English Literature

Course summary

English Literature has long been acknowledged as a highly valuable and prestigious A-Level; it is formally listed as a Facilitating Subject for Russell Group Universities. The English Literature course allows students with a passion for reading and analysing poetry, fiction and drama to study texts from the 16th century to the present day, their contexts and their critics in a deep analytical fashion. Students are exposed to the study of: • The works of Shakespeare • Poetry and drama pre-1900 for example Christina Rossetti, Coleridge, Ibsen, Webster or Wilde. • a thematic coursework topic on modern literature: topics include ‘war through time’, ‘invasion’, ‘the city’ or ‘time’. • Contextual study of genres, for example, ‘Dystopia’, ‘Women in Literature’, ‘The Immigrant Experience’ or ‘the Gothic’. This subject prepares you for the art of essay writing at university and is highly valued by admissions officers in all subjects where you will write essays as part of your course. Careers including teaching, law, journalism, acting, publishing, theatre production, TV production, advertising and public relations are just some of the options open to those studying English.