Venues

Gilmorehill Campus

Content

Year 1: Initially, you will consider the sorts of difficulty that are presented to readers by literary texts and how to handle them in critical writing. You will then go on to look at the development of notions of the self. At the same time you will be introduced to essential skills in the study of literature from various genres and periods. The writers you studied in recent years Shakespeare, Austen, Brontë, Dickens, Woolf, Beckett and Roth.

You will also study two other subjects in year 1 according to your interests: see Degrees in Arts, Science and Social Sciences.

Year 2: In second year you will build on your reading and analytical skills, applying these to more conceptually challenging texts. You will examine the relationship between literature and ideology, and then consider a selection of novels, poems and plays which either question the processes of their own composition, or achieve their meaning in relation to other texts.

Writers studied in recent years include Milton, Swift, Kipling, Joyce, Spark and Achebe.

You will also study one or two other subjects in year 2 according to your interests: see Degrees in Arts, Science and Social Sciences.

Years 3 and 4: If you progress to Honours (years three and four) you will have scope for more specialised study with a significant degree of choice, including American literature, Irish literature, literary theory, cultural and postcolonial studies, and literary and linguistic computing, as well as being able to concentrate upon major literary periods.

You can choose to study English Literature as a Single Honours degree or in combination with another subject (Joint Honours).

Entry Requirements

2026 entry requirements

Standard entry: 5 Highers at AAAAB (by end S6 with min BBBB after S5) including English and a humanities subject at AA (AB or BA may be considered).

Entry to year 2 may be possible with 3 Advanced Highers at AAA in relevant subjects.

Widening access entry: 4 Highers at AABB or BBBB (by end S6) including English and a humanities subject. Completion of pre-entry programme is necessary.