English Literature BA (Hons)
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UCAS Code: Q320|Duration: 3 years|Full Time|Hope Park
UCAS Campus Code: L46
Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
Liverpool is the ideal city to study English Literature, with its thriving cultural scene, literary festivals, independent bookshops, and the renowned Central Library. Just a short walk from our Hope Park campus, you’ll also find The Reader Organisation in Calderstones Park—an inspiring hub for literature lovers.
Our English Literature degree explores a wide range of genres and historical periods, from fiction, poetry, and drama to autobiography, essays, travel writing, and slave narratives. You’ll study well-known authors as well as new voices offering fresh perspectives on key themes such as sustainability, identity, wellbeing, and power in society.
This English Literature course also looks beyond the texts themselves, inviting you to engage with the world of books through publishing, marketing, media, and digital technologies. You’ll even work with rare books and manuscripts from Liverpool Hope’s special collections.
Key features of the English Literature degree:
- A broad study of literature across periods, genres, and critical approaches
- Exploration of themes such as the environment, global perspectives, and wellbeing
- Hands-on opportunities in publishing, reading, and digital approaches
- Small group teaching and personalised support from expert tutors
- Employability skills embedded throughout the course
Our teaching team are internationally recognised researchers and published writers. In the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), English at Liverpool Hope achieved outstanding results, with over 80% of staff publications rated “world leading” or “internationally excellent.”
By the end of the English Literature course, you’ll graduate with advanced critical, analytical, and communication skills that prepare you for careers in publishing, journalism, teaching, marketing, the creative industries, or further study.
Hear from one of our English Literature students.
Course structure
The English Literature degree at Liverpool Hope combines lectures, seminars, and tutorials to support your learning. Lectures bring all students together, seminars offer smaller group discussion, and tutorials usually involve no more than 10 students in the first year. You also have the opportunity for weekly one-to-one meetings with your personal tutor.
Weekly teaching hours:
- Single honours English Literature: Around 12 hours in the first year, reducing to 10 hours in the second and third years
- Combined honours English Literature: Around 6 hours in the first year, reducing to 5 hours in later years
In addition to these teaching hours, you are expected to dedicate approximately 23 hours per week to independent study, ensuring a thorough understanding of the material and development of key skills.
Assessment and feedback
You will be assessed through essays, portfolios of assignments, creative projects and peer presentations. In your final year, building on work from your first two years, you will complete an independently researched dissertation - or a shorter research project for combined honours students.
Feedback is provided electronically within four working weeks of submission, with regular opportunities to discuss feedback one-to-one with your tutor.
Curriculum overview
The English Literature degree offers a rich and intellectually stimulating education while developing transferable skills in research, critical thinking, and communication, preparing you for a wide range of graduate opportunities.
The course explores texts across historical periods, genres, and global contexts, while examining the production and cultural legacy of literature. As students progress, they encounter an increasingly diverse range of writers and texts, including different races and nationalities.
A distinctive feature of the course is its focus on the world of books, considering how literary works are written, produced, marketed, and circulated. The course also highlights literature’s role in engaging with key societal issues. Single honours students further explore connections between literary texts, academic study, and social activism.
Please note that the curriculum is subject to validation processes.
Year One
The first year of the English Literature course introduces a broad range of skills, approaches, texts, and contexts to prepare you for the rest of your degree.
Keywords in Literary Studies
This module introduces the key principles and terminology of literary criticism, focusing on the act of reading and its significance for the modern world. Close reading is at the heart of the module, with literary critical keywords and concepts explored through a variety of texts from different historical periods and forms. Weekly tutorials in “Research and Writing in English Literature” help you develop core study, research, and writing skills, supporting your transition to university-level study.
Popular Literature
This module examines literary texts notable for their popularity, whether as best-sellers at the time of publication or through enduring cultural influence. You will explore how texts relate to their historical context, respond to contemporary events and ideas, and conform to or challenge generic conventions. The module also considers factors shaping popularity for twenty- and twenty-first-century audiences, including literary prizes, adaptations, book clubs, digital platforms such as BookTok, and media coverage.
Literature in Time and Place (single honours)
This module provides a foundation in key texts, genres, and literary periods from ancient myth and epic to modern works. Primary texts are selected for their lasting influence on literature and culture, with an emphasis on how texts interact across time and space. Through comparative study, you will explore how pre-modern and later works address enduring questions such as power and justice, travel and cross-cultural encounters, race, gender and sexuality, identity, and society. The module also engages with debates around the literary canon and tradition.
Literature and the Environment (single honours)
This module examines a wide range of literature with a focus on environmental themes, including both rural and urban contexts. You will study texts in relation to the physical and cultural environments in which they were created, as well as the environments they depict. The module encourages exploration of historical, contemporary, and future perspectives on the environment, while highlighting connections across different periods, locations, genres, and themes.
Year Two
In the second year of the English Literature course, you will deepen your study of literary periods and topics while engaging with contemporary approaches, including global and interdisciplinary perspectives.
Indicative modules include:
- Border Crossings
- Locating Literature
- The Power of the Page
Single honours students also study:
- Argument, Scandal, and Censorship
- Single Author Study
Year Three
In the final year of the English Literature course, you have the opportunity to choose from a range of modules that reflect the current research and teaching interests of our staff. You will also complete an extended independent research project or dissertation, supported by a tutor with expertise in your chosen area of study.
Current module options include:
Human and Animal: Exploring the Contemporary
Examine literature from the Second World War to the present, including novels, short stories, poetry, memoirs, and travel writing from Europe, North America, and Africa. Authors range from George Orwell and Sylvia Plath to Zadie Smith and Margaret Atwood. The module explores the relationship between humans and animals while addressing key contemporary issues such as national and racial identity, gender, mental health, war, technology, urbanisation, social inequality, and environmental concerns.
A History of Fantasy
Study the enduring genre of fantasy, from medieval myths and early modern epics to contemporary fiction, children’s and young adult literature, and adaptations in TV, film, games, and fan communities. The module examines imaginative worlds to explore gender, sexuality, race, colonisation, political power, and community.
Modernism
Investigate the impact of modernism on literature and the arts in the early twentieth century, including British, American, Irish, and European texts across genres. The module develops skills in close reading, bibliographic research, and applying critical and theoretical interpretations. Seminars and lectures examine key authors, major debates, and the historical, scientific, aesthetic, and intellectual contexts of modernism.
Single honours modules include:
Writing Home
World War and Class Conflict 1900–1945: Explore English poetry and prose from the Modernist period, focusing on ideas of ‘home,’ national identity, war, power, gender, education, and social inequality. The module also considers the popularity of texts, accessibility, the book market, and broader cultural contexts such as film, music, architecture, and visual arts.
Literary Theory
Engage with advanced literary and cultural theory, including feminism, Marxism, ecocriticism, New Historicism, and postcolonial approaches. The module develops skills in reading theoretical material and applying critical and interpretive frameworks to your dissertation research.
Entry requirements
| A-Levels | BCC - BBB |
|---|---|
| UCAS Tariff Points | 104 - 120 UCAS Tariff points must come from a minimum of two A Levels (or equivalent). Additional points can be made up from a range of alternative qualifications |
| BTEC | DMM - DDM |
| Access to HE | 104 - 120 Tariff Points |
| IB | 26 |
| Irish Leaving Certificate | 104 - 120 Tariff Points from Higher Level qualifications only |
| Welsh Baccalaureate | This qualification can only be accepted in conjunction with other relevant qualifications |
| T-Levels | Merit |
| Subject Requirements | No specific subject requirements |
International entry requirements
| Specific Country Requirements | Select your country |
|---|---|
| IELTS | 6.0 overall (with reading and writing at 6.0) and no individual score lower than 5.5. We also accept a wide range of International Qualifications. For more information, please visit our English Language Requirements page. |
Careers
A degree in English Literature opens doors to a wide range of careers. Many graduates pursue employment in fields such as publishing, education, journalism, broadcasting, marketing, and public relations.
The English Literature course helps you develop key skills that are valuable in any career, including communication, research, and project management. You will also gain advanced analytical thinking, highly developed writing, and strong organisational abilities—skills that make your CV stand out.
Many graduates also choose to continue their studies at postgraduate level, building on the knowledge and expertise gained during their English Literature degree.
Enhancement opportunities
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2026/27 academic year are £9,535* for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,535*.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
*subject to Council approval.
Additional costs
As well as your tuition fees, you also need to consider the cost of key books and textbooks, which in total will cost approximately £200.
You will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation each year whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2026/27 are £14,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
This course is also available as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects: