- UCAS course code
- Q320
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
BA English Literature
Explore traditional English literature alongside post-colonial literatures, cultural theory, creative writing, and film.
- Typical A-level offer: AAA including specific subjects
- Typical contextual A-level offer: ABB including specific subjects
- Refugee/care-experienced offer: ABC including specific subjects
- Typical International Baccalaureate offer: 36 points overall with 6,6,6 at HL including specific subjects
Fees and funding
Fees
Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £26,500 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.
Policy on additional costs
All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).
Scholarships/sponsorships
- Find out more from student finance
- Eligible UK students can apply for bursaries and scholarships
- Funding for EU and international students is on our country-specific pages
- Many students work part-time or complete a student internship
Course unit details:
Modernism
Unit code | ENGL21192 |
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Credit rating | 20 |
Unit level | Level 2 |
Teaching period(s) | Semester 2 |
Available as a free choice unit? | No |
Overview
This course provides an extensive introduction to the study of literary modernism by asking the following questions: What is modernism? When was modernism? How did it begin? What have been its effects? How is the way we think about it still changing and developing today? Our aim is to think about how modernism emerged, how it is defined, and how it was manifested in a variety of different literary genres and forms. Major modernist writers will be discussed in order to address modernism’s various thematic concerns and formal innovations, including T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Claude McKay, Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf. Students will have the opportunity to situate their readings in the context of important critical, theoretical and even philosophical debates within and about the field. Key themes and categories will be explored including: experience, identity, subjectivity, class, race, empire, political commitment and literary form. By the end of the course students will be in a position to interrogate the category of the ‘modern’ and discuss the relationship between modernism and modernity.
Aims
- To equip students with the close reading skills necessary to analyse formally innovative works of modernist writing
- To encourage students to acquire and reflect on the critical vocabulary necessary to explain and contextualise the works of modernist writers
- To prepare students for the advanced study of modernist and post-modernist texts at level 3
- To explore the variety of forms, texts and genres associated with literary modernism
- To engage philosophically and theoretically with the different ways in which modernist texts explore questions of subjectivity, identity and experience
- To familiarise students with important critical and theoretical debates and controversies within the field of modernist studies
- To encourage reflection on the definition of modernism and especially on the relationship between modernism and modernity.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Identify the key formal and thematic concerns of modernist writing
- Appreciate the variety of ‘modernisms’ grouped under the catch-all term ‘modernism’
- Analyse and explain the distinctive formal properties of modernist literary texts
- Discuss the complex relationship between modernism and modernity
Knowledge and understanding
By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Navigate the most important critical and theoretical debates in modernist studies as well as formulate a distinctive position on these debates
- Discuss the origins and consequences of modernist innovations in literature
- Analyse and explain the distinctive formal properties of modernist literary texts
- Articulate a critical position on the key question of the relationship between modernism and modernity
Intellectual skills
By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Deploy and reflect on the critical vocabulary necessary for the analysis of formally and thematically innovative works of fiction
- Offer a cogent definition of an important period in literary history
- Make reasoned judgements about prominent controversies within the field of modernist studies
- Assess critical arguments, evaluate the utility of theoretical concepts, and read closely works of literature, in order to formulate persuasive critical claims in assessed work
Practical skills
By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Produce cogent arguments about modernist literary texts in written form
- Discuss and analyse a variety of critical and theoretical judgements in seminar groups
- Research a topic from a variety of sources in order to refine their responses to texts and to frame their arguments as interventions in various critical conversations taking place within the field of modernist studies
- Work effectively with other students and with tutors in order to explore, refine and substantiate critical judgements about modernist texts
Transferable skills and personal qualities
By the end of this course students will be able to show:
- An advanced ability to analyse and process complex information
- An enhanced capacity to communicate persuasively in speech and writing
- Increased independence in research and problem-solving
- Increased ability to work effectively in groups
Employability skills
- Analytical skills
- Synthesise and present information in a lucid and engaging manner
- Group/team working
- Work effectively as a member of a group
- Problem solving
- Organise time effectively in pursuit of specific goals
- Other
- By the end of this course students will be able to: - Synthesise and present information in a lucid and engaging manner - Work effectively as a member of a group - Organise time effectively in pursuit of specific goals
Assessment methods
Method | Weight |
---|---|
Written exam | 50% |
Written assignment (inc essay) | 50% |
Feedback methods
- Written feedback on essay and exam
- Additional one-to-one feedback (during consultation hour or by making an appointment)
- Optional tutorials to discuss seminar performance and written work
Recommended reading
Preparatory reading
Storm Jameson, A Day Off (Bloomsbury - ebook available via the library)
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Oxford World's Classics)
Katherine Mansfield, Selected Stories (Oxford World's Classics)
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (Oxford World's Classics)
Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts (Oxford World's Classics)
Jeff Wallace, Beginning Modernism (Manchester University Press)
Study hours
Scheduled activity hours | |
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Lectures | 22 |
Seminars | 11 |
Independent study hours | |
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Independent study | 167 |
Teaching staff
Staff member | Role |
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John Roache | Unit coordinator |