BA English and Comparative Literature

Year 3

(Award available for year: Bachelor of Arts)

Learning outcomes

On completion of the year/programme students should have provided evidence of being able to:

- understand and demonstrate coherent and detailed subject knowledge and professional competencies some of which will be informed by recent research/scholarship in the discipline; e.g. to use secondary literature in a sophisticated and critical manner;
- deploy accurately standard techniques of analysis and enquiry within the discipline; e.g. to draw on a wide range of examples from different literary traditions within a sophisticated and critical theoretical framework;
- demonstrate a conceptual understanding which enables the development and sustaining of an argument; e.g. to engage with the theoretical underpinnings of comparative and world literatures in a critical fashion;
- describe and comment on particular aspects of recent research and/or scholarship; e.g. to show an awareness of current and emerging theoretical work within comparative literature and world literatures;
- appreciate the uncertainty, ambiguity and limitations of knowledge in the discipline; e.g. to display an appreciate of the limits of the various theoretical to literary texts and indeed of the essential (productive) fuzziness of literary texts themselves;
- make appropriate use of scholarly reviews and primary sources; e.g. in essays and presentations;
- apply their knowledge and understanding in order to initiate and carry out an extended piece of work or project; e.g. in the 40 credit dissertation;
- conform to professional boundaries and norms where applicable; e.g. to show integrity in the use of secondary literature.

Transferable (key) skills

Students will have had the opportunity to acquire, as defined in the modules specified for the programme:

- the transferable/key/generic skills necessary for employment related to the area(s) studied; e.g. to show an understanding of the way their studies relate to publishing, marketing, and the cultural industries more broadly;
- the exercise of initiative and personal responsibility; e.g. the dissertation;
- the deployment of decision making skills in complex and unpredictable situations; e.g. choosing a dissertation topic and working autonomously;
- the communication of information, ideas, problems and solutions in a variety of ways to a variety of audiences; e.g. the dissertation, which will require independent and creative thinking and the overcoming of unexpected obstacles;
- the ability to undertake appropriate further training of a professional or equivalent nature; e.g. to understand the gaps in knowledge and understanding, particularly in relation to research skills for the dissertation, and to seek to make good these gaps.

Assessment

Achievement will be assessed by a variety of methods in accordance with the learning outcomes of the modules specified for the year/programme and will include:

- demonstrating the ability to apply a broad range of aspects of the discipline; e.g. to combine theoretical understanding with a wide range of concrete examples;
- work that draws on a wide variety of material; e.g. the dissertation;
- the ability to evaluate and criticise received opinion; e.g. secondary literature, particularly in the dissertation;
- evidence of an ability to conduct independent, in depth enquiry within the discipline; e.g. the dissertation;
- work that is typically both evaluative and creative; e.g. in essays, but also in the dissertation.