Do you have a passion for literature? Do you want to explore the relationships between literary texts, other media and the cultures that produce and consume them? Study English Literature at Liverpool Hope and you will encounter a wide variety of texts from medieval right through to contemporary literature. As much as possible we try to make the experience of literature come alive by not only studying texts in classrooms but also going on various local and national field trips. Single Honours students will also be trained to read and analyse rare books and manuscripts from our library's Special Collections in courses on the history of the book and the history of publishing.
During your three years of study, you will gain a sound grasp of the contexts and approaches within which English literature can be studied, as well as gaining a sense of the development across periods of English literature. You expand your awareness of and sensitivity to the conventions and expectations that shape communication, and the dynamics of these within a given text. You also develop a critical appreciation of the ways in which knowledge of other disciplines and their relationships to English literature can contribute to a deeper understanding of literary texts.
The academic staff teaching the degree have research expertise in a broad range of fields, from late medieval to contemporary literature. We pride ourselves on offering a challenging and stimulating degree, and our commitment to small group teaching allows us to help each individual student to develop sophisticated analytical and communication skills through working both independently and in groups. We strive to support you in the pursuit of academic excellence.
Teaching on this degree is structured into lectures, where all students are taught together, group seminars, and tutorials which typically have no more than 10 students in the first year. You also have the opportunity to have a one-to-one meeting with your tutor each week. There are a number of local and national visits to places such as The Charles Dickens Museum and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.
If you are studying English Literature as a Single Honours degree, in your first year of study there are approximately 12 teaching hours each week, which reduces to approximately 10 teaching hours in your second and third years. If you are studying English Literature as a Combined Honours degree, in your first year of study there are approximately 6 teaching hours each week, which reduces to approximately 5 teaching hours in your second and third years. On top of teaching hours, you are also expected to spend 23 hours each week studying independently.
You will be assessed by a range of methods including essays, portfolios of assignments, oral presentations, and written exams. In the final year, building on work completed in your first two years, you undertake an independently researched dissertation (or shorter research project if you are studying combined subjects), which you present at an internal Honours Conference.
Feedback is supplied electronically within four working weeks of the assessment deadline. You will also be offered regular opportunities to discuss feedback one-to-one with your tutor.
*Please note topics marked with a * are only studied by Single Honours students.
The Foundation Year is a great opportunity if you have the ability and enthusiasm to study for a degree, but do not yet have the qualifications required to enter directly onto our degree programmes. A significant part of the Foundation Year focuses upon core skills such as academic writing at HE level, becoming an independent learner, structuring academic work, critical thinking, time management and note taking.
Successful completion of the Foundation Year will enable you to progress into the first year (Level C) of your chosen honours degree. Further details can be found here.
You are introduced to a broad range of texts from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century and will investigate the historical, cultural and intellectual contexts of literary texts, suggesting ways that such information can be used to enrich the reading of a given text.
This topic provides an overview of the development of the three traditional genres: prose, poetry, and drama. The prose examined includes the short story and novel. The poetry selected for close reading introduces students to a range of poetic modes and forms: sonnets, lyric poetry, narrative poetry, elegiac verse, dramatic monologues. You have the opportunity to discuss your own interpretations of literature through detailed close readings of texts.
Through working with different types of writing, such as the academic essay, the glossary entry, and the critical synopsis, the Writing Workshop helps you to develop sophisticated thinking and understand the nuances and fine distinctions necessary for effective academic writing.
An introduction to a range of literature from as early as ancient Greece to the twenty-first century. Lectures will investigate how authors rework previous literary texts and traditions. You will consider, for example, how Tolkien was influenced by Old and Middle English literature, and how Shakespeare was influenced by Ovid.
These seminars investigate the development of particular ideas and themes in literature, such as the journey and the quest, visions of heaven and hell, conceptions of power and utopia, the idea of originality and authorship, thoughts on self and society. You examine works such as Homer’s The Odyssey (the journey) and H. G. Wells' The Time Machine (utopia) with a view to understanding the nature of the dynamic elements that are continually referenced within literature and Western thought.
These tutorials ensure that you are made aware of the disciplinary and transferable skills that you are developing and help you develop a secure foundation in the research and creative problem-solving skills necessary for Single Honours study. The classes also consider the history and role of English Literature as a university subject and consider the role of reading for the individual and for wider society.
You study a range of literary texts from the seventeenth century to the early twentieth century, examining how literature engages with intellectual, social and political developments over the course of the era.
A detailed discussion and close reading of significant aspects of the long eighteenth century, for example concerning the nature of reality and truth, the poetic imagination, the rise of the novel, and the diversity and complexity of poetic forms being used in the early years of Romanticism. The literary and philosophical ideas in evidence within the primary texts will be considered against the backdrop of changing social and political attitudes towards, for example, individual and national identity, and the nature of liberty.
This theme will examine the development of English literature through the Romantic period, the Victorian era, and the writing of the fin de siècle. Emphasis will be placed on the effect of the French Revolution on English Literature, the development of feminist thinking in the Victorian era, the impact of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) and cultural anxieties reflected in gothic literature and detective fiction of the fin de siècle.
You will focus on the work of two or more writers within the context of the literature, ideas, and cultural history of their time. The authors examined will vary from year to year, but will include writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Austen, Dickens, and Hardy.
You examine the poetry, prose and drama of the late medieval and early modern periods. Close examination of authors such as Chaucer, the Gawain-poet, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson and Donne in their cultural and historical contexts will underpin an interrogation of the traditional critical divide between 'the medieval' and what comes after.
This strand traces the impact of Romantic writers and theorists on the writers and literary productions of the American Renaissance. As American literature begins self-consciously to differentiate itself from English literature while influenced heavily by it, the resulting borrowings of literary forms such as the historical novel, the sentimental novel, and the gothic tradition will be traced; and the transformations that occur as these are used to treat native subjects will be examined.
You are provided with training on the use of archival resources using both our own Special Collections of rare books and manuscripts and digital archives, and exposure to issues related to the production, publication, and reception of a particular text. You may examine book design, serialisation, illustrations, the production of different editions, the marketing of the text, contemporary reviews and subsequent re-evaluations, reader responses, and literary responses to selected literary texts.
You examine and analyse a range of texts from England, Ireland, and the United States written during the Modernist period such as work by writers such as William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot and Franz Kafka. These texts will be examined through close readings that will enable you to develop your own understanding of the textual strategies, stylistic innovations, and thematic concerns of the literature of this period.
You choose one of two seminars, which change each year, and are based on the lecturers’ research interests. Previous years’ courses have included Literature and Place and Fiction after Modernism.
An exploration of English poetry and prose during the age of Modernism, with an emphasis on Englishness, war and social inequality – topics that were closely related during the first half of the twentieth century. The set texts include The Wind in the Willows, Howards End, Brideshead Revisited and Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
This theme examines recent theoretical approaches such as trauma theory, the maturing of postcolonial perspectives and the examination of intersectionality in relation to the construction of identity, the contribution of disability studies to the understanding of literature, and the now common awareness of the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to the study of literature.
These tutorials advance students' knowledge of the field of study known as 'the history of the book' to consider theoretical and historical approaches to analysing the book in its physical and digital forms, and the role that editing and publication play in our responses to a text.
A one-year project completed under the supervision of a researcher in your topic area. You present a research paper drawn from your project at an internal academic conference.
A degree in English Literature opens many doors. English graduates can enter a wide range of careers and many of our graduates go on to employment in fields such as publishing, education, journalism, broadcasting, marketing and public relations.
The degree will help you to develop communication skills, research skills, and project planning skills that will be useful whatever career you choose.
Your CV will be enhanced by the skills you develop: a sophisticated level of analytical thinking, highly developed communication skills, excellent organisational skills and advanced writing skills.
Many graduates go on to study for a postgraduate degree.
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.
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.
The tuition fees for the 2020/21 academic year are £9,250 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 £9,250.
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.
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.
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
The International tuition fees for the 2020/21 academic year are £11,400 (provisional) per year for full-time undergraduate courses.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
This course is also available with Foundation Year as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects:
Department staff