English Literature

Course summary

The course includes a detailed study of ‘Twelfth Night’, in many ways the richest and most charming of Shakespeare’s plays, and a comparative study of Chaucer’s ‘The Merchant’s Tale’ and Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ in which you will focus on the very different treatment of particular themes in different timeperiods. In the ‘Women in Literature’ module you will study novels by Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen, and also cover wider reading in preparation for the ‘Unseen’ study in the final paper. Finally, you will produce a coursework folder of two essays: one a comparative study of T S Eliot and James Joyce, and the other a detailed commentary on a work of modern drama. By the end of the course, you will have acquired a broad knowledge of books, authors and cultural history, and will be able to write with insight and authority on cultural subjects.