Overview
If you are ready to explore more widely, think more deeply, and engage more critically, creatively, and confidently with the world via the written word, then English is the subject for you.
By exploring a broad range of fiction, stories, plays, poetry, and life writing from different gendered-, class-, and race-aware angles, you will develop knowledge and skills that will prepare you for a variety of exciting careers.
In year one, you will build your academic skills by taking six modules, four of which are required and two of which are optional.
In year two, you will develop your academic interests by choosing six modules focusing on literary genres and periods that fascinate you.
In year three, you will hone your academic interests by creating your own curriculum: four modules and a dissertation (extended piece of writing exploring texts/topics of your choice).
If you undertake our four-year BA, you will undertake a one-year work placement before returning to complete your programme of year three learning. In each year of your learning programme, required modules focusing on CV-building and employability, along with optional enrichment activities, will prepare you for your chosen career.
Your learning programme will be delivered in person, through interactive lectures, seminars, workshops, and tutorials, where you will participate in discussion and debate alongside reading and writing tasks. You will be assessed through written assignments (including essays, reviews, online discussion boards) and presentations (both in-person and digital).
Course content
The English BA at Brunel will give you deeper knowledge of English and Global literatures and writerly techniques, as you develop key skills in critical thinking, analysis and writing, with a wealth of optional modules to suit your interests and aspirations.
Compulsory
- The Reader’s Toolkit
This module focuses on the key skills of critical and close reading, as central to the study of literature. Learning the skills necessary to read at a higher level, including the interpretation and analysis of literary texts, is a core competency for students of English literature. The central aim of this module, therefore, is to enhance and develop students’ engagement with primary and secondary texts. Students will learn how to analyse and interpret complex texts in various genres, making use of the established techniques and approaches of the discipline. Students will engage with the idea of critical reading as a practice-based and culturally-informed act that must be learned and developed. Teaching is shaped around the goal of developing students’ “reading resilience”, that is, the ability to read, discuss, and write about, varied and challenging texts with confidence. Through discussion, group workshops, lectures and individual tasks, students will become proficient in working with literary and rhetorical texts, learning skills that are essential throughout the degree. The module forms a foundational aspect of the degree programme, benchmarking skills such as time management, evidence-based analysis, and close reading.
- The Writer's Toolkit
The purpose of this module is to enable Creative Writing and English Literature students to develop a grounding in effective writing practices and core competencies of textual production. Students will develop an understanding of the different stages of textual production, from prewriting, research, planning and outlining, to drafting, feedback and editing, polishing and submission, as well as an understanding of core writing mechanics. This module will enable students to explore and practice the differing conventions of textual production in a variety of areas of academia and the creative industries, from non-fiction modes such as the academic essay, critical and reflective writing, to screenplays and fiction manuscripts.
- Literature and History
The purpose of this module is to study selected texts in light of their historical, political, cultural, religious, and other contexts. Through the study of a selection of five texts that belong to a particular period or genre, the module will introduce students to the historicist study of literature while at the same time training them in close textual analysis.
- Writing and Difference
This module will explore key critical and cultural concepts in modern literary studies and their relevance to a selected body of texts, with a focus on how ideas of ‘difference’ factor into a given body of writing. Students will be encouraged to develop their own understanding of difference in relation to a wide range of theoretical concepts, including (potentially) history, memory, gender, race, and language/semiotics.
Optional
- Literary London
This module aims to introduce students to the study of the literature of London, introducing key critical approaches and engaging with texts from a range of cultural backgrounds. Students will learn about London’s rich and varied literary traditions and forms; acquire theoretical perspectives; build a literary critical vocabulary; engage in debates about the meaning and role of London in literature and reflect on creative practice and literary production in relation to London’s diverse past and present.
- World Literature
This module aims to introduce students to the study of World Literature, introducing key critical approaches and engaging with texts from contrasting cultural locations. Students will learn about rich and varied world literary traditions and forms; acquire theoretical perspectives; build a world literary critical vocabulary; engage in debates about the meaning and role of world literature and reflect on creative practice and literary production in world contexts.
- Creative Journaling
This module will introduce you to the practice of creative journaling. You will explore the different ways this practice can support your personal and professional development as creatives. You will critically analyze the creative journals of writers, musicians, and artists, and keep a weekly creative journal, experimenting with different approaches and techniques for documenting and reflecting on their creativity.
- Representation and Identity
It’s important in the film and television industry to consider whose stories are being told, who is in creative roles behind the camera and how people are being represented. This module will explore identity politics and consider theory such as feminism, queer theory, postcolonialism and disability studies, among others. We will consider how certain identities are portrayed onscreen both historically and now.
- Ways of Hearing 1
1. Developing a reflective mind and ways to think and discuss music
2. Learning to write about it with knowledge and critical depth
3. Understanding how music is made; its forms and structures
4. Experiencing music from a diverse range of musical genres
5. Comparisons of approaches across a range of styles and genres from Gregorian chant to Aphex Twin
6. Developing a clear and appropriate vocabulary for critical discussion and writing
7. Understanding the function of the music and its context in society
Compulsory
- Professional Life
This module aims to help you think about your future and take proactive steps towards realising your aspirations after university. At the heart of this module are four professional development activities, which you will be selecting, completing, and reflecting on. These could range from gaining work experience in a field that interests you, to volunteering, learning a language, completing business or skills development courses, publishing a website or articles on a blog, or gaining editorial or media production experience. You are encouraged to think creatively: providing that each activity is developmental for you and your tutor agrees, the sky is the limit.
Optional
- Literatures of Inequality: Global Fictions
This module looks at a range of twenty-first century fiction originating from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, to explore diverse experiences of inequality in an era of globalisation. It interrogates a range of novels, stories, and poetry in light of theoretical concepts drawn from world-literary theory and materialist feminism, asking whether and how socially committed fiction can challenge the overlapping oppressions of contemporary times.
- The Novel: The Nineteenth Century
The purpose of this module is to study the interrelation of genre – the novel – and period – the nineteenth century. Through the chronological study of a representative selection of five texts, the module will introduce the key generic elements of the nineteenth-century novel, and chart changes in their deployment over the course of the century. Particular attention will be paid to Realism and Gothic. In addition to narrative form, a range of social and cultural contexts will be suggested as a means of accounting for, and understanding, textual features. Stress will be placed throughout on close textual analysis.
- Literary Movements: Modernism
In this module we study the literature of the early twentieth century with particular emphasis on those authors who attempted to break away from received norms of literary style and content. As well as providing an overview of the defining textual features of modernism, the module is concerned with the interrelation of text and context, seeing modernist literature as both of, and self-consciously ahead of, its historical moment. We will take into account transnational and cross-cultural contexts, including discussions of the decline of empire, World War I, trauma, the expatriate experience, the legacies of slavery, changing attitudes to feminism, sexuality, class, and shifting constructions of identity.
- Literature and Revolution: Romanticism
The political events of the late eighteenth century – the American War of Independence, French Revolution, and Napoleonic wars – dramatically changed the lives, ideas, and aesthetics of the Romantic Britain. Evolving from the mid 1770s to the mid 1820s, the period we now call Romanticism signalled a profound change in the form and content of literature, breaking away from the neo-classical conventions of the Augustans which had dominated much of the eighteenth century, and turning to the regional, folkloric, and numinous traditions of British and European literatures. Working in a range of genres, including the novel, pamphlets, poetry, and philosophical, satirical, and travel writing, Romantic writers responded to a set of urgent, ethical, aesthetic, and environmental changes. In the module we consider the ‘first generation’ (Wordsworth, Coleridge, William Blake) and ‘second generation’ Romantics (Shelley, Byron, and Keats), and important political writers such as Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, and William Godwin. Alongside these now-canonical names we read a diverse range of women and Black writers who contributed just as significantly to key Romantic debates: Anna Aikin, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Ottobah Cugoano, Ouladah Equiano, Hannah More, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Robinson, Ignatius Sancho, Mary Shelley, Helen Maria Williams, Dorothy Wordsworth, Phillis Wheatley, and Anne Yearsley.
- Texts and Afterlives: Shakespeare
The aims of this module are:
- To introduce the study of Shakespeare at an advanced level, in greater depth, with an emphasis upon the types of study skills required for advanced critical work in the fields of ‘book history’ and ‘performance studies’
- To introduce and define both ‘book history’ and ‘performance studies’
- To introduce advanced methods of analysis of early modern texts, both in their original context and in their subsequent manifestations in print
- To introduce textual scholarship about language, performance and the visual layout of text – both in Shakespeare’s time and in the present day
- The course will enable students to gain an understanding and experience of the concept of the Shakespearean text as an artefact and art form, one constantly evolving through criticism, editorial intervention and performance
- Contemporary Fiction: Britain and Ireland
This module introduces students to a range of contemporary British and Irish fiction, developing knowledge of the variety and complexity of contemporary writing and its relation to social and cultural context. The module examines texts which employ a range of themes, forms, and styles. It asks what we mean by the term ‘contemporary’ and encourages analysis of the relationship between texts and the historical moments in which they are produced and consumed.
- Postcolonial Writing
Postcolonial writing often comes out of difficult circumstances. Writers studied on this module sometimes risked everything to publish what they needed to say. These are the new pioneers of Literature in English whose works would inspire and define the writings of the future. A central focus of the module is to get to grips with the key concepts encountered in postcolonial studies, which have been developed to investigate the phenomena of colonialism and resistance, multiculturalism and globalization, racism, and Islamophobia. Using these, we will be exploring the works of a series of important and fascinating writers. The texts which we will be studying show a variety of different perspectives on colonialism and its legacies, including those of imperialists and the peoples they tried to suppress.
- Genre Fiction
This module examines the shifting status of genre fiction in the late nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries by exploring a range of genres (Detective, Gothic, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and crossovers between these). Besides gaining an understanding of some of the key thematic and formal conventions of these genres, and how these have changed over time and with respect to shifting social and political contexts, you will gain an understanding of the critical public sphere that exists beyond academic institutions. Beyond academia, there is a world of reviews, blogs, conventions, and festivals relating to books. Therefore, while this module will cover the academic study of genre fiction and require you to write a conventionally structured and referenced academic essay, it will also branch out to consider this wider context by looking at some reviews and debates from the public sphere and require you to write a review of your own.
Compulsory
- English Special Project
To produce an extended piece of work totally 10000 words (500-word plan plus 9500-word dissertation) in which the student undertakes a programme of independent research on a topic of interest relevant to the subject area.
Optional
- Literature, Culture, Society: The Victorians
This module is structured around three ‘case studies’, each focused on a specific aspect of Victorian literature and culture:
- Class, Conflict, Identity
- Crime and Sensation: The Newspaper and the Novel
- Women and Society
The aims of the module are:
- to explore some of the ways in which Victorian literature might encode or challenge particular cultural assumptions
- to analyse some of the relationships between literary forms and genres, ideological values and changing social and aesthetic contexts of the Victorian period
- to consider how the knowledge of the Victorian period may contribute to the interpretation of texts produced during this time
- Literature, Gender, Sexuality: The Women's Movement
This module considers twentieth century and contemporary writing in dialogue with feminist waves and movements as well as relevant theory. It focuses primarily on the Second and Third Waves of feminism, but with a broad recognition of First Wave influences and debates about an emergent Fourth Wave in the contemporary period. Feminism’s relationship to related and other gender/sexual equality movements will be considered along the way, most particularly in connection with LGBT perspectives and masculinity studies. Each week of the module brings theory into dialogue with literature pertaining to feminist perspectives, with an emphasis on women’s writing. The module considers key concepts, such as patriarchy, desire, social and biological claims about gender/sex, and intersectionalism. It pays close attention to the interrelationship between literature and activism, reflecting on the text’s potential to register and remediate the patriarchal order. An indicative reading list might include theorists such as
Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, Patricia Hill Collins, Judith Butler, Susan Faludi, Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Rebecca Walker. Literary texts will address the range and diversity of multiple feminisms as articulated from the 20th century to the present, with attention to the pluralisms and diversification of feminisms.
- Writing Otherness: The Muslim World in Early Modern Literature
This module will introduce third-year students to the early modern interaction between Christians and Muslims, viewed from the perspective of both. It will introduce students to these interactions via English drama. It will explore how post-Reformation England learned to redefine itself as a Christian nation and how it dealt with increased trade and negotiations with Muslim nations. Main topics of study are:
- Common literary tropes about Muslims in early modern literature
- Christian and Islamic beliefs and fears in literature
- Travel writing – interaction of west and east
- Prose propaganda and multicultural London
- Writings in captivity
- The Muslim world in early modern English Literature
- Post-War and Late Twentieth-Century Literature 1945 - 2001
This module aims to develop your critical, cultural and aesthetic awareness of Post-War and Late Twentieth-Century Fiction by examining the work of both established and more experimental writers. The module focuses first on the sensibilities of the postwar period before exploring the emergence of the ‘postmodern’ as a way of understanding later twentieth century experience. It concludes by exploring the experimental fiction of three leading British writers, Ian McEwan, Angela Carter and Jeanette Winterson. Two particularly influential late-twentieth century theorists are encountered in detail, Jean Baudrillard and Judith Butler.
- Special Topic: Violence
This module aims to develop students’ awareness of the representations of violence within modern culture. We engage with a variety of cultural materials—literary, visual, conceptual and technological—to ask a series of questions as regards the role of violence and coercion in our culture and everyday lives. The module is split into two parts. Part one, Bioviolence and Biopolitics looks at biopolitical theories of power, force, violence, coercion and exclusion. The second, Discourses of Coercion 2015-2020 applies the theory to case studies taken from events on the last five years or so such as #Blacklivesmatter, Grenfell Tower, and Coronavirus.
- Author Study: Jane Austen
Focusing on Austen’s work in relation to adaptation, this module explores the forms of fiction she inherited as a young writer – the novels of Frances Burney and Ann Radcliffe – and how she adapted these models to her own work and concerns. It then considers how Austen was adapted in her turn, in a number of extremely popular films and series, to think about how the late eighteenth century ‘courtship’ and marriage plots continue to be reinvented through to the contemporary period. Texts may include: Radcliffe The Italian 1796, Austen Northanger Abbey (1803/ 1818), Frances Burney Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World (1778), Austen Lady Susan (1794/1871), Austen Pride and Prejudice (1813), Robert Z. Leonard d. Pride and Prejudice (1940), Simon Langton d. Pride and Prejudice (1995), Sharon Maguire d. Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001), Chris Van Dusen’s Bridgerton Season 1 (2020).
- Writing Place: Writing Ireland
The module examines Ireland’s rich literary tradition via key historical touchstones including the Easter Rising of 1916, the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger. Theorised discussions of the meaning of Irish identity, intersections with colonialism, the Irish language and the worldwide diaspora will be framed via readings of poetry, novels, short stories, autobiography and drama. The principle aims of Writing Ireland are:
- To undertake a critical survey of a wide range of Irish writing in the English language including depictions of Ireland in poetry, drama and prose genres
- To explore the key political events which led to Ireland’s independence and to consider the role of literature in this and beyond
- To analyse the preconceptions, stereotypes and literary expectations of Irishness through identity debates and close reading
- Creative Careers
This module is focused on your professional development. It will enable you to understand the creative economy and the ways in which people develop careers within it. You will be able to plan your own career after graduation, to identify your goals and write the documents you will need to achieve them. Members of the Creative Writing department at Brunel along with visiting speakers will help you to become familiar with the creative industries through which writers reach their audience. By exploring all areas of your professional development, we will enable you to make a career plan for the next five years, to identify the opportunities and skills you will need and to research the choices you will make in the immediate future.
- Author Study: Chaucer to Shakespeare
This module is an exploration of two canonical English writers, Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare. It examines a number of key texts by these two authors from a range of perspectives combining the historical and theoretical. The module pays specific attention to such issues as the representation of society and class in Chaucer’s and Shakespeare’s work, the portrayal of the author in the context of the emergence of English as an authoritative language replacing Latin and French as during the period 1381 – 1625, the relationship between rhetoric, power and ethics in the context of the development of an embryonic literary sphere or space in England after the events of 1381, and the depiction and interrogation of gender norms in late medieval and early modern literature. The module will develop and extend some of the critical thinking students have developed in a number of second-year modules. Most important, it teaches students to read texts even more closely, playing detailed attention to the historical context alongside the theoretical. The module provides a critical examination of key works by Chaucer and Shakespeare and is therefore ideal for students considering a career in teaching, particularly at secondary level.
This course can be studied undefined undefined, starting in undefined.
This course has a placement option. Find out more about work placements available.
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Read more about the structure of undergraduate degrees at Brunel.
Careers and your future
On completion of the English BA, you will have a set of enviable skills which are vital for a variety of careers. Many Brunel English graduates go into teaching, media-related jobs like publishing, marketing and journalism, and others into the business world as account executives, campaign organisers and consultants. Brunel graduates of this degree fit just as easily into other career environments, and the opportunity of doing a placement year to gain experience in a job role and industry sector will be a distinct advantage. See our Careers page for more information: brunel.ac.uk/english/why-study-english-at-brunel/careers-and-your-future.
UK entry requirements
2024/25 entry
- GCE A-level AAB-BBC.
- BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma DMM.
- BTEC Level 3 Diploma DM in any subject, with an A-Level at grade C.
- BTEC Level 3 Subsidiary Diploma M in any subject, with A-Levels grades BB including English.
- International Baccalaureate Diploma 29 points.
- Obtain a minimum of 112 UCAS tariff points in the Access to HE Diploma with 45 credits at Level 3.
A minimum of five GCSEs are required, including GCSE English Language grade C or grade 4. GCSE Mathematics grade C or grade 4 is also normally required.
Brunel University London is committed to raising the aspirations of our applicants and students. We will fully review your UCAS application and, where we’re able to offer a place, this will be personalised to you based on your application and education journey.
Please check our Admissions pages for more information on other factors we use to assess applicants as well as our full GCSE requirements and accepted equivalencies in place of GCSEs.
EU and International entry requirements
English language requirements
- IELTS: 6.5 (min 5.5 in all areas)
- Pearson: 59 (59 in all subscores)
- BrunELT: 63% (min 55% in all areas)
- TOEFL: 90 (min R18, L17, S20, W17)
You can find out more about the qualifications we accept on our English Language Requirements page.
Should you wish to take a pre-sessional English course to improve your English prior to starting your degree course, you must sit the test at an approved SELT provider for the same reason. We offer our own BrunELT English test and have pre-sessional English language courses for students who do not meet requirements or who wish to improve their English. You can find out more information on English courses and test options through our Brunel Language Centre.
Please check our Admissions pages for more information on other factors we use to assess applicants. This information is for guidance only and each application is assessed on a case-by-case basis. Entry requirements are subject to review, and may change.
Fees and funding
2024/25 entry
UK
£9,250 full-time
£6,935 part-time
£1,385 placement year
International
£19,430 full-time
£14,570 part-time
£1,385 placement year
Fees quoted are per year and may be subject to an annual increase. Home undergraduate student fees are regulated and are currently capped at £9,250 per year; any changes will be subject to changes in government policy. International fees will increase annually, by no more than 5% or RPI (Retail Price Index), whichever is the greater.
More information on any additional course-related costs.
See our fees and funding page for full details of undergraduate scholarships available to Brunel applicants.
Please refer to the scholarships pages to view discounts available to eligible EU undergraduate applicants.
Teaching and learning
Module teaching across the programme (lectures/seminars/tutorials/workshops) will take place in person on campus, and will be supported by the provision of support materials (e.g. lecture recordings, handouts, electronic materials etc.). Other activities, including dissertation drop-ins, personal tutor meetings, assessment workshops, guest speaker events, and one-to-one tutorials may take place in person or online, as appropriate. .
Students are strongly advised to purchase core texts from module reading lists, although copies are also available via Brunel Library.
Access to a laptop or desktop PC is required for joining online activities, completing coursework and digital exams, and a minimum specification can be found here.
We have computers available across campus for your use and laptop loan schemes to support you through your studies. You can find out more here.
You'll be taught in lectures and seminars (smaller groups to encourage discussion), workshops and tutorials by a team of passionate English scholars who are experts in their field. Their teaching is varied and lively to enable you to gain knowledge and skills in a variety of ways. However, independent study is a key component of the English BA with reading required around timetabled activities.
Should you need any non-academic support during your time at Brunel, the Student Support and Welfare Team are here to help.
Assessment and feedback
Each module on the English BA has its own method of assessment which might include an essay, presentation, practical work, or a combination of these to allow you to build up marks in variety of different ways, and to discover your strengths.
In your final year, you will research and write a dissertation on a topic of English literature under the guidance of a dissertation supervisor. Many students value this unique experience and the opportunity to become authorities in an area of English literature research.