Society members at a meeting in Portland Café

English Language and Literature BA

University Park Campus, Nottingham, UK

Course overview

Do you love nothing more than a good book? Or perhaps you’ve always wanted to know how language works, or how it changes over time?

If you love literature and are interested in the inner workings of your favourite texts, this is the course for you. We'll study English literature throughout history and learn how the language developed. This includes thinking about the uses and the themes, principles, techniques, values and significance of literary works in their contexts. There’s also chance to develop your creative writing, learning from expert staff who are published poets and authors themselves.

Indicative modules

Mandatory

Year 1

Beginnings of English

Mandatory

Year 1

Drama, Theatre, Performance

Mandatory

Year 1

Studying Language

Mandatory

Year 1

Studying Literature

Mandatory

Year 1

Academic Community

Optional

Year 1

Creative Writing Practice

Optional

Year 1

Writing and Place

Optional

Year 1

Shakespeare's Histories: Critical Approaches

Mandatory

Year 2

Literary Linguistics

Optional

Year 2

Chaucer and his Contemporaries

Optional

Year 2

From Talking Horses to Romantic Revolutionaries: Literature 1700-1830

Optional

Year 2

Literature and Popular Culture

Optional

Year 2

Modern and Contemporary Literature

Optional

Year 2

Old English: Reflection and Lament

Optional

Year 2

Shakespeare and Contemporaries on the Page

Optional

Year 2

Ice and Fire: Myths and Heroes of the North

Optional

Year 2

Language Development

Optional

Year 2

Language in Society

Optional

Year 2

Names and Identities

Optional

Year 2

Old English: Reflection and Lament

Optional

Year 2

The Psychology of Bilingualism and Language Learning

Optional

Year 2

Shakespeare and Contemporaries on the Stage

Optional

Year 2

From Stanislavski to Contemporary Performance

Optional

Year 2

Twentieth-Century Plays

Optional

Year 2

Fiction: Forms and Conventions

Optional

Year 2

Poetry: Forms and Conventions

Optional

Year 3

English Dissertation: Full Year

Optional

Year 3

Project-based dissertation

Optional

Year 3

Old English Heroic Poetry

Optional

Year 3

Dreaming the Middle Ages: Visionary Poetry in Scotland and England

Optional

Year 3

The Self and the World: Writing in the Long Eighteenth Century

Optional

Year 3

Contemporary British Fiction

Optional

Year 3

Making Something Happen: Poetry and Politics

Optional

Year 3

Single-Author Study

Optional

Year 3

The Gothic Tradition

Optional

Year 3

The Viking Mind

Optional

Year 3

Songs and Sonnets: Lyric poetry from Medieval Manuscript to Shakespeare and Donne

Optional

Year 3

Reformation and Revolution: Early Modern literature and drama 1588-1688

Optional

Year 3

One and Unequal: World Literatures in English

Optional

Year 3

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Optional

Year 3

English Place-Names

Optional

Year 3

Old English Heroic Poetry

Optional

Year 3

Advanced Stylistics

Optional

Year 3

The Viking Mind

Optional

Year 3

Discourse and Power: Health and Business Communication

Optional

Year 3

Language and Feminism

Optional

Year 3

Language and the Mind

Optional

Year 3

Reformation and Revolution: Early Modern literature and drama 1588-1688

Optional

Year 3

Changing Stages: Theatre Industry and Theatre Art

Optional

Year 3

Modern Irish Literature and Drama

Optional

Year 3

Advanced Writing Practice: Fiction

Optional

Year 3

Advanced Writing Practice: Poetry

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About modules

The above is a sample of the typical modules we offer, but is not intended to be construed or relied on as a definitive list of what might be available in any given year. This content was last updated on Tuesday 18 February 2025. Due to timetabling availability, there may be restrictions on some module combinations.

Academically, essay writing and reading critically are the main skills I've gained. But I feel like, sort of more importantly, there’s confidence. It’s definitely made me more confident and taught me how to articulate my ideas.

Nina Slater

English Language and Literature BA

Course data

89%of students say teaching staff have supported their learning well.

Data for English Language and Literature (Full time) at University of Nottingham, the, over two years

For more official course information visit Discover Uni

See course data

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Open Day June 2022