BA (Hons) English Literature and History Bachelor's degree at Lancaster University

Tracing the evolution of literature over time and in time, you will engage with an array of literary genres including plays, films, short stories, novels, poetry, essays and the graphic novel. You will encounter a wide range of literature - from the Middle Ages to the 21st Century, moving from Chaucer, through Shakespeare and Milton, to Virginia Woolf. You’ll also study contemporary writers such as Alison Bechdel and Paul Muldoon, and many others.

We begin your historical training with the cornerstone of historical research: evidence. What counts as evidence? It comes in many forms: Chronicles and law codes Letters and diaries written by people in the past Visual records, from paintings to photographs, film and maps Aural records such as music and oral histories The physical remnants of past worlds, from coins to castles and burial places Each source has a context we need to uncover. Who produced the source and why? Who would have seen or heard it and what was their reaction? From here we can learn what questions to ask of our evidence. How can it illuminate past worlds? Our expert historians guide you through hands-on training, build

Why do historians disagree about how to interpret the past? What issues divide them and why do they disagree? Continue your training as a first-year historian and study real-life examples of historical debate introduced by our experts. If the cornerstone of historical research is handling evidence, why do historians place different values on certain evidence or interpret evidence differently, or miss evidence all together, and how do they build their arguments to come to alternative conclusions? You’ll develop skills in reading historical arguments, uncovering how historians select and present evidence and engage critically with fellow scholars and how they craft their argument. In the process

The medieval and early modern periods witnessed immense change. This module will introduce you to the key themes, sources, and methods you need to understand the patterns of change and continuity around the world over a period of more than a thousand years. The shift from a warm climate in the medieval period to a colder one in the early modern period may help us explain patterns of life in a world where most people depended on subsistence agriculture. Huge transformations were also wrought by the movement of people, diseases, animals, and goods, with events such as the Black Death in Europe and smallpox epidemics in the Americas decisively changing how people lived, and how they related to

Learn how to analyse highly contemporary political events and trends, and develop the vital critical skills required to be able to put them into context. You will also discover how to relate these issues to core empirical questions and debates within academic research on politics. Taking a problem-based learning approach, you’ll use evidence to evaluate competing explanations for recent political developments. These may include: Democracy and elections Political leadership The state and globalisation Structural inequalities Political institutions Public opinion and protest. Lancaster’s politics experts have extensive expertise across different regions of the globe and we are quick to respond

Explore the complex landscape of global governance and the role of international institutions in addressing contemporary challenges. You will begin by studying the historical development of the international system and the evolution of world order, setting the stage for an analysis of key actors in global politics. You’ll learn about: The functions and impact of states International organizations Non-governmental organizations Multinational corporations Transnational non-state actors Examining the processes of global governance, including diplomacy and negotiation, you will analyse the economic, social and cultural dimensions of globalization and their impact on state sovereignty, internatio

This module explores the role of the arts in building community, identity and confidence. You will engage with a variety of different art forms (such as painting, theatre, fiction, designed artefacts and film) and develop your own voice via collaborative projects such as a podcasts, video essay or presentation. You will also engage in individual critical reflection for example via a blog, journal or research project. This module fosters co-operation, intellectual experimentation and self-assurance.

What does it mean to think in and about the world? This module will draw on disciplines from across the School of Global Affairs to think about the very different ways in which the world can be imagined. What are the ideas that have framed or limited our understanding of the world and others in it? How can we challenge existing narratives and explore alternative perspectives?

Look beyond the boundaries of traditional courses in English Literature and explore a wide and exciting range of literatures in English and translation from antiquity to the present day. Discover texts that have influenced the development of literary English, from the Bible and classical figures such as Ovid and Homer, through Medieval and Early Modern authors such as Dante and Rabelais to contemporary world authors in translation such as Kafka and Rushdie.

This module explores the lived experience of peoples and nations in the modern age through the emergence of new ideas – including nationalism, capitalism, imperialism, racism, feminism - and, in turn, how those ideas were shaped by individuals, political movements, and events in diverse regions such as Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. You will explore the dramatic changes that took place across the period, such as enslavement and emancipation, dictatorship and democracy, mass suffrage, war, persecution, and transformations in medical practice and legal systems, including the emergence of the idea of the citizen. You’ll also consider the histories of those who defied and resisted these

Explore literary criticism as it is now and what it may yet become. You will have the opportunity to consider a whole range of major theoretical and philosophical concepts, such as: The body Race Gender Violence Ecology God Time Death War Self The animal You will study a range of fascinating modern thinkers, ranging from Marx, Freud and Nietzsche, through to more recent figures such as Simone Weil, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Fred Moten, Cornel West and Sara Ahmed.

Who makes History? What drives them to investigate the past? You’ll meet the women and men who have helped shape the discipline of History, delving into their life and works. How did their experiences and opportunities shape their careers and what questions spurred their curiosity? How did they find the sources they would need, and what methods did they use to analyse them? In exploring their stories, you’ll ask how the place, time and society in which they lived opened opportunities or created obstacles to their careers, how they collaborated with other scholars or carved roles in learned societies or public debate. And you’ll ask why some historians have been heralded as ‘great’ – their na

Explore a wide range of literature and drama from the medieval and early modern periods. The module situates medieval and early modern literature in its relevant historical and cultural contexts. You will develop skills in the close reading of medieval and early modern texts. Authors studied may include Chaucer, the Gawain poet, Margery Kempe, Mary Wroth, Sir Philip Sidney and Christopher Marlowe.

Exploring the adaption of literature to film and other media, this module focuses on the adaptation of literary texts to such forms as theatre, graphic novel, film, television, song, and game. You will be invited to reflect on adaptation as a powerful and complex cultural process, one that interprets literature as well as adapts it. Throughout the module you will normally complete either a critical essay on adaptation OR a creative project (plus short essay) that enables you to produce your own work of adaptation. This may take many forms -- written, (audio) visual, musical, digital, or three-dimensional and/or take the form of a game, production or performance, etc.

Explore postcolonial literature across a wide historical span. Your study will move from the explosion of new national literatures in the era of decolonisation through to contemporary writing that interrogates the legacies of racism and imperialism in our globalised world. You’ll read exciting major writers who defined the emergence of African, South Asian and Caribbean literature in English in the middle of the twentieth century. You’ll also encounter today’s new voices, grappling with the afterlives of empire. Cutting through all our thinking will be the question of how literature serves, in Ngugi wa Thiongo’s phrase, as a means of 'decolonising the mind'.

Discover how wars are among the most important drivers of historical change. They have transformed states, societies, borders and landscapes, as well as ideas, identities, and worldviews. The decision to go to war is rarely taken lightly, but the mechanisms and norms for doing so have varied greatly over time. How peoples mobilize themselves for conflict has likewise been shaped by ideas about rights, responsibilities, and roles, ideas sometimes rooted in shifting concepts of gender and racial ideologies. War is also a crucible of scientific and technological change. From the longbow to the machine gun, and from photography and reconstructive surgery to the atomic bomb, war has stimulated sc

Explore the links between humans and their environments around the world from the medieval period to the modern era. Examine how people have understood nature and their place within it over time and across cultures, investigating climate change, environmental disasters and massive landscape transformations. You’ll situate the natural world as both an agent of change and a system that humans can alter on many scales, developing skills in navigating complex human-environment interactions. You will encounter a range of sources, from texts to images and environmental data, and learn how to analyse them, including through digital methods. With these skills, you’ll explore regional case studies of

What we call ‘American Literature’ and how we define America and ‘the American experience’ depends on who is writing and to whom. In this module you will encounter many different voices, many conflicting and contrasting views, a diversity of complex experience and a great range of writing in form and style. You will explore such questions as: What role do different literary forms play in narrating the self? How does American writing seek to establish a new way of looking at the world? And how and why does literature help shape forms of protest and new critiques of modernity?

The years of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901) saw great social, political and cultural transformation. Changing social conditions, extraordinary scientific breakthroughs and the emergence of new technologies all altered the ways in which Victorians thought about themselves and their environment. The literature of the period responded resourcefully to the turbulent circumstances from which it emerged. In this module, you will examine a wide range of Victorian writing, including novels, short fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose and will explore and interrogate all the complexities of the Victorian age.

Explore the two things that make us human – body and mind. Historians once regarded mind and body as the same across time and place. But more recently, historians have challenged this assumption, showing that changing societies have led people to experience mind and body in radically different ways. You will explore patterns of continuity and change from the medieval to modern periods by investigating key themes such as: How ideas about mind and body have impacted gender, race and social class Violence and injury Sexuality and gender identity Changing experiences of disability and transformations in attitudes to healthcare You’ll build the skills to historicise mind and body through innovati

What does it mean to die? Is it frightening? Will I see those I love again? What does it mean to kill, whether an enemy, a friend, or myself? Death is a universal human experience but, as you’ll discover, how we confront it has varied across history.You’ll explore varied experiences of death, from end-of-life care to execution, and from battlefields to pandemics. Religion can shape beliefs and customs, from the theology of the afterlife to funerary rituals and the treatment of the corpse. Yet at the margins have always lain a shadowy world, where the restless dead return, the living seek to summon the departed, and the despairing take their lives. You’ll discover the different means of inves

Reflect on what it means to do criticism in a post-theoretical age. This module asks what happens to literary interpretation after all its many theoretical upheavals – from Marxism and feminism to postcolonialism and queer theory. Is it time to get back to the close reading of literature? Is there still room for pleasure, appreciation and creativity in the practice of criticism? We might question whether literature, in the traditional sense, even exists anymore. You will pose these questions in relation to a range of traditional and non-traditional texts.

20th-century British history is largely a story of change. The impact of democratisation, war, economic decline, the loss of empire, and internal fragmentation has resulted in a nation seemingly in constant flux, often unsure of its identity and its values. In this module you will explore the patterns of social, economic, cultural and political change which have most affected the lives of the British since 1900. The overarching themes are the formation and reformation of identities based on class, gender, race, empire, nation, and the dual process by which the British were integrated into the state as citizens, and into the market as consumers. As well as being introduced to the key historio

You are invited to collaborate in an interdisciplinary team with other students as you explore major global challenges such as climate change, inequality or emerging technologies. Throughout the module you will examine how the humanities, arts and social sciences contribute to understanding and addressing complex issues. Classroom discussions and activities focus on the process of identifying problems and considering innovative, ethical responses, while helping you to consider and articulate the relevance of this work to your personal and professional development.

Explore how ideas can be developed into real-world projects with lasting value. Through hands-on collaboration and problem-solving, you will develop innovative projects, learn how to bring ideas to life and explore ways to sustain them. Whether you are working in a team or individually, you will be encouraged to experiment with different approaches to making a difference in artistic, cultural, social and community spaces.

Why does History matter? What does it contribute to our world? Challenge yourself to consider how our discipline is applied. Beyond working in universities, historians are active in public debate and influence the policies of institutions and governments on matters from the memorialisation of historic figures and institutional links with the Transatlantic Slave Trade to geopolitical threats to UK security. They collaborate with museums, helping visitors engage with material remains of the past, and write books for a wide public readership. You’ll develop a critical awareness of your discipline and gain confidence in articulating its significance in our world. You’ll also contend with the sub

What is the contemporary? When did the present cultural moment start and how might it end. How do writers respond to the challenge, excitement, pressure and novelty of the ‘now’? And how is imaginative writing faring in the digital age? You will consider these questions in relation to the work of such major authors as Ali Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Colson Whitehead

Study key texts and contexts from a short but remarkably intense period of literary history. Encompassing the work of writers such as Wordsworth, Blake, Keats and Shelley, you will explore the role of nature, the imagination and the sublime. You will also consider the emergence of the Gothic tradition and examine the interactions between literary and politics in a turbulent era of revolution and change.

Examining a wide range of texts and authors from early periods to the age of the climate crisis, this module will explore the many and various ways in which the non-human world is celebrated, championed and exploited by the literary imagination. You will explore questions such as: What do we mean by the ‘the environment’? What experiences, meanings and values do we take from, or discover in our surroundings? How have writers characterised the environment and in what ways might the literary imagination be significant for contemporary environmental concerns?

What is critical theory? Why is it one of the most controversial areas of contemporary culture today? And to what extent do theoretical ideas about power, race, gender and identity change the way we think about the world? On this module you will explore a range of classic and contemporary themes, trends and topics in critical theory from the 1960s to the present. You’ll take a deep dive into key thinkers like Foucault, Deleuze and Agamben and key concepts like biopolitics, globalisation and animal studies.

Explore the development of the Italian cities across one of the most significant periods of medieval history. Between 1100 and 1350, northern Italy was divided into sixty ‘city-states’ governed by their citizens through assemblies and shared public office. Italian merchant-bankers grew so rich that they lent money to kings and popes, and used their wealth to transform cities into works of art, encouraging a period of cultural flourishing later called the Renaissance. But beyond this splendour lay a darker reality of economic exploitation, political exclusion and violence that eventually proved fatal for this system of self-government. In this module you will explore themes such as coexistenc

Colonisation fundamentally transformed Jamaica’s paradisical environment. In this module, you will gain a detailed understanding of how this process occurred. You’ll begin by studying how the first colonists comprehended the New World environment and the importance of that environment for shaping settlement. You will then study how settlers exploited the Jamaican environment using enslaved African labour. In the concluding section, you will examine how colonists sought to mitigate the devastating effects of plantation agriculture through nascent environmentalism. You’ll study this fascinating history using a diverse array of primary sources and by reading deeply in environmental history. In

Explore the history of Victorian Britain and its global encounters through the prism of the body. Embodiment was central to the way Victorians thought about themselves and others. From sexology to racial science and from sport to war, Victorians sought to make sense of their complex and globalised world by reading character from the body, ascribing values, both positive and negative, to the bodies of others, be they colonial subjects, the working class or queer men. By studying the history of the body, you will gain new insights into this fascinating period of British history as an age of both remarkable optimism and profound anxiety. Drawing upon a rich and evolving historiography, you will

Explore the history of South Asia from the abolition of sati to the death of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. You will consider the social, cultural and political histories through which the idea of India was expressed and contested. You will examine the debates and rebellions through which the European colonial project was resisted and South Asian identities were expressed and cohered. You’ll begin by considering how, in the nineteenth century, the translations, interpretations and classifications of subcontinental history, society and language were created. How were ideas of identity, community and freedom formed in response to and against the incursion of European power in

Uncover the origins of modern consumer society in Britain. In the century from the abolition of advertising tax in 1853 to the birth of commercial television in the 1950s, advertising became a pervasive feature of modern life, and Britain became a nation of consumers. Through a range of sources, including press reports, social surveys and – of course – advertisements, you’ll investigate the impact of new shopping environments like the department store and the supermarket, and the rise of ethical consumerism. Advertising is political, and you’ll also examine how it helped Britain win two world wars and market the Empire to its citizens. By the end of the module, you will understand how advert

Gain an in-depth understanding of this dark chapter of Spain’s history. On the 17 July 1936, a group of military generals launched a coup against Spain’s democratically elected Second Republic. The following three years witnessed a bitter struggle to determine the future of Spain. The Spanish Civil War has been dubbed a ‘dress rehearsal’ for the Second World War. General Francisco Franco relied on Hitler and Mussolini to defeat his domestic opponents, while the Republic received support from Soviet Russia. Yet the conflict had important local dimensions. Spanish socialists, communists, anarchists, liberals and feminists fought to the last against Franco’s ‘Nationalists’. Following his victor