you the chance to study specialist areas of literature in depth. The topics available are drawn from the research expertise of your tutors, enabling you to engage with leading insights and approaches in the field. Available topics may alter from year to year, but recent topics have included:

  • Urban Jungle: the American City in Modern and Postmodern Literature and Culture
  • Literature and Madness
  • Women and Modernism
  • African-American Avant Gardes.

• Advanced Options 3

  This module gives you the chance to study specialist areas of literature in depth. The topics available are drawn from the research expertise of your tutors, enabling you to engage with leading insights and approaches in the field. Available topics may alter from year to year, but recent topics have included:

  • The Victorian Supernatural
  • Night Terrors: Children's Literature
  • Video Games, Digital Narratives and Interactive Texts.

• Creative Writing 3: Towards Long-Form Writing

  In this module, you’ll meet literary agents and editors as you explore the submissions process for publication. You will produce a 6000 word piece of writing on a theme or idea that interests you, refining your writing practices. You’ll consider how this piece could work as part of a larger published work, for example:

  • as chapters of a novel or memoir
  • as poems, short stories or essays within an anthology.

  This will develop your understanding of how a book works as a whole. 

• Independent Study Module

  This module offers you the opportunity to undertake independent study and research with supervision. You can submit a proposal for independent study, and provided that supervision is available, an agreed programme of work and assessment schedule is constructed for the following semester. 

  You must discuss this module option with your academic adviser or your module leader before registering this module.