University of Kent

BA (Hons) English Literature

Stage 1

Compulsory modules currently include the following

• Changing Literature
• Other Worlds: Dystopias and Futures
• Adventures in Criticism
• Romantic Ecologies: Literature, Environment and Climate Crisis
• Creative and Critical Conversations

Optional modules may include the following

• Class: Narratives of Exclusion and Belonging
• American Power, American Protest

Stage 2

Compulsory modules currently include the following

• Shakespeare: Before and After
• World Literature in English
• Right/Write to the world: Displacement, Social Movements, Political Action

Optional modules may include the following

• American Modernities: US Literature 1930 to the Present
• Becoming America: From Poe to The Great Gatsby
• Encounters with the Premodern, 1350-1700
• Modernism
• Reading Victorian Literature
• The Contemporary
• When Novels Were Novel: Eighteenth-Century Literature

Year in Industry

The year in industry takes place between your second and final year. It is a great opportunity to gain workplace experience, increase your professional contacts and acquire new skills, and is a valuable addition to your CV.

You can take the year in industry in the UK or abroad with a wide range of employers in areas including the arts, education and cultural heritage. While you are responsible for finding your placement, we offer support and guidance through the application process.

Tuition fees for the placement year are greatly reduced and employers may offer expenses or a salary.

The year in industry is assessed on a pass/fail basis and does not count towards your final degree classification.

Year Abroad

Going abroad as part of your degree is an amazing experience and a chance to develop personally, academically and professionally. You experience a different culture, gain a new academic perspective, establish international contacts and enhance your employability.

You are expected to adhere to any academic progression requirements in Stages 1 and 2 to proceed to the year abroad. If the requirement is not met, you will be transferred to the equivalent three-year programme. The year abroad is assessed on a pass/fail basis and will not count towards your final degree classification.

Stage 3

Compulsory modules currently include the following

• The Project

Optional modules may include the following

• A Woman’s Tale: Writing Female Identity and Experience in Medieval Europe
• American Crime Fiction
• Animals, Humans, Writing
• The Brontës in Context
• Centres and Edges: Modernist and Postcolonial Quest Literature
• Cross-Cultural Coming-of-Age Narratives
• The End of Empire: Post-Imperial Writing in Britain
• Foundations of Activism
• Global Capitalism and the Novel
• Innovation and Experiment in New York, 1945-2015
• Magic, Marvels and Monsters in Medieval Literature
• Marlowe vs Shakespeare
• Perceptions, Pathologies, Disorders: Reading and Writing Mental Health
• Places, Journeys, Borders
• Queer Literature
• Representing World War Two
• #ShakeRace: Shakespeare and Racial Politics
• The End of the World
• The Gothic: Origins and Exhumations
• The Love Poem: Romantic Language from Thomas Wyatt to Taylor Swift
• The New Woman: First Wave Feminism and Women’s Writing, 1880-1920
• The Unknown: Reading and Writing Creative Non-Fiction and Autofiction
• Virginia Woolf and the Novel

Whether you have a specific career in mind or haven’t thought beyond university, our courses embed employability at every turn with modules that focus on careers in growing and emerging sectors; we’ll demonstrate how your degree can give you options in the creative industries and beyond.

We help you plan for success. Through our varied range of assessments and inspirational teaching, you will hone the digital, critical thinking, communication and leadership skills that are essential for a successful career and realising your ambition.

How you'll study

In our project-based courses, you will benefit from cutting-edge teaching. Our innovative teaching staff offer a huge variety of perspectives and are passionate about finding new ways to analyse and create literature, and to communicate its insights.

• Lectures
• Seminars
• Tutorials
• Independent Study

Seminars are a crucial part of your learning. We keep class sizes small, making it easier for you to develop your own ideas and ensuring you have the space to express and defend them.

Teaching and assessment

Teaching and assessment can vary between modules. All modules are taught by weekly seminars. In addition to seminars, the majority of literature modules also include a weekly lecture. Attendance at seminars is required, and for the majority of modules, you are assessed on your seminar contribution/performance.