Literature Degree - English Studies

Texts are all around us - from books to magazines to TV, e-mail and the internet.

As texts of all kinds become more prominent and powerful in our lives, the ability to analyse them and appreciate their often elusive meanings becomes more highly prized.

The skills you will learn in an English Studies degree will enable you to recognise ideology and bias, and see through the spin of cultural and political debate. You’ll refine your ability to think and write clearly – valuable skills in many careers and professions. Our graduates are well prepared in these transferable skills and have an excellent success rate in finding rewarding employment in many fields.

Year 1

Highers BBBB.
A-levels BBC.
IB Diploma with a total of 32 points (excluding bonus points).
HNC or HND with Bs in graded units.

Access courses and other UK/EU and international qualifications are also welcomed.

Examinations taken over two sittings are acceptable but if there are repeats/upgrades asking grades may be raised by one grade.

Year 2

A-levels ABB or Advanced Highers, grades BBB to include English Literature or English Literature and Language.
General entrance requirements apply.

International students can study our Undergraduate Certificate if they do not possess the necessary entrance requirements to be admitted directly to the first year of an undergraduate degree course.

Other information

If examinations are taken over two sittings, or there are repeats or upgrades, the entrance requirements may be higher.

Required subjects

English at Standard Grade (2), Intermediate 2 (C), GCSE (C) or equivalent.
Applicants with English Standard Grade (3) will also be considered, although alternative entry conditions may be made in this case.

information on possible sources of funding

Full-time (three modules per semester).
Part-time (one or two modules per semester).
February entry also available.

Semesters 1 - 2

Students may choose between two and four of the following introductory core modules (Author, Reader, Text and Texts and Contexts are compulsory):

• Author, Reader, Text: looks at different ways of reading literary texts, raising questions such as ‘What is an author’ and, ‘What is a reader?’ You will cover texts from the 14th century to the present day
• Language in Society: provides a basic introduction to language variety: how language reflects and constructs social contexts and identities
• Texts and Contexts: considers the relationship between texts and their wider cultural, historical and geographical contexts over the past 200 years
• Foundations of Language: looks at how to describe and classify the basic sounds of human languages, and moves on to consider grammatical categories and the closely-related questions of word meaning and sentence meaning

Both Author, Reader, Text and Texts and Contexts offer the opportunity to present a piece of creative writing in place of one of the essays.

Semester 3

You will take the following compulsory module:

• Meaning and Representation: introduces a number of key theoretical concepts in order to help you understand how meaning is produced and how it circulates in literary texts and other artworks (for example, film, painting)

Semester 4

You will choose from the following core modules (the number of modules taken depends on the particular degree course you are following):

• Writing and History: Scotland and Empire: studies aspects of Scottish literature, history and identity since the defining moment of the Union of the English and the Scottish Parliaments in 1707
• Writing and Identity: explores the constitution and representation of the ‘self’ and ‘identity’ in a range of literary texts from the 17th century to the present day
• Writing and Language: will provide you with the technical tools and vocabulary to describe in detail how language choices produce particular effects in literary texts

Semester 5

You will choose from among the following period-based modules (again, the number of modules taken depends on the degree course you are following):

• From Medieval to Renaissance
• Restoration and 18th Century
• British Romanticism
• Victorian Literature and Culture
• Modernism and Modernity

Option modules - Semesters 6 and 7

You will choose from a range of option modules. Typical option modules include:

• Postcolonial Writing
• Scottish Literature
• Modern Gothic
• Critical Theory
• Literature and Film
• Rotten English
• Writing the Real
• The Art of Fiction
• Language, Power and Ideology
• Language and Gender
• Satire
• Tragedy
• Epic
• Comedy
• Children's Literature
• Creative Writing
• Literature and Technology
• Literature and Politics

Semester 8: Final-year dissertation

This last semester is spent writing a dissertation (15,000 words for Single Honours; 10,000 words for Combined Honours). Every student is given a series of meetings with the tutor who will supervise their dissertation project and give feedback on each draft chapter as it is submitted.

Lectures are supplemented by teaching and discussion in tutorial groups. Options are taught by seminar only. Visiting creative writers, scholars and critics are involved in a lively programme of extra-curricular lectures and readings. We also host two Royal Literary Fund fellows who are on site specifically to give students extra one-to-one support as they develop their essay writing skills. Assessment takes the form of essays or other assignments written during each semester with credit sometimes given for oral presentations. There are no final exams in English.

English can be combined with a diverse range of other subjects, including Business Studies, Film & Media, Philosophy, Modern Languages, History and Professional Education.

(For a Combined Honours degree the higher entrance requirements of the subjects usually apply.)

• Teaching provision in English Studies has been assessed by the Scottish Funding Council and rated as excellent, the highest categorisation.
• In the most recent RAE, over half the department’s research was judged either ‘internationally excellent’ or ‘world leading’.
• Breadth and variety; you will have the opportunity to read and enjoy some of the greatest poems, plays and novels written in English across the world. You will engage critically with the popular culture of music, films, newspapers, magazines and electronic forms of text.
• As well as understanding concepts such as genre and the unreliable narrator, you will deal with theoretical concepts such as the death of the author, the debates of feminist criticism, postcolonial perspectives, the unconscious in Gothic literature, and the challenge of the ‘modern’ in every age.
• Creative writing is fully integrated into the degree, since we believe it strengthens your understanding of literary style and technique and develops the imagination.
• Our aim is to produce students who are well informed and skilled in interpretation and expression, whose written work can be produced to professional standards of presentation. The giving of class papers and open discussion in tutorials will promote confidence and expertise in oral skills.
• We do not use exams. In order to train you in both understanding and expression, we feel written course work creates a more productive and personal dialogue between you and your tutor and is the main form of assessment.
  

You have the opportunity to study abroad through Stirling's well-established connections with several international universities.

The results of the UK’s most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) confirm the quality and impact of research produced in English Studies. 90 percent of our assessed research was graded ‘internationally recognised’, with more than half considered ‘internationally excellent’ or ‘world leading’.

English Studies at Stirling has received an outstanding 100 percent overall quality and satisfaction rating in the National Student Survey, 2011, with staff being particularly praised for their ‘enthusiasm’ for making their subject ‘interesting’. This is the joint top result for English Studies across universities in Scotland and the UK. 

Academic strengths

Staff in English Studies research and teach in areas from the medieval period to the present day, as well as in linguistics and creative writing.We have recognised research and teaching expertise in Scottish Studies, the Gothic, Creative Writing, and Postcolonial Studies,and across literary periods ranging from the Middle Ages to the contemporary. Currently two major literary series and two international journals are edited from within the School.

The ability to think and write clearly is extremely valuable in many careers and professions. English Studies graduates from Stirling are well prepared in these transferable skills, and have an excellent success rate in finding rewarding employment in many fields.