English BA (Hons)

Course Content

• Course Details

  The modules on this English BA degree are organised into distinctive strands that allow students the chance to develop their knowledge from year to year and apply skills they’ve learned across different stages. For example, in a strand called ‘Rethinking Identities’, we raise the question of which authors are taught right from the start in a module called ‘Decolonising the Bookshelf’, with a particular focus on race and ethnicity. But these same ideas return in the second year of the BA English degree with ‘Representing Class: Stories and Conflict’ and in the third year with ‘Bodies and Performances: Sex and Gender’, and in this way students are able, if they choose, to fully develop their understanding of literary expression, representation and recognition across a broad range of literary texts.

  While one strand focuses on literary periods, perspectives and historical contexts, another focuses on types of writing and other media in the digital age, or how society both shapes and is shaped by literature. Yet none of the strands exist in isolation, with meaningful connections between modules at each level.

  While one strand is focused on skills and applications – with explicit focus on how to develop your abilities on the programme and for the workplace beyond – these skills are used and developed in every module, and every strand offers opportunity to demonstrate your employability.

  What’s more, all our BA English modules are rooted in staff expertise and a shared passion for literature. In offering modules focusing on ecology and the environment, children’s and young-adult writing, contemporary revisioning of the works of Shakespeare, American literature and culture, gothic worlds, and digital culture, the course offers every student a breadth of topics that will stimulate your imagination and hone your critical thinking. By your final year, you get to follow your own passions and expertise, by selecting a dissertation on a literary topic of your choice and really showing what you can accomplish.

  The team of English degree lecturers is big enough to offer a variety of modules, but small enough to provide you with a close-knit learning environment. You will know your tutors personally and see them regularly and you will regularly find someone to help you with your academic study, and to provide pastoral support hand-in-hand with Northampton’s excellent student support services.

  Please note the modules shown here relate to the academic year 25/26. The modules relating to the academic year 26/27 will be available from June 2026.

  • Stage 1
    • Reading Literary Genres
      Module code: LIT1001

      Status: Compulsory
    • Creative Reading and Writing
      Module code: LIT1021

      Status: Compulsory
    • Life, Liberty and Happiness: Introduction to American Literature
      Module code: LIT1033

      Status: Compulsory
    • Language and Creativity
      Module code: LIT1035

      Status: Compulsory
    • Identity under Construction: Late Twentieth-Century Literature (20 Credits)
      Module code: LIT1037

      Status: Compulsory
      This module offers an introduction to British Literature post-1945 to the present day. It considers key developments in poetry, drama and the novel in the context of literary movements and social change.It examines a range of writers portraying the mainstream and margins of British culture. It is designed to develop students' skills in reading a variety of contemporary genres, and to encourage them to begin to apply theoretical and critical considerations to liteature.
    • Contemporary Shakespeares (20 Credits)
      Module code: LIT1038

      Status: Compulsory
      The purpose of this module is to introduce students to the study of Shakespeare?s plays at University level (along with essential historical backgrounds and scholarly methodolgies) and to explore the range of meanings illuminated in the plays by contemporary cultural concerns, recent critical perspectives, and forms of adaptation into other artforms and media, including film and stage performance. Students will be encouraged to play an active role in debating these meanings and advancing persuasive arguments in defence of their own interpretations, thus enhancing key analytical and evaluative skills for degree-level study of English.Note: For the Essay with Annotated Bibliography assignment, students will be expected to write about themes and interpretations of the plays, using a range of contemporary perspectives. The focus of the Presentation will be upon contemporary cultural uses and appropriations of Shakespeare.
  • Stage 2
    • Sex, Sexuality and Twentieth-Century Fiction
      Module code: LIT2048

      Status: Designate
    • Thinking English: Reflections, Concepts, Perspectives
      Module code: LIT2049

      Status: Compulsory
    • Experimental Literature
      Module code: LIT2051

      Status: Compulsory
    • Creative Nonfiction
      Module code: LIT2052

      Status: Designate
    • Contemporary American Fictions: Slavery, Sci-Fi and Serial Killers
      Module code: LIT2053

      Status: Designate
    • From Blade to Book: Early English Literature
      Module code: LIT2054

      Status: Designate
    • From the Fairy Tale to the Contemporary Child Hero
      Module code: LIT2055

      Status: Designate
    • Victorian Visions (20 Credits)
      Module code: LIT2056

      Status: Compulsory
      The purpose of this module is to introduce students to a diverse range of writers and texts from the Victorian period, situating them in the context of the major cultural and political changes of the era, whilst also considering how the period has been reimagined in neo-Victorian literature.
    • Literature and the City
      Module code: LIT2057

      Status: Designate
    • Professional Writing Project: Northamptonshire
      Module code: LIT2060

      Status: Designate
  • Stage 3
    • Contemporary Women's Writing
      Module code: LIT3010

      Status: Designate
    • Adaptation
      Module code: LIT3061

      Status: Designate
    • Early Modern Literature: Page, Stage and Screen
      Module code: LIT3064

      Status: Compulsory
    • Celebrity, Publicity and American Literature
      Module code: LIT3066

      Status: Designate
    • Satire and Revolution: Re-Reading Eighteenth-Century Literature
      Module code: LIT3067

      Status: Compulsory
    • Gothic Worlds 1750-1900 (20 Credits)
      Module code: LIT3068

      Status: Designate
      The purpose of this module is to examine the development of Gothic Literature from its inception in the mid eighteenth century to the modernized urban Gothic of the late nineteenth century. The module will situate the genre in its wider cultural and historical contexts and consider how the Gothic imagination expresses itself aesthetically, culturally and politically during this period.
    • Media English and Culture Dissertation (40 Credits)
      Module code: LIT4016

      Status: Compulsory
      The purpose of this module is to provide an opportunity for students to develop, at length, a particular disciplinary interest. This may derive either from study in the first two years of the degree, or from reading and/or practice activities on their own initiative. In either case, they will bring to bear on their subject matter the analytical techniques learnt during their degree.

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• Student Perks

  At the University of Northampton, everything we do, from funded trips to paid internships, is to give you everything you need to make a difference when you leave.

  If you join this full time BA English degree, you will receive a laptop when your course begins*. The laptops are built to a bespoke custom specification ideal for use in the seminar room, collaborative group work or studying at home.

  Whatever your ambitions, we’re here to help you to achieve them. We’ll support you to identify the skills you’re learning during your english literature course, find your strengths and secure practical experience so that when it comes to applying for jobs or further study you’ll feel confident in standing out from the crowd. We’ve created the Northampton Employment Promise because we are so confident that if you focus on your studies and complete one of our awards you’ll be highly employable by the time you graduate. Putting you in a great position to secure employment or continue your studies.

  To check out the full list of perks, visit our Student Perks page or dedicated International Perks page.

  *UK fee payers only (see Terms and Conditions for further details).

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• Integrated Foundation Year (IFY)

  The Integrated Foundation Year (IFY) offers a new and exciting route into studying for a degree, attracting ambitious and driven students who are willing to learn and advance.

  If you have non-standard qualifications or do not quite meet the admissions requirements for the degree in English, we can offer you a fantastic opportunity to study a four year programme that includes an Integrated Foundation Year. The Integrated Foundation Year will help you develop the theoretical/practical and academic skills you need, in order to successfully progress to the full award.

  Our four-year courses will enable you to successfully follow the degree pathway of your choice while gaining essential study skills. The foundation year of your chosen degree will be studied on a full-time basis and is aimed at supporting the transition to higher education. Years two, three and four are then studied as a standard degree programme.

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• FAQs

  How will I be taught?

  English modules are assessed through a variety of methods, including essays, individual and group presentations, blogs, participation in online discussion groups, creative writing, podcasts and formal examinations. From the outset on the English BA degree, we teach you the skills you will need through your degree and transferable skills that will be vital to your career.

  You will engage with texts through extensive reading and consolidate your own responses by studying intellectual, theoretical and historical contexts. You will be taught through seminars and group discussions which will critically inform your ideas and allow you to share and discuss them with your fellow students.

  We also provide the chance to develop your writing and apply your understanding of the world to employment-related tasks, with opportunities for working toward live-client briefs (where your success is measured against what real-world employers are looking for, rather than sticking only to tutor-led assessment briefs), to get a direct taste of work-based learning and real employment environments.

  Are there any specialist facilities and features?

  On the English degree, you will benefit from:

  • a range of optional modules for flexible learning
  • thematic strands developing ideas from the first year to the last
  • a broad range of modules focused on relevance and diversity
  • opportunities to study American literature
  • work-based learning and employability skills
  • a diverse range of assessment methods

  Is a BA in English useful?

  Studying a BA in English provides students with a wealth of highly transferable skills that lend themselves to a wide range of exciting career and further study opportunities.

  Professions of a wide variety are crying out for people with analytical, critical thinking skills that are a foundation of this degree. Whilst, you will also have demonstrated excellent writing and communication skills that will make you highly employable.

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