English Literature BA (Hons)
Course Overview
Our English Literature BA (Hons) degree will reframe your way of thinking about how you engage with key texts, literary theory, genre, and literature’s relationship with points of historical significance.
You will have the chance to study some of the most critical pieces from a range of periods like Victorian literature, the Renaissance and the Romantics, all the way to contemporary writing. We encourage you to engage with a host of genres throughout your studies as a way of building on your existing interests, but also to introduce you to texts you may not have come across before. Gothic, Science Fiction, Young Adult fiction, Fantasy, Horror and more are incorporated into our degree at Chester.
Not only is there a diverse range available for you to engage with in terms of content, but we also have a keen focus on diversifying the forms of literature you study. Prose, poetry, plays, novels, and other forms of writing are all included throughout each year of study. We will facilitate you with the tools and methods to examine your own positionality as an English Literature student. You will learn how to understand and deploy critical, theoretical, linguistic and stylistic concepts and terminology. Your knowledge of stylistic, expressive, formal and rhetorical properties of texts will be enhanced, and you will gain insight into the interconnections between literary texts and other forms of expression. You’ll become adept at considering the social, historical and cultural contexts of the processes of composition and production of texts, along with becoming familiar with the histories of their reception and forms of dissemination.
Our course is based in the cultural heart of Chester in our Gateway House building, conveniently located opposite Storyhouse, with book and coffee shops all around. You’ll be surrounded by creative and likeminded students on your degree, whilst being immersed in a city that hosts literature festivals and performances with the best spots for curling up with a good book.
What you’ll learn each year:
- First Year: Introduced to the building blocks of literature.
- Second Year: Investigate more nuanced genres of literature and explore notions of intertextuality and historical contexts.
- Third year: Gain an understanding of contemporary literature and publishing, and work towards your individually supervised research project.
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BA (Hons) English Literature
How we teach at the University of Chester
This course is delivered in three terms of ten weeks each. In each term, you will study up to 40 credits.
If studied, the Foundation Year, as with the following years of study, will be taught in three ten-week blocks across an academic year. Each block will comprise of a large 40-credit subject-specific module that includes a breadth of topics and subject skills. You will have on average 8 -10 hours of contact time per week during the Foundation Year. There may be variations to this where subject practical or specialist space teaching is included.
You should expect to spend an average of 40 hours per week on your studies which is made up of a mix of lectures, workshops, peer-led seminars, asynchronous learning, tutorial time with staff, using the University’s library, working with peers and preparing work for assessment and independent study.
Teaching will be delivered by experienced academics and practitioners in the subject. This will be supplemented by occasional guest lecturers and speakers.
There will be a broad range of assessment methods so you are exposed to the different types of tasks you might encounter in subsequent studies or future career development. These will include:
- coursework in the form of written essays
- performed and pre-recorded presentations
- portfolios of writing
- creative and reflective pieces (both long and short form)
- and artifact manufacture.
We continuously review the assessment methods used in order that they adequately prepare you for graduate-level employment, as well as in response to developments within the academic discipline.
You will be expected to purchase your own textbooks, but there are various schemes that the English programmes have run in conjunction with bookshops in Chester city centre that can help to aid the cost of this. Alongside this, there are opportunities to take part in Division trips and more subject-specific trips both within Chester and further afield.
All teaching is delivered by experienced academics and practitioners, with the fundamental principles of the Chester Future Skills Curriculum at its core - building your subject competence, confidence, and key transferable skills to shape you into a world-ready Chester graduate.
Your Future Career
Job Prospects
A single honours degree in English Literature brings many transferable skills including written and oral communication, textual analysis, presentation, teamwork, time management and independence. Our graduates have followed careers in a wide variety of fields including teaching, journalism, marketing, and librarianship, or advanced to postgraduate study on our MA and MRes courses.
Progression options
Careers service
The University has an award-winning Careers and Employability service which provides a variety of employability-enhancing experiences; through the curriculum, through employer contact, tailored group sessions, individual information, advice and guidance.
Careers and Employability aims to deliver a service which is inclusive, impartial, welcoming, informed and tailored to your personal goals and aspirations, to enable you to develop as an individual and contribute to the business and community in which you will live and work.
We are here to help you plan your future, make the most of your time at University and to enhance your employability. We provide access to part-time jobs, extra-curricular employability-enhancing workshops and offer practical one-to-one help with career planning, including help with CVs, applications and mock interviews. We also deliver group sessions on career planning within each course and we have a wide range of extensive information covering graduate jobs and postgraduate study.
Results
Interdisciplinary Learning
This course offers interdisciplinary learning with the English, English Language, and Creative Writing courses.
This means that you’ll also benefit from learning alongside students studying a similar discipline. This approach helps to broaden your knowledge and exposure to other concepts, alongside varied perspectives and professions in the first year of your degree.
As you study and collaborate with students from other courses, you'll not only make valuable social and professional connections but also learn new skills that will set you up for success in your industry.
In your second and third years, you will progress to studying more specialist modules within fine art, developing your skills to become a World Ready graduate.
Study the final year of an undergraduate degree
If you have successfully completed a Level 5 qualification, e.g. a Higher National Diploma (HND) or Foundation Degree in a relevant subject, then we may be able to consider you for the final year (Level 6) of one of our degrees. Topping up your HND or Foundation Degree will typically take one further year of study and will lead to a full BA (Honours) degree.
To apply for the final year of a degree on a full-time basis you will need to submit an application through UCAS.
For international applicants, please refer to the entry requirements listed on the "Your Country/Region" pages. To be considered for advanced entry into relevant degree programmes, you must have completed a qualification equivalent to a Level 5 or Level 6 in the UK, in a related subject area
Dr Richard Leahy
Senior Lecturer
Professor Melissa Fegan
Professor
Professor Emma Rees
Professor
Professor Deborah Wynne
Professor