2019/20 Undergraduate Programme Catalogue

BA English Literature with Creative Writing

Total credits: 365

Entry requirements:

- AAA at A Level Including grade A in English

School/Unit responsible for the parenting of students and programme:

School of English

Examination board through which the programme will be considered:

School of English

Relevant QAA Subject Benchmark Groups:

English

Programme specification:

Context of the Programme
Creative writing today has an international reputation as a flourishing branch in the study of English at university level. Leading degree programmes in the United States and the United Kingdom currently attract a large number of applicants of high quality from across the world. The most promising and talented among them are by necessity as passionate about reading as they are about writing their own literary work. Becoming a distinctive writer, for them, is inseparable from becoming an inquisitive reader. They hope to become knowledgeable about the tradition of literature and literary scholarship in order that they can then make a contribution to it.

The School of English believes that it is an excellent position to support the ambition of these UK and international students. Our region is one of the most important in the history of English literature, providing us with powerful local traditions recognised far beyond the Anglophone world. Our alumni have made a central contribution to these traditions, and include founding figures of African national literatures, poets of great acclaim, and the leading fantasy writer of all time. This legacy lives on as the School remains a workplace for leading poets, and a space for the regular production, discussion and reflection on all kinds of literary work. Alongside this ongoing creative heritage the School is also home to a wide variety of internationally-recognised academic researchers whose expertise spans the historical and geographical spheres of English literary tradition.

Distinctive Structure of the Programme
This degree programme is designed to allow enrolees to follow a balanced path in which their core literature and creative writing modules progress in tandem and in dialogue with each other. Our new appointments in the field of creative writing tuition will work alongside established members of our teaching team staff who write creatively to run two new year-long core modules: Foundations of Creative Writing in Level One and of Developing Creative Writing in Level Two. Reflecting our historic commitment to seminar teaching, these new cores will take the form of small weekly seminar sessions, two hours in length, composed exclusively from the programme’s cohort of enrolees. Maximum size of this group will be eight students and if the degree recruits to plan we will run two groups of six. Fortnightly lectures and talks will run alongside these seminar sessions. At the same time the cohort will enrol in a choice of our core modules, meeting undergraduates from our other degree programmes, and discussing with them materials from a critical and literary tradition which will foster greater awareness of contexts in which their own creative work sits. Intellectual and creative currents flowing between these concurrent core modules in Level One and Level Two then lead into the long independent project and personal reflection required of students from their Final Year Project: Creative Writing Pathway. This larger project will also be the final addition to an individual portfolio which will thus be composed of a range of genres including essays, close readings, life writing, long fiction, poems, plays, screenplays, short fiction and/or travel accounts. This portfolio, in turn, will form an evidence basis on which students and their referees in the School can draw when pursuing opportunities through the creative industries. By the end of the programme students will meet QAA benchmarks as they will demonstrate:

* skill and aptitude in the formal conventions of a variety of literary genres, and

* a nuanced critical awareness of the cultural background behind these genres and their conventions

* skill and aptitude in the use of literary voice, idiom, idiolect, simile, metaphor, and other expressive devices, and

* a nuanced critical awareness of the cultural imperatives behind these expressive devices

* skill and aptitude in th e production of clear, accurate, artistically coherent and technically sophisticated written work and

* a capacity to convey research and creative thinking through this written work. Above all students will graduate with the ability to create objectively and, as the QAA benchmarks put it, to “read as a writer.” Upon graduation, as they pursue a range of pathways within the creative industries, they will draw on their ability to produce a range of different acts of communication in a spirit of constant reflection and open collaboration.

Year1 - View timetable

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]

Compulsory modules:

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory CORE modules:

Optional modules:

Candidates will be required to study 20 credits from the following optional CORE modules:

Students may also choose the following optional module:

Discovery modules:

A further 40 credits must be taken as Discovery modules. (Only 20 credits of Discovery modules can be taken by students who opt to take ENGL1023 Key Concepts in English Language, as outlined above.) Discovery modules include the creative writing modules of the Centre for Lifelong Learning and all discovery modules offered by our partners throughout the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures.

Year2 - View timetable

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]

STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO STUDY A TOTAL OF 120 CREDITS IN LEVEL 2, WITH NO MORE THAN 70 CREDITS IN ONE SEMESTER.
A MAXIMUM OF 40 CREDITS MAY BE TAKEN IN MODULES OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL OF ENGLISH.

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF LEVEL 2:

Students:
1. Choose ONE CORE optional module in semester 1
2. Choose ONE CORE optional module in semester 2
3. Choose either a) addtional semester 1 CORE OR b) semester 1 ENGL option OR c) semester 1 20 credits of Discovery outside of the school of English.
4. Choose either a) addtional semester 2 CORE OR b) semester 2 ENGL option OR c) semester 2 20 credits of Discovery outside of the school of English.

Compulsory modules:

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory CORE module:

Optional modules:

CORE MODULES - SEMESTER 1
Students are required to take at least ONE of the following CORE modules in semester 1.

CORE MODULES - SEMESTER 2
Students are required to take at least ONE of the following CORE modules in semester 2.

OPTION MODULES
Students can choose ONE 20 credit OPTION module in semester 1 and/or ONE 20 credit OPTION module in Semester 2 from the list below.
In accordance with the credit rules stated:
No more than 70 credits in one semester.
A total of 120 credits over the year.

Discovery modules:

40 credits must be taken in Option or Discovery modules. These include the creative writing modules of the Centre for Lifelong Learning; all discovery options offered by our partners throughout the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures; and all of the option modules reflecting diverse specialisms within the School itself.

Year3 - View timetable

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]

STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO STUDY A TOTAL OF 120 CREDITS IN LEVEL 3, WITH NO MORE THAN 70 CREDITS IN ONE SEMESTER.
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF LEVEL 3:
1. Students MUST undertake the 40-credit Final Year Project in English
2. Students MUST choose TWO CORE modules from a list (one per semester)
3. Students can then choose to take the remaining 40 credits in further CORE or OPTION modules in English or from modules outside of the School (Discovery modules)

Compulsory modules:

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory CORE modules (Candidates will be required to take the 'Creative Writing' pathway):

Optional modules:

CORE MODULES - SEMESTER 1
Students are required to take at least ONE of the following CORE modules in semester 1

CORE MODULES - SEMESTER 2
Students are required to take at least ONE of the following CORE modules in semester 2.

OPTION MODULES

Students may choose up to 20 credits of OPTION modules in each semester from the following list in accordance with the credit rules stated below.

Students may only choose a Level 2 English module from the OPTION module list if all their remaining 100 final year credits are at Level 3. Modules that start with the code ENGL2*** are Level 2 modules.

Credit rules:
No more than 70 credits in one semester
A total of 120 credits over the year
A maximum of 40 credits may be taken outside the School of English as Discovery modules across Level 2 & Level 3 (i.e. 40 in one level, or 20 in each level).

The 40-credit Final Year Project module runs over both semesters 1 and 2 and is counted as 20 credits in semester 1 and 20 credits in semester 2.

Discovery modules:

A further 40 credits must be taken in Option or Discovery modules. These include the creative writing modules of the Centre for Lifelong Learning; all discovery options offered by our partners throughout the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures; and all of the option modules reflecting diverse specialisms within the School itself.

Last updated: 17/05/2021 16:24:36

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