English BA

About the Course

Storytelling is a fundamental human activity. Every day we exchange jokes and anecdotes, and the important events in our lives need to be told and retold many times over before they achieve the pattern and polish to become the ‘story of our lives’. We tell and read stories for pleasure and information, but we also read to gain a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

The BA in English spans everything from Shakespeare to Zadie Smith, Emily Bronte to Eminem. Traditional modules run alongside more innovative options covering areas such as fairytales, postmodernism, popular literature, south Asian writing, women’s writing, experimental literatures and digital technologies.

Our courses are designed to develop your ability to read texts in increasingly complex and diverse ways. We explore literature by looking at its structures and forms as well as the varying contexts in which it is produced and read. We examine the relations between writer, text and reader and interrogate the ways in which contexts shape and affect interpretation of varieties of texts.

You will have the opportunity to specialise by selecting from a wide range of options according to your own particular tastes and interests, be they in contemporary poetry, drama, fiction, literatures of the past or literatures from cultures remote from our own.

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Aims

This course covers all the major periods of literature from the Renaissance to the most recent publications in poetry, fiction and drama. We aim to introduce you right from the start to a variety of critical perspectives, approaches and contexts rather than simply providing a chronological or historical study of English literature, and our first priority is always to inform, stimulate and support you.

Enquiries

Wendy Knepper
Admissions Tutors
 
School of Arts
Brunel University
Uxbridge
Middlesex UB8 3PH
 
Email english-admissions@brunel.ac.uk
Tel +44 (0)1895 266554

Related Courses

• English and Film and TV Studies BA
• English with Creative Writing BA
• Creative Writing BA

Special Features

• English has a growing international reputation focused around the Brunel Centre of Contemporary Writing and Entertext, an interdisciplinary eJournal.
  
  
• All staff are research-active and experts in their fields, which goes on to inform and enhance teaching for all our students.
  
  
• You have the opportunity to specialise in areas that particularly fascinate you, such as 20th century literature and creative writing, or to maintain a broad-based degree.
  
  
• The University is within reach of London and the West End theatres, the British Newspaper Library, and museums and other research centres of national and international importance.

Facts and Figures

English at Brunel was rated in the top 20 English Departments in the UK in the Guardian’s Good University Guide 2010.

Brunel has a growing reputation for its teaching and research in the fields of Contemporary Literature and Creative Writing, and for its work in the areas of Renaissance Studies, Nineteenth Century Literature, and Postcolonial Studies. It offers innovative courses across a broad range of periods and genres covering a wide variety of traditional and non-traditional texts, all taught by enthusiastic staff who are specialists in their fields.

Course Content

At Level 1, you are introduced to the study of English through a number of modules that allow you to become acquainted with various approaches to studying literature. These modules include: Approaches to Poetry and Prose; Approaches to Dramatic Text; and Thinking about Literature. In addition, you can put these approaches into practice in modules such as Popular Fictions and Early Modern Writers: Shakespeare and his Contemporaries. You also have the option of taking one Creative Writing module.

At Level 2, you will study some period-based modules such as Romanticism and Revolution, Shakespeare, the Nineteenth Century Novel, and Modernism. You will also take conceptual modules that build on themes explored in the Level 1 compulsory module, such as Postcolonial Writing and the Women’s Movement.

At Level 3, you can choose from a wide range of modules that are research-led by experts in the field, including: Shakespeare – the Return of the Author; Writing India; Critical Perspectives (Historical and Contemporary); Jane Austen; Nineteenth Century Literature and Culture; and Post-Millennial Fiction, 2000 to the Present.

Typical Modules

Year 1

• Shakespeare and his Contemporaries
• Approaches to Poetry and Prose
• Approaches to Dramatic Text
• Thinking about Literature
• Introduction to Writing Fiction
• Popular Fictions

• The 19th Century Novel
• Shakespeare: Text and Performance
• The Women’s Movement
• Postcolonial Writing
• Modernism
• Romanticism and Revolution

• Special Project
• The Renaissance
• Critical Perspectives: Historical Perspectives
• Critical Perspectives: Contemporary Perspectives
• Shakespeare: The Return of the Author
• Postcolonial Perspectives
• Victorian Literature and Culture
• Writing Ireland
• Single Author Study: Seamus Heaney
• The African-American Novel
• Post-War and Late Twentieth Century Literature, 1945-2001
• Post-Millennial Fiction, 2000 to the Present
• The Muslim World in Early Modern English Literature

Teaching and Learning

The course is taught by highly qualified staff who are actively engaged in research, scholarship or relevant professional practice. You will be taught through various methods such as lectures, tutorials, workshops and seminars. You will receive one-to-one supervision in your final year project.

Student Support

You will be assigned a Personal Tutor who remains with you throughout your degree course. They are available to discuss personal and academic problems. We pride ourselves on our commitment to the individual, and you will find both academic and administrative staff only too pleased to help.

Assessment

The English degree course is modular. Each module is worth 20 credits and you must complete 120 credits for each year of your degree programme. You’ll have a wide range of modules from which to choose coving a variety of traditional and non-traditional texts. You can specialise in areas that particularly fascinate you, or maintain a broad-based degree. The final year project requires you to carry out research on any related topic of your choice.

Each subject employs a wide range of assessment methods. These include coursework, individual and group projects, oral presentations, practical work and written examinations.

Employability

English is particularly good at developing the transferable personal skills that employers prize in graduates. The degree emphasises imagination, independence of thought and intellectual flexibility. Emphasis is placed on both acquisition of knowledge and analytical skills and your ability to manage your own learning, and develop personal and collaborative communication skills.

Careers

After graduation, students may enter one of the professions associated with English, such as journalism, publishing, advertising, teaching, the civil service or the media, but our students fit just as easily into many other career environments. From the outset we help you to develop career options based on interests and skills. The School also offers an optional work experience module in the final year.

Our graduates have gone on to work in companies such as the BBC and Universal Studios.

Fees for 2013/14 entry

UK/EU students: £9,000 full-time; £6,750 part-time

International students: £12,000 full-time

We are introducing over 700 scholarships for 2013, meaning that one in five applicants who join Brunel next year will receive financial support from the University. See our fees and funding page for full details

Fees quoted are per annum and are subject to an annual increase.

Entry Requirements for 2013 Entry

• GCE A-level Typical offer AAB, including Grade B in English Literature or English Language & Literature (General Studies/Critical Thinking accepted). Applicants who have already achieved at least ABB at A-level and have Personal Statements showing a strong interest in the course and transferable skills will also be considered. Please check our Admissions pages for more information on other factors we use to assess applicants within this range.
  
• Irish Leaving Certificate AAABB including English.
• Scottish Advanced Highers AAB including English.
• Advanced Diploma Progression Diploma Grade A in Creative and Media, including A-level English Literature or English Language & Literature at Grade B for Additional and Specialist Learning.
• BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma D*D*D in a related subject (Applicants without A level English Literature or English Language & Literature will be required to submit a written sample of work on request).
• IBDP 35 points including Higher Level 5 in English.
• Access Complete and pass a related subject Access course with 45 credits at Level 3, of which 30 credits must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit or higher. All English units must be Distinctions at level 3.

For all of the above, 5 GCSEs or equivalent at Grade C or above are also required, to include English and Maths (please note that these must have been gained by the time you submit your UCAS application).

English Language Requirements

Brunel also offers our own BrunELT English Test and accept a range of other language courses. We also have a range of Pre-sessional English language courses, for students who do not meet these requirements, or who wish to improve their English.