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English Literature
BA History and English Literature
BA History and English Literature

BA History and English Literature

  • ID:UoR440139
  • Level:3-Year Bachelor's Degree
  • Duration:
  • Intake:

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Admission Requirements

Entry Requirements

English Requirements

IELTS 7.0, with no component below 6.0

Course Information

Our joint honours BA History and English Literature course allows you to explore the richness of English literature alongside the great variety of human history around the world.

Discover a thousand years of history whilst experiencing all the specialist areas on offer at the University of Reading. The History Department's expertise covers a wide range of world regions – from Europe and Africa to America, South Asia and the Middle East – and historical periods, with module choices ranging from the Crusades to the 1960s, slavery in America to Tudor monarchy, and Cold War Berlin to medieval magic.

In your first year, your core History modules will explore people, politics, and revolution – finding out how people struggled for power in past societies – and the culture and concepts those societies developed. We will teach you the skills you need to study and research history through an individual project of your choice.

In your English literature modules, you will read more of authors and genres that you may already know (from tragedy to Gothic, from Shakespeare and Dickens to Plath and Beckett). But you will also encounter aspects of literary studies that may be less familiar to you, from children’s literature to publishing studies and the history of the book. Our academics have published research on everything from medieval poetry to contemporary Caribbean and American fiction.

As you progress through your degree, your module choices become more diverse and specialised: you can do archive work on Studying Manuscripts, or look at the politics of literature in Writing Global Justice. Everyone in the English Department, from new lecturers to professors, teaches at every level of the degree: this gives you the benefit of our expertise and makes you part of the conversation about our research and its impact outside the classroom. We place a strong emphasis on small-group learning within a friendly and supportive environment. In your first and second years, you will have a mix of lectures (which can be quite large) and seminars (which will never have more than 16 people).

You can study abroad for a term in your second year at one of the University's partner institutions, including those in Europe, the USA, and Australia. The University also offers all students the chance to learn a modern language alongside their core subjects.

This course is flexible and enables you to shape your study to match your interests. Taught in small interactive seminar groups, you will regularly be able to discuss and debate topics with teaching staff and fellow students.

More information: click here

Year 1

Compulsory modules include:
Code, Module, Convenor
EN1GC, Genre and Context, DR Chloe Houston
EN1PE, Poetry in English, DR Matthew Scott
EN1RC, Research and Criticism, DR Stephen Thomson
HS1JH1, Journeys through History 1:Power and People, DR Daniel Renshaw
HS1JH2, Journeys through History 2: Culture and Concepts', PROF Anne Lawrence
HS1RSO, Research Skills and Opportunities in History, DR Ruth Salter
Year 2
Optional modules include:
Code, Module, Convenor
EN2BB, The Business of Books, DR Deborah Withers
EN2CF, Contemporary Fiction, DR Mark Nixon
EN2CMN, Chaucer and Medieval Narrative, DR Aisling Byrne
EN2CRI, Critical Issues, DR Stephen Thomson
EN2MOD, Modernism in Poetry and Fiction, DR Mark Nixon
EN2OEL, Introduction to Old English Literature, DR Aisling Byrne
EN2RER, Restoration to Revolution: 1660-1789, DR Rebecca Bullard
EN2RP, The Romantic Period, DR Matthew Scott
EN2RTC, Renaissance Texts and Cultures, PROF Michelle O'Callaghan
EN2SH, Shakespeare, PROF Lucinda Becker
EN2VIC, Victorian Literature, DR Lucy Bending
EN2WA, Writing America, DR Sue Walsh
EN2WGI, Writing, Gender, Identity, DR Yasmine Shamma
EN2WPS, Writing in the Public Sphere, DR Mary Morrissey
HS2GPP, Going Public: Presenting the Past, Planning the Future, PROF Kate Williams
HS2HAD, Historical Approaches and My Dissertation, MISS Liz Barnes
HS2INT, Intellectuals and Society in Twentieth Century Italy, PROF Daniela La Penna
HS2O10, The Colonial Experience: Africa, 1879 to 1980, MRS Chessie Baldwin
HS2O12, Belief and Unbelief in Europe: Religion, Science and the Supernatural c.1400-1800, PROF Helen Parish
HS2O14, Rebel Girls: The Influence of Radical Women 1792-1919, DR Jacqui Turner
HS2O16, ‘The brightest jewel in the British crown’: The Making of Modern South Asia, 1757-1947, DR Rohan Deb Roy
HS2O19, Europe in the Twentieth Century, DR Daniel Renshaw
HS2O21, Utopia: the Quest for a Perfect World, DR Jeremy Burchardt
HS2O3, People, power and revolution: political culture in seventeenth-century England, DR Rachel Foxley
HS2O53, The American Civil War, MISS Liz Barnes
HS2O54, 'Race’, Ethnicity and Citizenship in America, PROF Emily West
HS2O55, American Century: United States history since 1898, DR Robert Pee
HS2O56, Medieval Medicine, MRS Katie Phillips
HS2O57, Encountering the Atlantic World, 1450-1850, 
HS2O58, Black Britain: Race and Migration in Post-war Britain, 
HS2O7, Kingship and Crisis in England, c.1154–1330, DR Elizabeth Matthew
HS2STA, Society, Thought and Art in Modern Europe, DR Veronica Heath
HS2UNR, Unity, Nationalism and Regionalism in Europe, DR Athena Leoussi
AR2M8, Medieval Europe: power, religion and death, DR Gabor Thomas
LS2LLE, Literature, Language and Education, MRS Suzanne Portch

Year 3

Optional modules include:
Code, Module, Convenor
EN3AGN, American Graphic Novels, PROF David Brauner
EN3AH, Hitchcock, DR Neil Cocks
EN3BBF, Black British Fiction, DR Cato Marks
EN3CL, Children's Literature, PROF Karin Lesnik-Oberstein
EN3DD, Decadence and Degeneration: Literature of the 1880s and 1890s, DR Lucy Bending
EN3DIC, Dickens, PROF Andrew Mangham
EN3DIS, Dissertation, DR Stephen Thomson
EN3HT, Holocaust Testimony: Memory, Trauma and Representation, DR Stephen Thomson
EN3LMH, Literature and Mental Health, DR John Scholar
EN3MAT, Margaret Atwood, DR Madeleine Davies
EN3MCP, Modern and Contemporary British Poetry, PROF Steven Matthews
EN3MO, Medieval Otherworlds, DR Aisling Byrne
EN3OW, Oscar Wilde and the World of Art, DR John Scholar
EN3PC, Publishing Cultures: Writers, Publics, Archives, DR Nicola Wilson
EN3PSY, Psychoanalysis and Text, PROF Karin Lesnik-Oberstein
EN3RF, From Romance to Fantasy, DR Mary Morrissey
EN3SHF, Shakespeare on Film, PROF Lucinda Becker
EN3TBS, The Bloody Stage: Revenge and Death in Renaissance Drama, DR Chloe Houston
EN3UTD, Utopia and Dystopia in English and American Literature, DR Chloe Houston
EN3VW, Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury, DR Madeleine Davies
EN3WWP, Writing Women: Nineteenth Century Poetry, DR Lucy Bending
HS3CCO, Crisis, Change, Opportunity: Italy from 1968 to the Present, PROF Daniela La Penna
HS3DAC, Discovering Archives and Collections, DR Jacqui Turner
HS3HED, History Education, DR Elizabeth Matthew
HS3HLD, Dissertation in History, DR Heike Schmidt
HS3SAU, Anarchy in the UK: Punk, Politics and Youth Culture in Britain, 1976-84, PROF Matthew Worley
HS3SCW, Cold War Berlin: Politics and Culture in a Divided City, 1945-89, PROF Patrick Major
HS3SEU, Eugenics from 1865 to the Present Day, 
HS3SHP, Heretics and Popes: Heresy and Persecution in the Medieval World, PROF Rebecca Rist
HS3T100, Sexual Politics: Gender, Sex, and Feminism in Britain after 1918, 
HS3T101, Pirates of the Caribbean: Empire, Slavery, and Society, 1550-1750, 
HS3T102, Melancholy Medicine: Healing the Body and Mind in Early Modern England, 1570-1730, 
HS3T25, Medieval Magic and the Origins of the Witch-Craze, PROF Anne Lawrence
HS3T88, The Romantic Revolution: Culture, Environment and Society in England, c.1790-c.1900, DR Jeremy Burchardt
HS3T89, Africa from European Settlement to Nelson Mandela, DR Heike Schmidt
HS3T90, Poor Law to Hostile Environment: Repatriation, Deportation and Exclusion from Britain 1800-2016, DR Daniel Renshaw
HS3T91, Politics and Popular Culture: Post-Arab Spring Egypt, DR Dina Rezk
HS3T92, Policing the United States, MISS Liz Barnes
AR3HCP, The Anthropology of Heritage and Cultural Property, DR Alanna Cant
AR3M7, The Archaeology of Crusading, DR Aleks Pluskowski
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Pre Courses

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Pathway Courses

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Career Opportunity

Career Opportunity

Throughout your degree you can select career and skills related modules, encouraging you to think about what career you would like and what skills you will need. If you would like a career in teaching, or in archives or records management, try our optional third-year modules, History Education and Discovering Archives and Collections. We have had a high success rate from students who have completed History Education, with many of our graduates gaining places for Initial Teacher Training. Additionally, these modules develop a wide range of interpersonal, organisational, presentational and research skills readily transferable to other areas of employment.

Overall, 96% of our History graduates are in work or further study within six months of graduating (Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey, 2016–17). As a graduate you will have a broad range of transferable skills, including the ability to think clearly and critically, to communicate with confidence and work effectively both individually and as part of a team. Recent employers have included The British Museum, The Football Association, The House of Commons, Marks and Spencer, MI5, Morgan Stanley and Siemens Financial Services.

You may also wish to consider postgraduate study.

Ability to settle

Overseas Student Health Cover

Health Insurance_fee:£300/year

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