English and Film and TV Studies – (B.A.)

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English

This degree aims to provide you with a varied, challenging, and enjoyable programme which will engage you in in-depth study of major areas of English literature, whilst developing an informed understanding of current debates in the subject.

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

Choice

There are opportunities for specialisation through a wide range of options which you may select according to your own particular tastes and interests, be they in contemporary poetry, drama, fiction, in literatures of the past or in literatures from cultures remote from our own.

Flexibility

There is only one compulsory module, and that is at Level 1. It deals with the most important approaches to criticism and theory that inform English studies in universities throughout the country. As such, it acts as a foundation for your other English studies. Other modules concentrate on different approaches to poetry, dramatic text and prose.

We also offer modules which concentrate on periods and themes: myth and romance; Shakespeare and his contemporaries; the multicultural context; gender and writing; the 1950s. You may, in addition, opt for a creative writing module and there is general support given in the development of writing skills.

Levels 2/3

At these levels you will select a minimum of three out of five core modules which provide key elements of English literary study: the Renaissance; Shakespeare; Romantic poetry; the 19th century novel; and Modernism. In addition you may choose from a wide range of modules on topics such as contemporary writing; post-colonial writing; American confessional poetry; the Pre-Raphaelites and their circle; Victorian literature and culture. There is also an advanced module in creative writing.

Film and Television

You will study film and television texts from a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives and develop the critical and technological vocabularies and theoretical frameworks with which to conduct close textual and contextual analysis. Limited opportunities will be available for practical work, but significantly less so than is the case for single honour students.

You will begin with a series of foundational modules at Level 1 that introduce you to film and television form, critical frameworks that have shaped the subject, historical and social context and an understanding of the relationship between theory and practice. In Level 2, you will be given more choice, to develop these understandings in relation to more specific media, geographical and/or genre contexts, and to undertake video practice. At Level 3, you are expected to develop increasingly sophisticated frameworks of analysis across a range of modules, including those focused on alternative practices in a variety of contexts. Level 3 practical options are restricted, however, to single honours students.

Teaching and LearningThe teaching team consists of a core of full-time and part-time tutors who are all active, published researchers in the field, and is supplemented by part-time specialist tutors.

How will I be taught?

Depending on individual modules, a combination of lectures, seminars, class screenings, workshops and tutorials.

AssessmentLevel 1 does not count towards your final degree mark but you have to pass this level in order to continue with the rest of your course. Level 2 is worth a third - level 3 the rest. The final year dissertation is worth a third of level 3 marks.

Assessment is by a variety of methods. These include: essays, projects, presentations, audio-visual production and 'seen' exams.