q306 - English Literature BA
English Literature BA Honours
UCAS Code: Q306 (full time: 3 Years)
Course Overview
This degree provides you with an excellent education in literature, drama and film, combining a flexible approach and wide range of option choices with extensive historical coverage.
At a Glance
UCAS Code
Q306
UCAS Institution Name and Code
NEWC, N21
Degree Awarded
BA Honours
Course Duration
3 Years
Entry Requirements
A Level: AAA-AAB
IB: 35-36 points
Opportunities
You will deepen your knowledge of literary texts and gain a firm foundation in the critical and theoretical skills needed to analyse them.
We introduce you to a wide range of literary texts – poetry, prose, plays and film – and offer a balance of pre-twentieth-century topics and more contemporary ones.
There are also opportunities to practise creative writing and theatre, to make films or take a work placement in one of the region's cultural industries.
Quality and ranking
- 10th in the UK – The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019 (English Studies category)
- top 20 in the UK – The Complete University Guide 2020 (English category)
- 92% overall student satisfaction score – National Student Survey 2019
- 3rd in the UK for research – Research Excellence Framework 2014 (English Language and Literature category)
- top 150 – English Language and Literature category – QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019
- top 200 – Arts and Humanities category – Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2018
Boost your employability with a work placement
Apply to spend 9 to 12 months on an optional work placement between Stages 2 and 3. You can apply to spend your placement year with any organisation and will receive University support to do so.
You’ll gain first-hand experience of working in the sector, putting your learning into practice and developing your professional expertise.
It will extend your degree by a year and is subject to availability.
Find out more about Work Placements.
Cultural industries placement
In Stage 3, you have the chance to gain valuable work-related experience by undertaking a work placement in one of the cultural industries. This is an exciting opportunity to relate the knowledge and skills you have acquired to the work environment, as well as enhancing your CV.
Your placement will be an integrated part of your degree which will last for one day per week for about 10 weeks (60 hours). It will be assessed through the submission of a Project Work Diary and a Final Report which together form the Placement Portfolio.
Places are limited and entry to the module may be on a competitive basis.
Field trips and events
Studying at Newcastle means much more than your time spent in the classroom or the library. The School organises regular field trips to cultural venues in the region such as:
- theatres
- The Wordsworth Trust (Dove Cottage)
- Lindisfarne
- Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books
- local museums including Beamish and the Great North Museum
We are home to the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts (NCLA). This brings internationally renowned writers to Newcastle, through a year-long festival of readings, discussion and debate.
Study abroad
You have the opportunity to study abroad for one semester in your second year, through the Erasmus programme. The work that you do and the grades you achieve are counted towards your final degree.
The School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics has Erasmus links with the following universities:
- Leiden in the Netherlands
- Peter Pazmany in Hungary
- Gdansk in Poland
- Ghent in Belgium
We also have study abroad links with two universities in Canada – Dalhousie and New Brunswick - available through our Non-EU Study Abroad exchange programme.
Facilities and support
As a student at Newcastle, you will be part of our School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, which has a long and prestigious history.
Facilities
The School occupies its own building, the Percy Building, in the heart of campus where you will join a lively community of students, academics, authors and professionals.
All of our students enjoy exceptional library provision from our award-winning Library Service, which houses over one million books and a huge range of electronic resources.
Writing opportunities
Newcastle University Students' Union is home to one of the best student newspapers in the country, The Courier. You also have the opportunity to submit poetry and short prose for the School's magazine, Alliterati.
Support
You'll have a personal tutor throughout your degree – an academic member of staff who can help with academic and personal issues. You'll also have access to a peer mentor in your first year – a fellow student who can help you settle in and answer any questions you have.
Social activities
There's a lively literary society, EngSoc, which organises social and academic events around a literary theme, as well as a Linguistics Society. There's an active student drama scene on campus, with two student drama societies open to all. You have opportunities throughout the year to get subsidised tickets for theatre productions in Newcastle.
Find out more
Visit the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics' website, where you can watch:
- video interviews of our current students
- video interviews of our graduates and find out what they're doing now
Compare this course
See how this course compares with others for topics such as student satisfaction, fees and costs and prospects after graduation using the Unistats Key Information Set.
Modules for 2019 entry
Please note
The module and/or programme information below is for 2019 entry. Our teaching is informed by research and modules change periodically to reflect developments in the discipline, the requirements of external bodies and partners, student feedback, or insufficient numbers of students interested (in an optional module). To find out more read our terms and conditions.
Module/programme information for 2020 entry will be published here as soon as it is available (end of May 2020).
Our degrees are divided into Stages. Each Stage lasts for an academic year and you need to complete modules totalling 120 credits by the end of each Stage. Further information, including the credit value of the module, is available in each of the module descriptions below.
Stage 1
Compulsory modules
- SEL1003 Introduction to Literary Studies I
- SEL1004 Introduction to Literary Studies II
- SEL1023 Transformations
- SEL1030 Close Reading
Optional modules
With the approval of the Degree Programme Director, 40 further credits will be chosen from modules outside the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics. Alternatively you may take the following modules:
Stage 2
Compulsory module
Optional modules
You must select two modules, and may take up to three, from Group A and Group B.
Group A
- SEL2201 Renaissance Bodies
- SEL2202 Writing New Worlds, 1660-1800
- SEL2203 Revolutionary Britain: 1789 - 1832
- SEL2219 Monsters, Misery and Miracles: Heroic Life in Old English Poetry
Group B
- SEL2204 Victorian Passions: Victorian Values
- SEL2205 Fictions of Migration
- SEL2206 Contemporary Cultures
- SEL2207 Modernisms
- SEL2217 Popular Performance Here and Now
You can choose one optional module from outside the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, with the approval of the Degree Programme Director. Alternatively you can take one of the following modules:
- SEL2224 Poetry Workshop
- SEL2227 Prose Workshop
- SEL2228 Screenwriting Workshop
- NCL2007 Career Development for Second Year Students
- NCL2100 Developing Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Employability
- SEL2000 Phonological Theory
- SEL2086 Introduction to Child and Adult Language Acquisition
- SEL2089 Syntactic Theory
- SEL2091 Sociolinguistics and the Sociology of Language
- SEL2212 Early English: Texts, Patterns and Varieties
- SEL2223 Speakers as Wordsmiths: the Creation of New Words in Present-Day English
Work Placement (optional)
You can apply to spend 9 to 12 months on an optional work placement between Stages 2 and 3. You can apply to spend your placement year with any organisation and will receive University support to do so. It will extend your degree by a year and is subject to availability. It isn't available if you're spending a year studying abroad. Find out more about Work Placements.
Stage 3
Optional modules
You choose one of the following modules:
- SEL3362 Dissertation in English Literature*
- SEL3364 Independent Essay I (English Literature)**
- SEL3365 Independent Essay II (English Literature)**
- SEL3400 Prose Portfolio***
- SEL3402 Poetry Portfolio***
- SEL3401 Theatre Script Portfolio***
- SEL3403 Screenwriting Portfolio***
- SEL3405 Exhibiting Texts*
- SEL3407 Dissertation by Presentation*
* SEL2210 is a prerequisite for SEL3362, SEL3405 and SEL3407.
** Only available in exceptional circumstances and with the Degree Programme Director's and Module Leader's Approval.
*** SEL2224, SEL2226 and SEL2227 are prerequisites. You should see your module leader at the end of the semester preceding that in which you propose to study one of these modules.
You must select one module, and may take up to three, from Group C and Group D.
Group C
- SEL3055 Chaucer, Shakespeare and the Book of the Future
- SEL3090 Chaucer, Chivalry and Heresy in the Middle Ages
- SEL3373 Women of Virtue and Women of Pleasure: Sensibility in the Age of Reason
- SEL3391 Women on Trial: Gender, Power and Performance in Shakespeare's England
- SEL3392 Between the Acts: English Theatre, 1660-1737
- SEL3393 Shakespeare's Show Business
- SEL3406 Making Ireland: Kingdom, Colony and Nation in Text and Performance
Group D
- SEL3016 Orgasms, Onanism, Odalisques: Desire and the Body at the fin-de-siecle
- SEL3091 Sex and Money: Economies of the Victorian Novel
- SEL3338 Home, Heritage, History: 20th century children's literature
- SEL3340 Romantic Poetry: Journeys of the Imagination
- SEL3346 Contemporary Documentary 1: Theory and Practice
- SEL3347 Contemporary Documentary 2: Theory and Practice
- SEL3378 Landscapes of American Modernism
- SEL3386 Modernist Poetry: Pound to the Beats
- SEL3390 The Literature of Capitalism
- SEL3395 The Victorian Novel: Time, Change and the Life Course
- SEL3397 American Poetry Now
- SEL3011 Growing up Global: Childhood and National Identity from Postwar to Present
- SEL3404 High-toned, Middlebrow and Lowdown: Jazz-Age Literature in the Magazines
- SEL3409 Planetary Imagination
Other optional modules may also be available from outside the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, with the approval of the Degree Programme Director. Alternatively you may take one of the following modules:
- NCL3007 Career Development for Final Year Students
- NCL3008 Advanced Career Development*
- SEL3012 Immigrant Second Language and Literacy Acquisition
- SEL3026 Structure of a Language
- SEL3046 English Grammar Through Time
- SEL3056 Advanced Sociolinguistics
- SEL3094 Accents of English
- SEL3324 Cultural Industries Placement Module (Semester 1)
- SEL3325 Cultural Industries Placement Module (Semester 2)
- SEL3341 Old English: Texts and Translations
- SEL3349 The History of Linguistic Ideas
- SEL3352 Language Development: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches
- SEL3372 Language and Ethnicity in 21st Century Britain
* Only available when taken with a Career Development module at Stage 2.
All candidates are considered on an individual basis.
If your qualifications are not listed here, please see our additional entry requirements web pages to find out which other qualifications are considered.
The entrance requirements below apply to 2020 entry.
Careers
Careers in English Language and Literature
Students taking our degrees in Literature, Creative Writing and English Language and Linguistics acquire a wide range of skills, all of them highly valued by employers
When you study with us, you'll acquire the ability to;
- summarise, analyse and interpret large volumes of complex information
- write to a very high standard
- present ideas and communication effectively
- work to deadline
- argue and convince
- undertake projects independently
- work collaboratively and to think logically and clearly.
On graduation, you'll have the experience and abilities needed to succeed in a wide range of professions that include business, public service, media, the arts, marketing and journalism, or go on to specialised training in fields like the law, education or HR.
Visit the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics to learn more about our subjects and watch our 'Employability and English Challenge'.
Find out more about the career options for English Literature, Language and Linguistics from Prospects: The UK's Official Careers Website.
What our graduates go on to do: employment and further study choices
See what our recent graduates went on to do and view graduate destinations statistics. These statistics are based on what graduates were doing on a specific date, approximately six months after graduation. Take a look at the most recent data available for our graduates.
The destination data is available in varying levels, beginning with the University and moving through Faculty and School down to individual course reports. This final level may give you some useful ideas about possible options after your course or a course you are considering.
Careers and employability at Newcastle
Newcastle University consistently has one of the best records for graduate employment in the UK.
96% of our 2017 UK-domiciled UG/PG graduates progressed to employment or further study within six months of graduating.
85.5% of our graduates are in graduate level employment or further study within six months of graduating.
We provide an extensive range of opportunities to all students through an initiative called ncl+. This enables you to develop personal, employability and enterprise skills and to give you the edge in the employment market after you graduate.
Our award-winning Careers Service is one of the largest and best in the country, and we have strong links with employers.
Applying to Newcastle University through UCAS
To apply for undergraduate study at Newcastle you must use the online application system managed by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).
UCAS codes for Newcastle University
- institution name - NEWC
- institution code - N21
UCAS buzzword
Ask your teacher or adviser from your school or college for the UCAS buzzword. You need the buzzword when you register on the Apply system. This makes it clear which school or college you are applying from.
All UK schools and colleges and a small number of EU and international establishments are registered with UCAS.
If you are applying independently, or are applying from a school or college which is not registered to manage applications, you will still use the Apply system. You will not need a buzzword.
Making your application
On the UCAS website you can also find out more about:
- application deadlines and other important dates
- offers and tracking your application
Application decisions and enquiries
Find out more about our admissions process and who to contact if you need help with your application.