English Literature

Course summary

You will learn to read, understand, and write about a range of literary texts: prose, poetry, and drama, and to read critical theory and apply it to texts. You will study specific genres (Elements of Crime, and Aspects of Tragedy). You will develop the skills to consider different ways of reading and interpreting texts and the application of critical ideas such as feminism, eco-criticism, Marxism, and others. You will explore a play by Shakespeare, Romantic poetry, modern American drama, and a postmodern British novel amongst a wide range of other literature. The non-examined assessment allows you to select a prose and poetry text of your own choice and to develop your own question for analysis – this allows you the freedom to explore the literature of your choice and related to your own interests. Through this wide and varied exploration of literature, you will develop critical reading skills, your powers of inference and deduction as well as a burgeoning love of a range of texts.