Year 1

Year 1 lays the foundations of your study in literature and language. You will develop crucial skills in the four main areas of English studies, learning how to analyse poetry, prose, drama, and language; you will learn about the development of the novel and the English language itself, and encounter the Renaissance stage in all of its richness. You can also choose two option modules to complement your study of literature.

Core modules

• Reading Poetry
• Writing Matters
• The Novel Around the World (double module)
• Renaissance Drama: Shakespeare and his Contemporaries (double module)

Option modules

Choose one option module from:

• Classic American Writing
• Introduction to Writing Creatively: Part 1
• Film and Literature

Then choose one option module from:

• American Literature in the Twenties and Thirties
• Introduction to Writing Creatively: Part 2 (to take this module, you must also have chosen the Part 1 module from the earlier list)
• Literature for Children and Young Adults

Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.

Year 2

In Year 2 you will have the opportunity to discover literature from the medieval and early modern periods, and be able to explore the literary and theoretical movements that have shaped contemporary literature and language studies. You will also be able to choose from a generous selection of specialist option modules, to enhance your employability profile and benefit from our research expertise.

Core modules

• Critical Perspectives 1
• Critical Perspectives 2

Option modules

Choose one option module from:

• Romantic Literature from Blake to Shelley (double module)
• Eighteenth-Century Literature from Restoration to Revolution (double module)

Choose one option module from:

• Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
• Chaucer’s Worlds
• Diversity in Contemporary American Literature
• Using Stories
• Gothic
• Romantic Literature from Blake to Shelley

Choose one option module from:

• Modern Literature from Heart of Darkness to Nineteen Eighty-Four (double module)
• Rewriting Britain from Windrush to Now (double module)

Choose one option module from:

• Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
• Advanced Creative Writing Skills
• Diversifying Publishing and the Literature Industry
• English and Arts Journalism
• English and Education

Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.

Year Abroad (optional)

We’ll make sure you have everything you need for your future career: not just by awarding you a high quality degree, but also by helping you to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence you need to make your mark in the world as a Citizen of Change. One way you can do this is by opting to take a Year Abroad between Years 2 and 3 of your degree.

Studying abroad is not just for people who are interested in travelling and meeting new people. It is about acquiring life skills that are becoming increasingly significant for a wide range of jobs in our modern globalised society. Whether you go on to a career in the private, public or third sector - or plough your own furrow as an entrepreneur – you will find the experience invaluable.

For more information, including a list of destinations, please visit our Study Abroad website.

Please note

• A year spent abroad still incurs a tuition fee, but this is much lower than for a normal year at Leicester. See the Fees and Funding tab of this page for details.
• You may be eligible for a travel grant from Student Finance England.
• Places are offered on a competitive basis, and eligibility is dependent on your academic performance in Years 1 and 2.
• Language courses, at beginners or advanced level, are available through our Languages at Leicester scheme.

Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.

Final Year

Your final year of study will allow you to explore texts from the Romantic period up to the globalised writing of our contemporary world. You will also be able to write a dissertation on a research topic entirely of your own choosing, and take a range of modules led by specialists in their academic fields.

Core module

• Dissertation (English)

Option modules

Choose one option module from:

• Renaissance Literature from Utopia to Paradise Lost (double module)
• Victorians: from Oliver Twist to The Picture of Dorian Gray (double module)

Plus two option modules from:

• Adolescence in American Fiction and Film
• Science Fiction: Exploring Space and Time
• Forms of Modern Poetry
• Love and Death: The Novel in 19th Century Russia and France
• Writing Voices
• Classical Worlds: Translation and Reception
• Writing Prose Fiction
• Clinical Encounters?
• The Living and the Dead in Nineteenth Century Literature and Culture

Then choose two option modules from:

• Queering the Renaissance
• Literatures of Protest: Reading and Political Action
• The Latin World: Ancient, Medieval and Modern
• Weird Fiction/ Weird Film
• Autobiography and American Literature
• Late Victorian Gothic: Texts and Contexts
• The Other in American Fiction and Film
• The Thatcher Factor: The 1980s in Literature
• Jane Austen: The Novels, their Contexts and their Adaptations
• Tragedy
• Writing for Laughs
• Sex and Sensibility: Women, Writing, Revolution
• Life and Fate: Russian Literature from Pushkin to Grossman
• Medieval Worlds
• Reading and Writing Climate Change Fiction

Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.