Program Overview

Overview

Top reasons to study with us

Why Lancaster?

Literary study at Lancaster offers a rich and creative engagement with the very best of literature, from the medieval period to the present day. You’ll have the chance to explore everything from ancient myths and Renaissance sermons, through to nineteenth-century slave narratives, graphic novels and the latest video games.

Creative criticism

We were one of the very first universities in the UK to teach creative writing, and are now pioneers in radically creative forms of literary criticism. This means your course work for, say, Hamlet, could take the form of a dramatic monologue or dream narrative, instead of a traditional essay, if that is what interested you.

Literary study here entails a deep dive into literature and an appreciation of how literature explores many other worlds – politics, ecology, philosophy, psychology, theology, film and fashion. To support this, in your first year if you wish you can study one or two subjects outside of English Literature.

Support and study trips

Your lectures will be supplemented by regular small-group seminars. We also encourage you to meet one-to-one with your tutor to discuss your work. You will be able to select from a wide range of modules and, in your dissertation, free to explore a literary topic or theme of your own choosing.

Many of our special literary events, such as talks from visiting scholars and authors, take place in the University Suite at Lancaster’s spectacular medieval Castle. Some modules include trips to the theatre or the Lake District. The University also offers short, overseas study trips outside of term time – a visit to New York has been particularly popular in previous years.

Your department