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

Learn how to practically use key Microsoft applications and demonstrate this knowledge in their studies and future careers. You will also learn of the potential and risks of AI software and how to use it responsibly in the classroom, as well as in assessments.

It also means you understand the value of scholarships, allowing you to move on to postgraduate programs at the University of Portsmouth.

You'll develop academic writing skills and critically analyse texts and images. Present your analysis to deepen self-awareness and understand diverse perspectives in a global context.

You'll develop a core understanding of politics and international relations.

You'll appreciate how these fields intersect and impact each other, gaining insights into the connections between people, their environment, and societal practices. Additionally, you'll be introduced to technological innovations and examine how they are applied in society from a sociological perspective.

You'll develop an awareness of how people, politics and place are intertwined and get introduced to criminology with a sociological analysis of urban crime, its cause and effects on society.

You'll demonstrate your understanding of key legal knowledge and skills by successfully completing this module, preparing you for further study and application in the field of law.

You'll learn how to use academic databases and journals through a series of tasks which will have direct relevance to topics you studied in other modules. You'll develop your abilities in academic writing by writing a short essay, case study analysis or similar written artefact in each lecture session.

Strengthen your understanding of argumentation, rationalisation of evidence, and assessing the credibility of sources.

In this module you'll analyse representations of the body from across a broad span of literary history. you'll interrogate ideas of the body as 'natural‚' by examining its role in culturally constructed ideas of gender, race and sexuality. You'll explore how bodies operate simultaneously as sites of conformity and resistance, and you'll consider shifting experiences of identification, marginalisation and otherness. By engaging with theoretical approaches to the body and historical contexts, you'll come to understand the body as a focal point for debates about belonging, power and social change.

Immerse yourself in world literature classics and modern texts written in english or translated from other languages. analyse stories that address shared human concerns like environment, power, ethnicity and gender. You'll discover how reading diverse voices fosters a spirit of intellectual curiosity, and discuss and debate literature's role in an increasingly connected world.

Dive into debates and theories which challenge assumptions about artistic quality. Through key texts spanning from the 19th century to the present day, you'll uncover the contextual forces and power structures influencing critics. You'll shed new light on popular fiction's literary functions and cultural impacts. sharpening your critical thinking skills, you'll form educated opinions on what compelling storytelling means to different communities. Some of the genres under consideration might include science fiction, romance and crime writing.

Through the study of critical theory, you will see how literature and philosophy come together to create exciting textual analyses. You'll explore and challenge fundamental assumptions about what it is to read and write, using select literary and philosophical texts to examine the links between literature and theory, and to produce increasingly complex readings. This module helps you get to grips with concepts and ideas that are crucial to your study of literature throughout your degree, and that support your ability to assess arguments and analyses in the wider world.

You’ll analyse diverse literary prizes – from the Booker to the Women’s Prize and beyond – and debate the complex criteria applied in judging literary value. This module gives you access to the commercial world of literary publishing and prizes, offering you the chance to develop professional skills and plenty of opportunity for literary analysis

You’ll use case studies and exercises to see how research develops from initial ideas to finished works. You’ll review resources and arguments to improve your research skills, and work with other students to refine your dissertation proposal through feedback and peer review. This module will also help enhance your employability skills through bespoke activities and assessment.

You'll analyse key crime writing texts from detective fiction to philosophical writings on crime and punishment, considering the way they represent criminals, the police, the ethics of the death penalty, as well as historical contexts and theoretical approaches. This module invites you on an investigative journey through the ethics, identities and politics underpinning tales of crime.

You’ll discover how literature draws on our modern anxieties around climate change, as well as our conflicted relationship with nature, and helps us address these issues. By investigating the methods and motivations behind ecocritical approaches in literature, you’ll consider the ways in which ecocriticism, ecofeminism, and postcolonial ecocriticism can be used to focus on issues of ecocrisis, environmental justice, sovereignty and power. There’s also a strong focus on gender, identity, the body, and the relationship between humans and environmental others.

The learning objectives of this module are to be confirmed.

You’ll look at diverse genres that shed light on historical moments such as slavery, post-colonialism, suffrage, second wave feminism and post-feminism. You’ll analyse how transnational and gender identities are constructed and expressed in a global context, honing skills for contextual literary analysis alongside independent research.

You’ll dig into the cultural context of violence in Shakespeare's age, analysing how poetry and performance play on complex dynamics of authority, resistance and ideology. Through Shakespeare’s works, you’ll develop your own perspectives on the role of war and peace in sixteenth-century English culture.

With a minimum 80-hour commitment, you’ll apply what you’ve learned so far on your degree to real-world professional settings within our community of local businesses, social enterprises, and third-sector organisations. You’ll have support from interactive workshops, tutorials, and guest speaker events, encouraging you to set achievable professional goals and evolve your professional identity.

You’ll analyse American texts against the backdrop of intellectual, social and political change, evaluating how writers grappled with emerging ideas around national identity, race, gender and more. By honing skills for contextual analysis and independent thought, you’ll form your own interpretations of iconic works that reflect the American experience.

On this module, you’ll explore philosophical ideas around spaces and places in texts from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century. You’ll learn how to interpret spatial narratives through your evaluation of interior and exterior spaces, town and country, rooms and landscape. You’ll analyse how creative works draw on wider cultural anxieties around industrialisation, race, class, and evolving gender roles.

Through interactive lectures with academics, speakers and professionals, you'll discuss, debate and complete practical exercises exploring wildlife crime alongside your classmates. You'll spend time examining wildlife crimes and the factors behind them, as well as environmental justice and sustainability.

You'll develop a research project which can take many forms, depending on the aims and focus of the dissertation. As an extended project requiring significant levels of critical engagement with subject knowledge, independent research and initiative, ethical research practice, and project management, this module enhances many key areas of knowledge and critical skills.

This real-world, project-based module lets you address an identified need or gap by designing an innovative product, service or resource. With support from university staff and external partners, you'll demonstrate critical thinking, ethical awareness and project management abilities. Your final project and presentation will showcase your employability and capacity for high-impact solutions.

You'll explore diverse literary perspectives on the Holocaust, from first-hand accounts to contemporary post-memory texts. Through critical reading and innovative creative projects both in groups and on your own, you'll grapple with the ethics of memorialisation and the role of cultural memory.

You'll trace the social anxieties and ideological structures conveyed in literary depictions of vampires, monsters and more as you explore every dark corner of this remarkable genre. You'll develop and apply critical theories unveiling Gothic representation of identities, revolutions, environments and more, and express your ideas creatively through an essay or podcast.

On this module, you’ll analyse constructions of masculinity across US culture, interrogating literary and cinematic stereotypes. You’ll work in groups to compare key theories and concepts, and consider how ideas of masculinity relate to other cultural and social constructs such as gender, nationality, race, class and sexuality.

You'll critically examine representations of appetite, consumption and the body across literary and historical texts from the era. Debate themes like hunger and self-starvation, gluttony and excess, even vampirism and cannibalism. Through close reading and contextual analysis, you'll uncover what writings on food can tell us about how the Victorians viewed issues such as gender, race, class, nation and sexuality.

Topics include the role of illustration in publication history, visual interpretations and adaptations of literary texts, and ekphrastic representations of visual art and culture in literature.

You'll investigate diverse definitions and famous examples of the genre from across the globe, honing advanced textual analysis skills. Through lively debates, you'll explore magical realism's relationship with history, culture and narrative form, focusing on issues including postcoloniality, the limits of realism, postmodern narratorial techniques, historiography and transculturation.

You'll learn about the job application process from the perspective of both candidates and recruiters, thinking about what employers look for in graduates and how you can optimise your own professional profile. Through mock interviews and assessments, you'll hone your skills and learn how to communicate your achievements and career goals, ready to take the next step after you graduate.