English Literature (with Foundation Year)

Year 1

Compulsory modules

• Reading Wonderland: The Literature of Oxford

  In this module, you’ll investigate Oxford’s rich literary life, both past and present. You’ll dive into texts written, performed and set in Oxford, as you think about how the city’s literature is shaped by its geography, population and reputation. You’ll read established texts and writers, as well as literature outside of centres of power and privilege. You’ll think critically about yourself and your own writing and analysis, in relation to the city’s spaces. You'll spend some time getting to know your new home by walking around it, and you'll be asked to create your own guided literary tour of the city. 

• Shakespeare Now

  In this module, you’ll explore Shakespeare’s work not only as a cornerstone of English literary tradition, but as a global phenomenon. You’ll delve into Shakespeare’s language, themes and genres through recent interpretations and adaptations in performance, film and visual art. You’ll enhance your understanding and analytical skills as you explore the cultural context in which Shakespeare wrote. You’ll develop new insight into Shakespeare’s impact in the past and his ongoing relevance across the globe today.

• Theory, Writing and Power

  In this module, you will get to grips with core elements of literary criticism and theory. You’ll debate pressing critical questions, and develop your awareness of issues that are key to understanding literature and society. You’ll build on the knowledge you’ve gained in your other introductory English Literature modules and you'll learn to think carefully about yourself and your place in the world. You’ll develop your knowledge of a range of theoretical and critical concepts, and you'll learn:

  • how these concepts can be applied to literary texts from different periods 
  • how these theories relate to issues of language, culture, and textuality.

  You’ll cover one text over two weeks, engaging with a new theory or critical framework each week. You’ll gain skills and insights that you’ll be able to use throughout your whole degree.

• Diverse Americas: Modern and Contemporary American Literature

  American culture is central to what we read, watch, and buy, but how much of America are we seeing? In this module, you'll engage with a variety of North American literature. You’ll explore work by Latinx, Asian-American, Native American, LGBTQ+ and women writers from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

  You will deepen your awareness of cultural diversity and develop your understanding of the different kinds of values, power, privilege, purposes and cultural capital attributed to different literatures, peoples and literary voices in North America.

• Reading Lab

  As the first step in your "Supportive Challenge" pathway, this module eases your transition into university life while strengthening your foundation in English Literature. Through hands-on learning and practical components like the Reading Lab, you'll experiment with diverse reading methods, explore a broad array of media, and critically evaluate your personal motivations, strengths, and strategies for success.

  From this reflective work, you will create a personalized action plan to maximize academic and extra-curricular opportunities throughout your degree. You will emerge with greater resilience, confidence, and a strong baseline of core attributes, competencies, technologies, and skills (ACTS) essential for both your university journey and your future career.

• Close Encounters

  Designed to ease your transition to university-level study, this module builds your core academic and self-management habits through active, seminar-based practice. Every week, you'll perform close-reading analyses, participate in collaborative discussions, conduct research using diverse methodologies, and work through guided writing and essay-planning exercises.
  
  By engaging in these practical activities, you'll learn to synthesize complex arguments, support your claims with scholarly evidence, and master professional referencing techniques. You'll emerge as a confident, self-directed learner equipped with the foundational analytical, research, and communication skills needed to excel throughout your English Literature degree.

Optional modules

• Media and Crime

  How does the media police our morals as a society and define our ideas of acceptable behaviour? In this module, you’ll gain the critical skills to analyse popular representations of crime in the media. You’ll examine news reports and other forms of mass-media. And you’ll develop a knowledge of crime as a cultural construct.

• Creative Writing 1: Voice and Craft in Poetry and Prose

  In this module, you’ll enhance your abilities as a creative writer. You’ll participate in workshops where you’ll learn through reading, writing, discussion and feedback. You’ll practise your own writing, explore the interplay of creativity and craft, and analyse how you work as a writer. You’ll join other students in exploring approaches to crafting poetry and prose, through:

  • practical writing exercises
  • discussing each other’s work
  • critically analysing the work of published writers
  • exploring key writing practices.

  You’ll produce a portfolio of original creative writing, as well as a study of the aims and processes of your creative work. You’ll develop excellent writing habits, and the ability to reflect on your own writing practices. You’ll also understand the literary and cultural contexts of your own writing.

• Contemporary Societies: Structure and Change

  In this module, you’ll investigate the changing face of society. You’ll discover how states, economies and societies interact with each other. You’ll explore how markets and welfare states have transformed over time. You’ll also investigate key questions on politics and power, exploring different political systems. You’ll explore pressing global topics, including:

  • international migration patterns
  • the formation of ethnic minorities
  • religion in modern society
  • the challenges of climate change.

  You’ll study a wide range of social issues arising all over the world, and develop insight into how these issues impact individuals and groups.

Year 2

Compulsory modules

• Literature and Environments: Pastoral to Climate Fiction

  Students 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 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 nineteenth century to the present day, and 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 an 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 a presentation, podcast, blog, exhibition or something else that suits your project and preferences.

• 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.

• 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:

  • Experiencing Shakespeare 
  • 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
  • Women and Modernism
  • Literature and Madness.

• 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
  • The Theatrical City
  • Video Games, Digital Narratives and Interactive Texts.

• 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.