BA (Hons) English Literature Bachelor's degree at the University of Kent

How free are writers to make and break literary forms? How do literary forms shape our understanding of selfhood, history, and society? Gain an introduction to the relationship between form and context in literary studies as you explore a rich variety of literary forms from the medieval period down to the present, including poems, plays, novels, and short stories. In lectures and seminars, you will examine how forms produce aesthetic effects and relate to ideologies, with a particular attention

There is another world, which is this world. Dystopias, futures and other forms of speculative writing offer us a new clarity on the some of the most pressing issues we face in our world today. Through examining four thematically structured units over the course of the term, you'll discover how the study of narratives that exist in 'other worlds' can offer insightful and nuanced analyses of complex questions involving environmental, political, historical, and/or societal concerns. You'll also co

What are the key ideas you need to become a literary critic? What are the different approaches to interpreting a literary text? In this module, students will learn about some of the most important thinkers in the history of literary criticism, understand how their ideas and methods changed the way we study literature, and put them into practice in your own writing. They will study revolutionary ideas about class and capitalism, explore dreams and the unconscious, and discuss landmark texts in th

How can nature be invented? Before the Romantic era, writers such as Daniel Defoe talked of the horror, ugliness and 'unhospitable terror' of the Lake District. One hundred years later, the reputation of the region had been completely transformed into a place of beauty and contemplation. Discover what happened to the idea of the natural world in the century between Defoe and Wordsworth and how the debates produced during the period are still relevant today. You will examine how the legacy of Rom

How do writers emerge from, work within, speak to and challenge their cultural and creative contexts? How do those contexts shape our creative identity and practice? What are the varied professional practices and communities that form part of a critic and/or writer's work? You'll be introduced to a range of methodologies to help you develop your identity and interests as a writer, be that critical, creative, or a mixture of the two. You'll explore approaches to creating and developing your own w

Does class feature in contemporary literature today? How do writers tell their class stories? You'll consider British working-class writing in an environment of global economic crisis, insecurity, and austerity, and the context of the marginalisation of working-class voices. Examine how questions of class belonging, community, and identity shape contemporary culture, and how class interacts with other forms of non-class social exclusions. Developing a critical language to talk about class that s

How does language speak power? How does it speak against it? Consider these questions in relation to the world's superpower, the US, from the times of the Puritan settlers to the age of Donald Trump. Look at how certain forms of speech, specific rhetorical manoeuvres and particular metaphors have structured power, as well as how they have been mobilised to challenge a status quo. In so doing, you'll be given the necessary tools to understand and critique the aesthetic, political and rhetorical

What were the key literary forms developed in premodern English literature? You'll examine key literary texts from around 200 years before the publication of Shakespeare's sonnets and the performance of his plays, to late in the century of his death, the seventeenth century. You'll explore narrative poetry, from Chaucer's pioneering Canterbury Tales, to Milton's Paradise Lost. You'll also examine lyric poetry, from the courtly love motifs of the late medieval period into the extraordinary early

How did literature become global? What is the significance of translation to modern literature? You're introduced to selected literary forms and texts from the eighteenth century through to today, focusing on the global origins of the modern world. You'll study the rise of European colonialism and slavery, the impact of wars and decolonisation across the Global South, and the spread of globalisation. Introducing debates surrounding the contested category of 'world literature' thinking about issu

To have the right to the world is to have the right to write, read and construct the world; the right to make a different world. In this project-based module you'll investigate a range of literatures and arts that focus on the right to the world as related to displacement, movements and actions. Drawing on Lefebvre's 'right to the city' and 'right to difference', you'll interrogate who has the right to the world, and explore the ways authors and artists have struggled to claim the right to const