Program Overview

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BA English Literature

Key Facts

• UCAS Tariff: 120 - 104
• Course duration: 3 years
• Available for September start 2025

Course Overview

The English Literature degree at Aberystwyth University explores the widest possible range of literary texts and cultures with superb choice from the early medieval period to the present day. We enable our students to develop their powers of expression, hone their critical thinking, and establish specialist knowledge and research skills - all grounded in a detailed and broad understanding of literary history and an applied knowledge of literary theory.

Why study English Literature at Aberystwyth?

• You will be taught by staff who are world leaders in their fields of expertise.
• We offer you opportunities to engage with a wide variety of approaches to literature and cultural history, combining critical thinking with scholarship.
• You will have the opportunity to explore literary theory - philosophical and conceptual ideas that inform, challenge and problematize the ways we read.
• In your final year you will have the opportunity to take part in a writing retreat at a country house in mid Wales - an amazing opportunity to spend time with fellow students and staff, developing your final year projects and dissertations, in a splendid rural setting.
• We have one of the biggest libraries in the world, the National Library of Wales, on our doorstep. This copyright institution receives a copy of every book published in the UK.
• The department is home to New Welsh Review , Wales’ foremost literary magazine - this could be an exciting opportunity for you to get involved.
• You will be immersed in a supportive and vibrant community of creative and critical thinkers, literary experts, and published scholars from every field.

Modules

Year 1

• Core:
  • Ancestral Voices (EN10220, 20 credits)
  • Critical Practice (EN11320, 20 credits)
• Options:
  • Academic Writing: Planning, Process and Product (IC17720, 20 credits)
  • American Literature (EN11220, 20 credits)
  • Contemporary Writing (EN10520, 20 credits)
  • Greek and Roman Epic and Drama (CL10120, 20 credits)
  • Interdisciplinary Approaches to Climate Change (EN19920, 20 credits)
  • Introduction to Poetry (WL10420, 20 credits)
  • Language Awareness for TESOL (IC13420, 20 credits)
  • Literature And The Sea (WL11420, 20 credits)
  • Peering into Possibility: Speculative Fiction and the Now (WL11920, 20 credits)
  • Re-imagining Nineteenth-Century Literature (WL10120, 20 credits)
  • We Have Always Been Here: Queer Writing from Antiquity to the Present (WL10820, 20 credits)

Year 2

• Core:
  • Literary Theory: Debates and Dialogues (EN20120, 20 credits)
• Options:
  • A Century in Crisis: 1790s to 1890s (WL20720, 20 credits)
  • Contemporary Writing and Climate Crisis (EN21120, 20 credits)
  • Effective Academic and Professional Communication 1 (IC27720, 20 credits)
  • Literary Geographies (EN21020, 20 credits)
  • Literary Modernisms (EN20920, 20 credits)
  • Literature and Climate in the Nineteenth Century (EN21220, 20 credits)
  • Literature since the '60s (EN22920, 20 credits)
  • Short stories: Grit and Candour (WL20320, 20 credits)
  • TESOL Approaches, Methods and Teaching Techniques (IC23420, 20 credits)
  • 'The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne': Medieval Models of Literary Production (WL23120, 20 credits)
  • Classical Drama and Myth (CL20320, 20 credits)
  • In the Olde Dayes: Medieval Texts and Their World (EN23120, 20 credits)
  • Place and Self (EN22120, 20 credits)
  • Writing Women for the Public Stage, (EN28720, 20 credits)

Year 3

• Core:
  • Independent Research Project (WL30140, 40 credits)
  • Reading Theory / Reading Text (EN30120, 20 credits)
  • Undergraduate Dissertation (EN30040, 40 credits)
• Options:
  • Ali Smith and 21st Century fiction(s) (EN33620, 20 credits)
  • Crisis Writing (WR31820, 20 credits)
  • Effective Academic and Professional Communication 2 (IC37820, 20 credits)
  • Haunting Texts (EN30820, 20 credits)
  • Literatures of Surveillance (WL35320, 20 credits)
  • Post-Colonial African Literature in English (EN38120, 20 credits)
  • Remix: Chaucer In The Then and Now (WL30620, 20 credits)
  • Romantic Eroticism (EN30520, 20 credits)
  • TESOL Materials Development and Application of Technologies (IC33420, 20 credits)
  • The Mark of the Beast: Animals in Literature from the 1780s to the 1920s (EN31320, 20 credits)
  • Victorian Childhoods (EN30320, 20 credits)
  • Writing Crime Fiction (WR32420, 20 credits)
  • Writing Horror (WR31920, 20 credits)
  • Writing Music (WR32620, 20 credits)
  • Writing in the Margins: Twentieth-Century Welsh Poetry in English (EN30420, 20 credits)

Careers

Career Prospects

A degree in English Literature is the “gold standard” for any employment setting where communication is valued. All of our modules deliver key skills that enable you to build a comprehensive C.V. that evidences your diverse range of competencies.

Our graduates have been successful across the widest possible range of career destinations including:

• broadcasting
• journalism
• advertising
• publishing
• education
• Civil Service
• business
• finance
• New Media.

Transferable Skills

Studying for a degree in English Literature will equip you with a range of transferable skills which are highly valued by employers. These include:

• the ability to express ideas and communicate information in a clear and structured manner, in both written and oral form
• effective problem-solving and creative-thinking skills
• the ability to work independently
• time-management and organisational skills, including the ability to meet deadlines
• the ability to express ideas and communicate information in a clear and structured manner, in both written and oral form
• self-motivation and self-reliance
• team-work, with the ability to discuss concepts in groups, accommodating different ideas and reaching agreement
• research skills.

Teaching & Learning

What will I learn?

This degree will allow you to explore literature of all genres and from all periods within the context of the broadest possible interpretation of literature in English. You will become skilled in the interpretation and analysis of literary texts and you will engage with current critical debates.

The breakdown below will provide you with an illustration of what you may study during the three year degree scheme.

In your first year you may discover:

• new techniques for analysing literary texts
• some key figures from literary history (from Shakespeare to the Brontës)
• lesser known texts, and writers who are new to you
• a variety of 'ways of reading' and some theoretical approaches to textual analysis
• poetry, prose, drama, American Literature, adaptations, Classical literature, contemporary writing, medieval texts and much more.

In your second year you may explore:

• the theoretical approaches to, and the practice of, literary criticism
• a range of selected core texts from the medieval period through to the twenty-first century
• a number of specialist topics chosen by you (these might focus on a specific genre (such as crime fiction), historical period (such as the Victorian era), or theme (such as “place”).

In the third year you may master:

• literary theory and the application of theoretical perspectives to literary analysis
• extended writing and independent research in your final year dissertation project (on a topic chosen and defined by you)
• your own specialisms drawn from a diverse range of option modules taught by researchers in those fields. Our option modules include topics such as Elizabethan drama, the ghost story, the early English novel, queer fiction, children’s literature, Romanticism, and much more.

In your final year you will have the opportunity to take part in a writing retreat at a country house in mid Wales - an amazing opportunity to spend time with fellow students and staff, developing your final year projects and dissertations, in a splendid rural setting.

How will I be taught?

Our degree is taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and one-to-one tutorials. We also encourage self-directed learning designed to stimulate your academic interest in English Literature and nurture your personal and intellectual development.

You will be assessed through essays, exams and oral presentation. You will also be required to complete additional, non-assessed, assignments and to work with others on particular tasks.

Student Testimonials

What I love about the English Literature course at Aberystwyth University is the diversity which is offered. From the beginning of the degree to nearly finishing I have studied such a wide range of literature, some of which I didn't even know existed. I feel this has broadened my mind and provided me with a wide understanding of the different types of literature which will benefit me in my further studies.

Chloe Morgan

Q300 English Literature has given me the chance to study a wide range of different periods and genres, but the basics (Encountering Texts, Literary Theory) are interesting and well-taught as well. The lectures have a great range of specificity, from the very broad realities of authorship and historical context to unconventional and imaginative approaches to aspects of some texts. The seminars are enlightening too and have helped me to build both working and social relationships with other students and lecturers. All in all, a comfortable and thorough programme.

Edmund Morton

English Literature at Aberystwyth allows me to excavate the psychological depth of humanity shown through fictitious works. It enables me to show how identities, self and communities are constructed by society and how we interact with the world. The discussions - formal and informal - that I have with course-mates gives me a broader perspective on the world and helps me to form my own thoughts and feelings about how and why I interact with the world. The course is stimulating and I enjoy working with the people, texts and tasks that the course provides me with.

Samuel Peter Callard

Typical Entry Requirements

• UCAS Tariff: 120 - 104
• A Levels: BBB-BCC
• GCSE requirements (minimum grade C/4): English or Welsh
• BTEC National Diploma: DDM-DMM
• International Baccalaureate: 30-28
• European Baccalaureate: 75%-65%
• English Language Requirements: See our Undergraduate English Language Requirements for this course. Pre-sessional English Programmes are also available for students who do not meet our English Language Requirements.

Country Specific Entry Requirements

International students whose qualification is not listed on this page, can check our Country Specific Entry Requirements for further information.

The University welcomes undergraduate applications from students studying the Access to Higher Education Diploma or T-level qualifications, provided that relevant subject content and learning outcomes are met. We are not able to accept Access to Higher Education Diplomas or T-levels as a general qualification for every undergraduate degree course.

Our inclusive admissions policy values breadth as well as depth of study. Applicants are selected on their own individual merits and offers can vary. If you would like to check the eligibility of your qualifications before submitting an application, please contact the Undergraduate Admissions Office for advice and guidance.