English Literature and Film and Screen Studies

We offer varied modules that allow you to study in greater depth writers that you already love, and discover writers that you have yet to fall in love with.

Our passionate knowledge informs an incredibly wide range of modules. Choose from the worlds of Shakespeare’s London, Romantic and Victorian visions of science, radical innovators of literary form, the new digital worlds of electronic text, the darker worlds of crime and gothic writing, and the continuing engagement of writers with questions of history and social justice.

You’ll graduate with transferable skills to engage critically and creatively with a full range of possible careers. Our English Literature graduates are very popular with employers.

In your second year you'll take part in our innovative and institutionally-recognised programme of personal development, including a range of workshops on careers, graduate skills and strategies delivered by visiting industry professionals, our Careers team and our own graduates.

In your final year you can choose to undertake an applied project that will connect your subject knowledge to real world collaborations, such as an idea for a literary event or festival, a package of digital teaching resources for schools, an online edition of a historical text, or an exhibition in partnership with a heritage organisation.

You'll have the opportunity to take English Literature with a Professional Placement Year. In addition, you can expand your knowledge and skills in marketing, international business and freelancing by choosing from an exciting range of Open Modules offered by our colleagues in Bath Business School.

Each semester in year one and two has a core module, as well as a large selection of optional modules from which you can choose. These modules are organised around a number of key strands running through the programme – Transnational English Literature; Interdisciplinary; and Digital – but you can choose to study any of the available modules and develop your own literary interests.

In your third year you can undertake independent study on a dissertation or project, focusing on an area of your own specific interest.

Most modules use essays with other forms of coursework such as journals, portfolios and short critical pieces, projects and dissertations, or special assignments such as seminar presentations, collaborative magazines, and web-based essays. Some modules include seen and unseen exams. Second and final year grades contribute towards your final degree award.

English modules are taught via seminars, lectures, individual tutorials, and IT workshops.

• Parallel Text
• Romance and Revolution
• Writing, Gender and Politics, 1500–1750
• Scandal and Sobriety, 1750– 1890
• Make It New: From Modernism to the 21st Century
• Print, Book and Candle: making, selling, reading
• How to Think Together: Humanities in the 21st Century

• Subject and Structure
• Equivocal Matter
• Shakespeare and His Contemporaries
• Literature and Digital Culture
• Nature, Science and Self 
• Gender and Fiction in the Long Eighteenth Century 
• The Victorian Spectacular: Producing the Modern
• Modern and Contemporary Poetry
• Crime Fiction
• Literature, Ethnicity and Belonging
• Gothic Origins and Innovations
• Professional Placement Year
• Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

• English Project
• Modernist Networks
• Literature and Digital Culture
• Writing and the Environmental Crisis
• Literature and Psychology
• More than Muses: Literary Women, Work and the Arts
• Literature and Evil
• Nation and Race in Early Modernity
• Staging Gender

All English students have the opportunity to apply for an Erasmus placement which allows them to study for one or more terms in their second or third year of study. We also have links with partner institutions in the USA and Australia.

We're keen to bring literature to life, and the course features optional modules that include field trips to London, Oxford, Berlin, Krakow and Auschwitz, among others. Our students have also won places on summer schools in Beijing and Monterrey.

We believe strongly in employability, and have made it a core part of our curriculum. You’ll have access to our renowned digital facilities, as well as to our Bath Spa Careers team who'll help you forge a fulfilling future.

Many of our graduates pursue careers in publishing or teaching. Organisations including NewScientist, Trinity College Library, DigitalBox and Cengage Learning EMEA have employed our graduates. Graduate professions include:

• Editorial Assistant
• Publishing Outreach Executive
• Content Writer
• Campaigns Officer

Some graduates choose to progress onto postgraduate study.

There are annual prizes for the best overall performance in both core modules in years one and two, and a very special prize for the best final year English Project.

This optional placement year provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for, and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Before your Professional Placement Year, you'll work to secure your placement, constructing a development plan with your module leader and your placement coordinator from our Careers and Employability team.

On your return to University for your final year, you'll submit your Placement Portfolio, detailing your development on your placement.

The English Literature programme is taught at Newton Park campus, with most classes taking place in the state-of-the-art Commons building.

You'll have access to excellent facilities such as our:

• Virtual Learning Environment
• Library and Digital Learning Spaces
• Corsham Court campus (as part of an away day)
• Writing and Learning Centre
• English Language Unit
• Specialist Library resources and dedicated Subject Librarian
• Access to all courses on Lynda.com.

We have a wide range of high-quality online resources to complement the books and journals you have access to in our Library, as well as digital publishing facilities, historical and modern printing presses, and industry-standard broadcast media facilities.