2023/24 Undergraduate Programme Catalogue

BA English Literature

Total credits: 360

Entry requirements:

- A-level AAB with A in English (English Literature, English Language, or English Language & Literature) excluding General Studies and Critical Thinking

- International Baccalaureate: 35 points overall with 16 at Higher Level including 6 in English at Higher Level.

- Applications welcome from mature students with Access qualifications and from students with international or other non-A-level qualifications.

- IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in any component.

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:

The information on this page is accurate for students entering the programme in 2022/2023 or before. For students entering the programme from September 2023 or after, you can find the details of your programme: BA English Literature(For students entering from September 2023 onwards)


Course Overview

Throughout this course, you’ll explore richly diverse literary texts across different genres, including fiction, poetry and drama, and will see these in the context of a variety of historical periods, places and cultures. You’ll consider how and why these texts are produced, read, and understood and analyse the impact of their creativity and power. 

Reading and understanding literature can help us to find out about ourselves and see the world from other perspectives. 

Through engaging with different kinds of texts from across the globe and from different periods of history, you can learn how language reflects and shapes human experience. 

You’ll also develop your skills as a critical reader, a clear thinker, and a persuasive writer. 

Our modules explore themes relevant to how we live today, including race and ethnicity, gender, climate change and nature, social class, disability and wellbeing. 

The School of English supports a vibrant community of researchers and creative practitioners. It is home to the Leeds Poetry Centre, and we regularly host readings and talks by well-known and emerging contemporary writers. 

The School also produces a literary magazine, Stand, and publishes the best in new creative writing.


Course Details

At Level 1, students will take Reading Between the Lines and Writing Matters, which introduce them to university-level study, equipping them to read critically and write with rigour and persuasion. A further compulsory module on Race, Writing and Decolonisation draws upon the School’s long history of teaching Black and Asian British writing and literature in English from around the world. Optional modules focus on poetry, fiction and drama. Students may also take Discovery modules from across the University.

At Level 2, students will take two core modules, Writing Environments and Body Language. These modules explore two urgent contemporary challenges, the climate crisis and personal wellbeing, and will examine how these issues can be understood and expressed through literary texts. Students will also select four further modules from a choice of eight, ranging historically and geographically from Medieval to Contemporary, and from Postcolonial to American. Level 2 will deepen and enrich subject knowledge and intellectual skills, preparing students for more independent learning at Level 3, where they can select from a range of specialist modules. A final year project, which may be a dissertation or a textual edition, further enhances active research skills, enabling students to define, plan and produce an extended piece of work.

After their second year of study, students may apply for transfer to an International Degree at one of a wide range of universities with which the University of Leeds has established links. They may also spend a year in industry on a work placement as an optional third year of their degree programme.

Year1 - View timetable

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

Compulsory modules:

At Level 1, candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules: 

Optional modules:

Candidates may select up to 60 credits of modules from the following optional modules. Alternatively, they may take up to 40 credits of Discovery modules in place of two of the option modules.

Discovery modules:

Candidates may take up to 40 credits of Discovery modules in place of two of the optional modules.

Year2 - View timetable

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

Compulsory modules:

At Level 2, candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules: 

Optional modules:

Basket 1: Candidates will be required to study 1 module from the following optional modules:

Basket 2: Candidates will be required to study 1 module from the following optional modules: 

Basket 3: Candidates will be required to study 1 module from the following optional modules: 

Basket 4: Candidates will be required to study 1 module from the following optional modules:

Discovery modules:

L2 students may take 20 credits of Discovery modules or one of the following modules in place of one of the Basket modules:

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.

A maximum of 40 credits may be taken in modules outside the School of English.

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF LEVEL 3:
1. Students MUST undertake the 40-credit Final Year Project in English or the 40-credit Textual Editing Project.
2. Students can then choose 40 to 80 credits of English OPTION modules.
3. Students can choose a maximum of 40 credits from outside of the School (known as Discovery modules).

NB: Students are not eligible to take Level 1 modules in Level 3 (except for a maximum of 20 credits in Special Skills modules).

Compulsory modules:

Optional modules:

Students are required to take ONE of the following CORE 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 at Level 3

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.

SEMESTER 1: Students must take 20 to 40 credits of English OPTION modules.

SEMESTER 2: Students must take 20 to 40 credits of English OPTION modules.

Discovery modules:

Candidates may study up to 40 credits of Discovery modules outside the School of English.

Students are not eligible to take Level 1 modules in Level 3 (with the exception of up to a maximum of 20 credits in Special Skills modules – these can be identified by the code ‘skd’ in the online module catalogue).

Last updated: 09/01/2024 16:45:32

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