English Literature and History

About

Students studying English Literature & History at Durham University typically receive 8 contact hours per week in the first year, 7 in the second year and 5-6 in the third year (lectures, tutorials and seminars) per week. Timetabled contact is only the beginning of your learning. It provides a starting-point for your development as an independent, self-motivated learner. In addition, the course requires a very considerable amount of directed independent learning: a minimum of 30-35 hours per week, comprised of reading primary and secondary sources, writing formative and assessed essays, and preparation of tutorial and seminar assignments.

From the outset the Departments cultivate an ethos of research-led teaching and focus on the acquisition of specialist study skills, as well as transferable skills. Throughout, particular emphasis is placed on small group teaching and individual academic development. The balance of contact hours across the course reflects individual progression in research, analysis and writing.

In the first year, a choice of six modules provides an induction into the disciplines of literature and advanced historical study. English modules cover the main genres, historical periods, contexts and backgrounds to English literature, while History modules offer engagement with different periods and approaches to the study of the past, and experience of the way in which History, as a community of practice, encompasses the diversity of the human experience. Lectures introduce broad questions and offer contextualisation and critical commentary; seminars and tutorials provide an opportunity for students to develop their critical skills through discussion for which they have prepared in advance. Timetabled classes are supported by resource packages for each module, provided through the on-line learning environment, to guide your independent research. Formative work, sessions on study skills, and essay handback sessions help to develop specialist research, analytical and writing skills.

In the second year, there is an increased emphasis on the development of critical and analytical skills. The curriculum continues to require you to engage with a range of periods and styles of literary and historical study, with modules introducing new problems in a more specific framework. You will take at least two, and up to four, modules in each discipline. This may include one or two English special topic modules, taught in 2-hour, fortnightly seminar sessions, which often include individual or group presentations. In view of the increased role of smaller-group work, which requires more independent preparation by students, the average timetabled contact time at Level 2 is 7 hours per week.

In the third year you will be expected to take further responsibility for managing your own time. The curriculum, while continuing to offer support and guidance, will require you to use the skills in independent study and time management which you have developed in the two preceding years. This will culminate with the dissertation, a large research project undertaken in either the History or English Department, giving you the opportunity to engage, at an advanced level, with creative cutting-edge research at the forefront of the discipline.

In addition to your dissertation, during the third year you will have the opportunity to take a further special topic and further lecture modules within the English Department. You will also undertake further modules within History, these may include a Special Subject module based around a seminar group which meets each week to discuss the interpretation of chosen primary sources and to interrogate the secondary literature. You will be expected to spend at least 35 hours each week in independent research, and for this reason timetabled contact is limited to an average of 5-6 hours each week.

Throughout the programme you will be encouraged to participate in each Department’s extensive programme of research-related activities, including public lectures, special guest lectures, and lectures, readings and workshops by visiting UK and overseas academics and creative writers, and other events organised by the student-run History Society. In addition, students are invited to attend regular lectures and workshops on personal development and employment prospects, organised jointly by the Departments and the Careers, Employability and Enterprise Centre. Alongside College mentors, designated year tutors, module tutors, seminar leaders and module conveners are available to offer advice as appropriate.

Content

Joint Honours in English and History is a cross-disciplinary course, which develops and assesses skills that are common to both disciplines alongside others that are specific to each. The course offers the opportunity to acquire a range of both literary-critical and historical knowledge, develops the ability to deploy and contextualise a number of subject-specific skills in each discipline, and locates these skills and forms of knowledge in relation to one another.

Year 1

In the first year, you will take three modules in English literature and three modules in History.

Optional modules in English:

• Introduction to Drama
• Introduction to the Novel
• Introduction to Poetry
• Romance and the Literature of Chivalry
• Myth and Epic of the North
• English: Language, Use, Theory
• Classical and Biblical Backgrounds to English Literature.

Optional modules in History (examples include):

• Tensions of Empire: British Imperialism 1763-1963
• Reformation Europe, 1500-1650
• New Heaven, New Earth: Latin Christendom and the World, 1000-1300
• The Birth of Western Society, 300-1050 AD
• The Making of Modern Africa: change and adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa, 1880-2000.

Year 2

In English, you have a wide choice from among lecture and seminar modules, but must take either Theory and Practice of Literary Criticism or Shakespeare. In History, you are offered modules that provide time-depth and focus on a closely defined period, and modules that are broader and more wide ranging, typically offering a widely delimited chronological and geographical approach.

Compulsory modules in English:

EITHER / OR

• Theory and Practice of Literary Criticism
• Shakespeare

(although both may be selected).

Optional lecture modules in English (taught by weekly lectures and four one-hour tutorials):

• Medieval Literature
• Old English
• Old Norse
• Old French
• Renaissance Literature
• Victorian Literature
• Literature of the Modern Period
• American Poetry.

Optional seminar modules in English (taught by fortnightly two-hour seminars):

• Modern Poetry
• Germanic Myth and Legend
• The Australian Legend
• Toni Morrison: Texts and Contexts
• John Milton
• Evelyn Waugh (a maximum of one may be selected).

Optional modules in History (examples include):

• Hard Times: British Society c. 1800-1901
• Modern China’s Transformations
• The American Half-century: the United States since 1945
• The King’s Two Bodies: Rulership in Late Medieval Europe
• The Ottoman World, 1400-1700.

Year 3

In English, the combination of a range of optional lecture modules and Special Topics is designed to broaden and deepen your knowledge base and analytical skills. In History, the syllabus encourages the detailed study and analysis of historical events, trends and problems by means of a Special Subject (requiring close study of a highly specialised topic using primary source materials) and a Dissertation. The third year also includes the possibility of choosing ‘reflective’ modules which oblige students to study a particular historical problem that will lead them to reflect upon the problematical nature of the historical enterprise, on its technique, historiography and subjectivity.

Compulsory modules:

One from:

• Dissertation in English
• Dissertation in History (40 credits).

Optional lecture modules in English (taught by weekly lectures and four one-hour tutorials):

• Old English
• Old Norse
• Old French
• Restoration and 18th Century Literature
• Literature of the Romantic Period
• Post-War Fiction and Poetry
• American Poetry.

Optional Special Topics in English (taught by fortnightly two-hour seminars):

• Literature, Cinema and Neuroscience
• Shakespeare on Film
• Shakespeare’s Problem Plays
• US Cold War Literature and Culture
• Writing Prose Fiction
• Fictions of Terrorism
• W. B. Yeats
• Elizabeth Bishop and Twentieth-Century Verse
• A Society of Equals? Literature, Culture and Equality
• Creative Writing Poetry
• Contemporary Mountain Writing.

Optional modules in History (examples include):

• A World Turned Upside Down: Radicalism in the English Revolution
• The Disappearance of Claudine Rouge: Murder, Mystery and Microhistory in Early Modern France
• Light Beyond the Limes: the Christianisation of Pagan Europe, 300-1000
• From War to Cold War: US Foreign Policy, c. 1944-1948.

Study Abroad

The Department participates in the University- wide overseas exchanges with:

• Boston College (USA),
• the University of British Columbia (Canada),
• the University of Hong Kong (China) 
• the National University of Singapore (Singapore).

Students can apply to spend the second year of their degree overseas. If you study on the four-year Joint Honours Modern European Languages and History degree, you will spend your third year abroad at a European university or a work placement as part of the University’s ERASMUS exchanges.

English Studies

The Department is part of the ERASMUS programme which encourages students to study for part of their course in a university of another EU country. Currently, we are exchanging students with the University of Reykjavik (Iceland), Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) and Heidelberg University (Germany) in their second year of study.

The University of Reykjavik has special strengths in Old Norse and houses the world’s most important collection of Old Norse manuscripts. Charles University is one of the oldest universities in Central Europe and Heidelberg is the oldest university in Germany. Both have exceptionally beautiful settings in cities renowned for their artistic and cultural heritage. Teaching is in English at all three universities.

Subject requirements, level and grade

In addition to satisfying the University’s general entry requirements, please note:

• We welcome applications from those with other qualifications equivalent to our standard entry requirements and from mature students with non-standard qualifications or from those who may have had a break in their study.
• We require Grade A in History and English Literature (or the combined English Literature and Language A Level) for English Literature and History (QV21)
• We require a Grade A* in any subject
• We do not include General Studies or Critical Thinking as part of our offer
• We welcome enquiries regarding applications for deferred entry which may be considered in special circumstances. Please contact our Admissions Secretary.

Preferred Tests:

a. IELTS: 6.5 (no component under 6.0)

b. TOEFL iBT (internet based test): 92 (no component under 23)

c. Cambridge Proficiency (CPE): Grade C

d. Cambridge Advanced (CAE): Grade A

e. Cambridge IGCSE First Language English at Grade C or above [not normally acceptable for students who require a Tier 4 student visa]

f. Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language at Grade B or above [not normally acceptable for students who require a Tier 4 student visa]

g. GCSE English Language at grade C or above

h. Pearson Test of English (overall score 62 (with no score less than 56 in each component))

Alternative accepted tests when those listed in a.-h. above are unavailable to the applicant (if the applicant requires a Tier 4 visa to study, advice on the suitability of these alternatives must be sought from the Student Recruitment and Admissions Office):

i. Certificate of Attainment (Edexcel)

j. GCE A-levels (AQA, CIE, Edexcel, CCEA, OCR, WJEC) at grade C or above in an essay based, humanities or social science subject from the following list: History, Philosophy, Government and Politics, English Language, English Literature, Geography, Religious Studies, Economics, Business Studies, Law and Sociology. Modern or Classical Languages are not acceptable in meeting this requirement.

k. International Baccalaureate with a minimum of grade 5 in Standard Level English or a minimum of grade 5 if taken at Higher Level.

l. NEAB (JMB) Test in English (Overseas)

m. Singapore Integrated Programme (SIPCAL) at grade C or above in an essay based, humanities or social science subject from the following list: History, Philosophy, Government and Politics, English Language, English Literature, Geography, Religious Studies, Economics, Business Studies, Law and Sociology. Modern or Classical Languages are not acceptable in meeting this requirement.

n. Singapore Polytechnic Diploma and Advanced Diplomas at GPA 3.0 or above

o. WAEC and NECO Grade B3 or above from Nigeria and Ghana