English

This programme aims to provide a historically based overview of the literature of all periods, together with opportunities to specialise in particular periods of literature, in modern English language, and in non-period modules. Students are encouraged to develop their own interests and may choose from a wide variety of specialisms.

In the first year of your degree you will take four modules which constitute a foundation for the study of English literature. Students study eight further modules across years two and three (four in each year). Two of those eight are compulsory, the other six modules are chosen from a list covering many periods of English literature and various themes within the discipline.

The first year of the English BA acts as a foundation for the two following years, covering major narrative texts from the Renaissance to the present, an introduction to Old and Middle English, the study of critical method, and the study of intellectual and cultural sources (texts which influence English literature but which are not in themselves necessarily classified as such).

In second and third year you will study compulsory modules on Chaucer and Shakespeare and will choose six further modules from a wide range: from Old Icelandic to The Romantic Period to Literary Representations and the History of Homosexuality, and many more. American literature and literature in English from other countries also feature strongly.

Within these compulsory and optional papers you will work with your tutor and in seminars to focus your reading and essay writing around topics that interest you, within the parameters of your chosen modules. The degree thus combines breadth and depth with individual freedom to explore writers and ideas.

The course is deliberately structured to allow you to take whichever modules you want in whichever combinations you want.

Courses are assessed by a combination of regular tutorial essays and final exams at the end of the second and third years. Towards the end of the third year you will also write a longer research essay about a topic of particular interest.

A levels

Grades

AAA

Subjects

English Literature (or combined Literature and Language) required.

GCSEs

English Language at grade B, plus Mathematics at grade C. For UK-based students, a grade C or equivalent in a foreign language (other than Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew or Latin) is required. UCL provides opportunities to meet the foreign language requirement following enrolment, further details at: www.ucl.ac.uk/ug-reqs

IB Diploma

Points

38

Subjects

A total of 18 points in three higher level subjects including English A1 at grade 6, with no score below 5.