BA English Literature and American Studies

This course introduces you to texts in their interactions with history. It recognizes what Stephen Greenblatt and Catherine Gallagher describe as the ‘embeddedness’ of texts in the contingencies of history (2000, p. 7), but also pays attention to the local, national and international structural relationships by which power is maintained, transferred or challenged. Beginning with textual responses to the socially and politically transformative events of the French Revolution and its global interactions and impacts, we will think through the ways literary texts respond to, shape and are shaped by local, national, and international events, and the ways they interact with political, cultural, colonial and postcolonial histories.

' To examine the relationship between texts and historical contexts; 
- To introduce students to the study of literary and cultural texts within the framework of the historical past
- To cultivate the skill of close reading, especially sensitive attention to literary form; 
- To study a range of texts across a range of genres and literary periods; 
- To make critical use of theoretical methods for studying literature historically; 
- To foster both verbal and written skills in critical and analytical thinking and the deployment of evidence to sustain a coherent argument appropriate to Level 1, initial year degree work.

By the end of this course students should have developed:

Knowledge and understanding
An extensive and detailed knowledge of the different ways in which groups of texts from two/ three historical moments represent, affect and are affected by those events;
An understanding of key debates about the study of literature in relation to history and historicity, including: the variety of ways in which texts respond to and also shape historical events; the relationship between literary form and political conflict; and the mediation and construction of history by texts and narratives.

Intellectual skills
An ability to interrogate the category of 'history'; evaluate the usefulness and cogency of rival theoretical approaches to the study of literature in history; read texts closely in order to discuss how their form, language and so on affect and are affected by historical context.

Practical skills
Research, writing and analytical skills appropriate to level 1 study.

Transferable skills and personal qualities
The ability to: work independently and in groups; construct and support an argument; utilise skills in written expression such as the deployment of evidence and the organisation of a coherent argument; display a capacity for self- and peer-criticism.

Coursework essay 40%

Examination (in-person)  60%

Written feedback on essay/exam

PRIMARY 
Edmund Burke, selected prose extracts 
Andrew Marvell, selected poetry 
John Milton, political sonnets 
Thomas Paine, selected prose extracts 
W. G. Sebald, Austerlitz 
Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale 
Anna Trapnel, The Cry of a Stone 
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 
William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads 

SECONDARY 
Christopher Hill, Milton and the English Revolution (1997) 
Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious (1981) 
Dominick LaCapra, “History beyond the Pleasure Principle?” (2009) 
---------Writing History, Writing Trauma (2001) 
Jerome McGann, The Romantic Ideology (1986) 
Pierre Nora, ‘Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire’ (1989) 
Hayden White, ‘The Historical Text as Literary Artifact’ (1974).  

The use of dictionaries in the examination is prohibited. This rule applies to all categories of students, including all Visiting Students.

Tuition fees for home students will be £10,050 for the 2027/28 academic year. In England and Wales, tuition fees for home undergraduate students are subject to the Government fee cap, which the Government has announced will be £10,050 for the 2027/28 academic year.

Government policy is to increase the fee cap on an annual basis to reflect inflation (i.e. increasing costs), and the tuition fee home students pay in subsequent academic years will reflect any increases in the Government fee cap (which we will communicate to you as soon as we can in advance of the relevant academic year).

Tuition fees for international students will be £29,200 for the 2027/28 academic year. For subsequent academic years, the University reserves the right to increase the tuition fee by up to 7% each year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our education and wider student experience.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

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).

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

Learn more about student finance options for UK students .

Learn more about f ees and finance for international students .

As an international student you may be eligible for our Global Futures Scholarships . This is open to students starting their studies in September 2026.