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BA (Hons) English Literature with Film
Key information
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Typical offer:
Entry requirements -
Fees: See below
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UCAS code: Q3W6
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Institute code: H36
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Study abroad option
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Work placement option
Find out more
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Entry requirements
The University of Hertfordshire is committed to welcoming students with a wide range of qualifications and levels of experience. The entry requirements listed on the course pages provide a guide to the minimum level of qualifications needed to study each course. However, we have a flexible approach to admissions and each application will be considered on an individual basis.
UCAS points A Level BTEC Access Course Tariff IB 112-120 BBC-BBB DMM-DDM Overall merit profile in 45 credits at Level 3 112-120 points Additional requirements
GCSE: Grade 4/C in English Language and Mathematics
All students from non-majority English speaking countries require proof of English language proficiency, equivalent to an overall IELTS score of 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each band.
If you do not have the required IELTS or equivalent for direct entry on to your degree programme, our Pre-sessional English and International Foundation courses can help you to achieve this level.
For more details on the University of Hertfordshire's entry requirements, please visit our Undergraduate Entry Requirements page.
Find out more about International Entry Requirements.
UCAS points A Level BTEC Access Course Tariff IB 112-120 BBC-BBB DMM-DDM Overall merit profile in 45 credits at Level 3 112-120 points Additional requirements
GCSE: Grade 4/C in English Language and Mathematics
All students from non-majority English speaking countries require proof of English language proficiency, equivalent to an overall IELTS score of 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each band.
If you do not have the required IELTS or equivalent for direct entry on to your degree programme, our Pre-sessional English and International Foundation courses can help you to achieve this level.
For more details on the University of Hertfordshire's entry requirements, please visit our Undergraduate Entry Requirements page.
Find out more about International Entry Requirements.
- English Literature has a 94.2% overall student positivity* score (National Student Survey, 2023)
- Specialise in the literature genre and period of your choice
- Close to the Warner Bros. and Harry Potter studios
- The chance to explore the cross-over between these highly complementary disciplines.
- An expert academic team to support you and build your confidence as you develop into a scholar with expertise in both fields, plus the opportunity to get involved with local cinemas and our own bespoke film club.
- A global approach to both Literature and Film, providing both a broad overview of literary and cinematic history and the chance to study more specialised areas of interest.
- CV-building potential through work placements and extra-curricular activities.
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Level 4
Module Credits Compulsory/optional Introduction to Film Criticism 15 Credits Compulsory This module introduces students to the analysis of film texts. Students will engage critically with how 'meaning' is communicated through film. Students will be introduced to some of the key moments in cinema history, via a discussion of various elements of film language ranging from: colour, editing, sound, lighting, mise-en-scene, framing, narrative, the use of place, space and location and performance in films from both inside and outside of the Hollywood system. From Hitchcock's thrillers (Strangers on a Train) to classic Horror film (Dawn of the Dead), the tear jerking and overtly symbolic Melodrama (Imitation of Life) through to the gritty and violent New Hollywood of the 1970's (Carrie) alongside contemporary film and TV (Drive and American Horror Story) that continues to push the boundaries of film vocabulary and symbolism. The module will equip students with an understanding historical awareness of film and the various stylistic and technological issues involved in the study of film alongside some of the ways in which film texts interact with wider cultural, historical and political contexts. Texts Up Close: Reading and Interpretation 15 Credits Compulsory This core module aims to encourage and develop your enjoyment of the processes and practices of reading literary texts. It is also intended that the module help you transition from secondary education to university study and equip you with a strong foundation in some important skills needed throughout your university career: close textual analysis, independent learning, critical thinking, and advanced academic writing. The module aims to encourage you to think about literary genres and styles, as well as a range of approaches to literary criticism. We will focus on a small number of primary texts written at different times, as well as a selection of literary criticism. Typical examples include: Zadie Smith's Swing Time, Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 and a range of poems. `Texts Up Close' will also complement your work on other modules in the first year, and prepare you for the next steps in your degree. Genre, Style and Stars 15 Credits Compulsory This module builds on the skills developed in the Level 4 module Introduction to Film Criticism. The module introduces you to the study of film and television using key theoretical perspectives from within the discipline and from wider cultural and critical areas. It focusses on theories of genre, authorship, film and style, and a consideration of the origins of the star system from the Golden Age of Hollywood to the celebrity era of the global digital age. The module will also examine the relationship of film genre and stars to globalisation and the ways in which genre and the global film market interact. Make it New: Literary Tradition and Experimentation 15 Credits Optional This module builds on your work in the first semester and focuses on the ways in which, in the Twenty-first century, literary texts continue to undergo transformation. In studying examples from the three main genres: prose (novels), poetry, and drama. You will examine how texts either conform to, or break away from, literary conventions and traditions. The module emphasises recent material to give you a sense of the writing around us now, but we will also look at some older ~classic' texts. We will seek to question how the ingredients of different genres (character, plot, and narration in the novel; dialogue and structure in drama; language, metre and rhyme in poetry, for example) are re-examined and questioned over time. Authors studied may include, for example: Ali Smith, Mike Bartlett, Max Porter, Simon Stephens, Terence Hayes, Ocean Vuong, Rita Dove, Sophie Meyer, Adrienne Rich. Journeys and Quests: Adventures in Literature 15 Credits Optional From ancient Greek poems about mythic heroes, to the search for the Holy Grail, and recent stories about returning home, the quest narrative has been central to literary texts across time-periods and cultures. They have been used in reactionary and revolutionary formats. This module is interested in the narrative traditions, conventions and motifs of the quest, and we will pay close attention to literary form and content. We will also think how certain narratives are recycled and re-used by writers and filmmakers. We will move from ancient texts such as Homer's epic The Odyssey to more contemporary re-writings of this story, such as Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad (2005). Students are asked to think about how adaptations of both the form and specific narratives engage with current social, political and cultural debates around identity, heroism and the notion of 'home'. Border Crossings: Modern Literature from around the World 15 Credits Optional This module focuses on literary texts from around the world. You will explore texts from a diverse range of countries and cultures (either written in English, or translated into English), helping you to think of 'English Literature' as more than just writing produced in Britain. You will study a selection of significant international works that have sparked particular debate or represent literary innovation. We will discuss themes such as: identity; belonging; migration; heritage; diaspora; indigeneity; and environment. The module will build on the work done in the first semester, continuing to help you develop ways of comparing and analysing different texts and their contexts. We will read works from countries as varied as Australia, Guyana, India, Ireland, Nigeria, Palestine and the USA. These will typically include novels, graphic novels, films, poetry and plays. Shakespeare Reframed 15 Credits Optional The work of William Shakespeare needs no introduction. Proof of its enduring appeal comes from the multiple times his plays have been adapted for film or television or repurposed for comic books and fictional retellings. This module will introduce you to a diverse range of Shakespearean drama and explores some key adaptations, allowing you to develop close-reading skills and an understanding of how contemporary concerns are reflected in adapted versions. The set texts will vary each year, but might, for example, include a comedy, a tragedy and a history or problem play. Each one will be paired with a twentieth- or twenty-first-century adaptation. These may be fictional treatments, film or television versions. By increasing your confidence in analysing Shakespeare's plays and understanding the process of adaptation for different mediums, this module provides a good springboard for further study at levels 5 and 6 of Renaissance texts and screen adaptations. Identity and Contemporary Writing 15 Credits Optional This creative and critical module explores a range of contemporary poetry and prose about identity. Broadly, the module examines material written in the late-twentieth and twenty-first-century about identity positions, from race and gender, to sexuality, dis/ability, class and so on. We will consider, both creatively and critically, how one writes about one's own life, whether marginal or otherwise. You will think about these concerns as both creative writers and literary scholars: you will be analysing poetry and prose as well as writing in these forms on a fortnightly basis. Each critical week, exploring a topic, theme or author, will be followed by a creative week, where you put into practice the things you've learned. In all, this module helps develop you as both a writer and a scholar of contemporary literature. Writers studied may include: Emily Berry, Danez Smith, Justin Torres, Mary Jean Chan, Andrew McMillan, Claudia Rankine, and others. American Voices: Introduction to US Literature and Culture 15 Credits Optional This module will introduce you to some key works of US literature, from the founding of the nation until the present day, and explore how they intersect with important aspects of American history, culture and society. We will study works in a range of forms and genres, from varied historical moments, developing your understanding of recurring motifs in American culture and your skills of critical analysis. The module will suggest different ways of conceptualising -- and making connections between -- alternative literary interpretations of the American experience. These approaches may be thematic (e.g. revolution, modernity, isolation), stylistic (e.g. Gothic, realism, naturalism) or spatial (e.g. city, plantation, frontier, small town). The module will lay the foundations for the more in-depth, period-based study of American literature at Level 5 and 6 by giving you a sense of the dazzling diversity of American writing over the last two centuries and more Romantic Origins & Gothic Afterlives 15 Credits Optional This module interrogates Romanticism's intersection with the Gothic in an era of revolution, innovation and social change. It explores a number of themes around innocence and experience, liberty and enslavement, terror and romance, together with new ways of thinking about the world, through theories of the sublime and the picturesque. The emphasis on origins invites us to investigate the development of genres and modes of writing from Romantic fragments to revolutionary feminist essays, fairy tale narratives and Gothic romances, and to give special prominence to childhood. We interrogate a range of narratives that focus on the peculiar responsiveness of children to nature and the revolutionary promise of the child. We also investigate childhood as a less than idealised state: tales of primitives, 'savages', feral children, and 'monsters'. The module will conclude with an exploration of the dark 'other' of the beautiful Romantic child through the Gothic afterlife of Frankenstein's creature. History on the Page, Stage, and Screen 15 Credits Optional From the Assassin's Creed video games to the enormously popular Bridgeton series historical events, people, and scenarios dominate our cultural landscape. They are presented in novels, on television, on film, and on the stage. The past is the source of inspiration for societies around the world. Writers use it as the setting for their stories; governments use it to justify their policies; businesses use it to sell their products or services. This module explores how history is represented in popular culture and provides students with an understanding of how historians are involved in shaping these depictions. It asks students to question the extent to which contemporary depictions tell us more about our own times than about the past and to consider the extent to which popular representations of the past connect with debates amongst academic historians. -
Level 5
Module Credits Compulsory/optional Ways of Reading: Literature and Theory 15 Credits Compulsory Ways of Reading is an introduction to literary critical approaches which call into question apparently common sense interpretative concepts such as 'intention', the 'author' and 'character'. The module will offer a survey of twentieth-century trends in critical thinking about literature, including Marxism, psychoanalysis and feminism, together with later developments such as deconstruction and Postmodernism. The emphasis will be on learning to apply concepts which are characteristic of these approaches within the context of your own critical writing about literature. This module is compulsory for students intending to take an independent project module or dissertation in Literature at Level 6. Film Production 15 Credits Compulsory The module builds a practical dimension onto the theory which students have learned at level 4. Training in camera work, sound recording, lighting and editing is given from the first week, with no presumption of previous experience. The module assessment is primarily group based and students are guided in forming and working effectively in teams. Each student should experience a number of roles. Training will be given in pre-visualisation and storyboarding. The lecture series examines clips and ideas from contemporary and historical cinema relevant to the theme and groups are expected to conduct further research to support creative ways of responding to the brief. The teaching will address issues encountered in professional productions including planning, the development of a group work ethic, health and safety/risk assessment, consent/ethics and copyright. The module outcomes are the storyboard, a short film of around 3 minutes and an individual reflective report. A Nation of Readers: British Identity and Enlightenment Culture 15 Credits Compulsory This module focuses on British literature first published between 1640-1740 and is designed to build on your ongoing close-reading and analytical skills. The module considers many key cultural themes relevant to this turbulent period of history, including power and political authority, national identity, class hierarchies, print culture, gender and sexuality, and religion, and encourages students to consider texts from a historicist approach. Texts are likely to include works by Dryden, Marvell, Milton, Gay, Pope and Swift as well as lesser-known female authors such as Mary Chudleigh and Mary Wortley Montagu. Prose works are likely to include Behn's "Oroonoko" and Defoe's "Moll Flanders". You will therefore be looking at both the work of writers whose works are often identified within the canon of great English literature as well as others who have, until more recently, often been excluded from literary histories. US Cinema: From Studio Era to Digital Age 15 Credits Compulsory This module concentrates on US cinema within and without Hollywood from the 1930s to the present day. Particular attention is given to historical flashpoints of American film, to moments of significant change in terms of new aesthetic, technological, cultural and institutional directions. The various generations of both Hollywood and 'independent' US cinema are explored from stylistic, industrial, and socio-cultural perspectives. These range from a study of Golden Age Hollywood, the rise and fall of the studio system, through the B-Movies era, the New Hollywood era of the 60s/70s, developments in representation of violence on film, Blockbuster cinema, American Indie film, and the rise of the modern franchises. While considering the particularly American sensibilities of US cinema, the module also looks at key influences from different forms of media, such as television, and other national cinemas,. The domination of Hollywood in the global film market will also be considered, alongside significant developments in the age of digitalisation and media convergence. Revisiting the Renaissance 15 Credits Compulsory This module takes a historicist approach to British literature first published between 1550 and 1642 and is designed to build on your ongoing development of close-reading and analytical skills in relation to many key cultural themes relevant to this turbulent period of history, including power and political authority, national identity, class hierarchies, print culture, gender and sexuality, and religion. Texts are likely to include plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson, and poetry by Wyatt, Sidney, Spenser and Donne as well as lesser-known female Renaissance authors such as Whitney, Wroth and Lanyer. Prose works such as Sir Thomas More's "Utopia" and the Tilbury speech of Queen Elizabeth I will also be considered. We will therefore be looking at both the work of writers whose works are often identified within the canon of great English literature as well as others who have, until more recently, often been excluded from literary histories. Studies in Twentieth Century Literature, 1900-1945 15 Credits Optional Early twentieth century literature was a site of significant experimentation and change, laying the foundations for the 'rules of writing' that influence authors today. This module will examine some key texts published in the period 1900-1945 and offer an historical and theoretical framework in which they can be read including the importance of Modernism. The course will make clear that the chronological division indicated here does not imply that all texts of this period can be called Modernist and will include other genres, styles and modes of writing. Attention will also be given to such common thematic motifs such as urban ambience, changing social mores, the presence of the past, social class, race, nationality and sexual politics. The writers studied will include key figures such as Nella Larsen, Jean Toomer, Djuna Barnes, Virginia Woolf, May Sinclair, Jean Rhys and T.S. Eliot. American Literature to 1900 15 Credits Optional This module traces the development of American literature from the colonial period through to 1900, examining texts from multiple genres (autobiography, captivity narrative, political propaganda, novel, poetry, short story). It will examine how writers responded to the American environment and sociopolitical events to create a distinctively American literary tradition. Attention will be paid to issues such as New England Puritanism; the treatment of Native Americans; slavery; the War of Independence; America's relationship with England; Manifest Destiny, expansionism and the frontier; transcendentalism; the Civil War; industrialization and the growth of the city; gender and sexuality. Authors who may be studied include: William Bradford, Mary Rowlandson, Phylis Wheatley, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allen Poe, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Henry James, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, Sarah Orne Jewett. Images of Contemporary Society: British Literature and the Politics of Identity 15 Credits Optional Drawing on a wide variety of writing produced since the Second World War, this module focuses on the changing situations of both writers and readers of British fiction. At the centre of the module will be an examination of realism in post-war writing through the texts of a wide range of authors. Students will be asked to consider the cultural representations of the period as they are evinced in both fiction, drama, and poetry including those of the late 1950s and early 1960s, a time of unprecedented change in British Society. The module provides examples of this writing by investigating such authors as for example-, Sam Selvon, Pat Barker, Alan Sillitoe, Tony Harrison and Jeanette Winterson, Zadie Smith, Irvine Welsh and Kazuo Ishiguro. As well as considering the ways in which the set texts deal with such issues as class antagonisms, race and ethnicity, masculinity and femininity and differing sexualities, students will be invited to consider the extent to which the set texts can be seen to be representative of contemporary society. Age of Transition: the Victorians and Modernity 15 Credits Optional The Victorians recognized their own period (1837-1901) as a time of extremely rapid social change - an "age of transition". In this module, we will study representative Victorian genres (novels, poems, plays, journalism), which respond to this sense of upheaval and the emergence of the modern world. Against this, we will read novels by writers working today who choose to set their work in the Victorian period. These so-called "neo-Victorian" novels re-write the Victorians from the perspective of our 21st century. They also ask us to reflect on our own preconceptions about the Victorian period and our sense of living in a more "enlightened" society. Texts for study will thus typically include examples of Victorian writing (Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Mary Braddon) but also recent bestsellers by writers such as Sarah Waters, John Fowles and A.S. Byatt and films such as Wilde (1997) which present the Victorians in a different light. Literature at Work 15 Credits Optional This module enables you to incorporate practical experience into your study of English Literature and/or Creative Writing. It focuses on how literature (the writing process, the marketing and retailing of texts, their critical analysis, or literary history) is encountered by an audience outside academia. To take this module, you must find a suitable work placement by the end of the previous semester, with guidance from the module leader. Suitable sites for work experience might include: a school, or further education college; a heritage site associated with a writer; a literary festival; a publishing company; a bookshop; a funding body or arts organisation; a theatre. Your time spent on placement should total up to at least 24 accumulated hours, though in practice you may spend longer. In seminars, you will reflect on your experiences, explore related conceptual issues and develop a broader appreciation of how literature is engaged with outside higher education. The module will be assessed by a presentation and portfolio of materials including the development of a new curriculum vitae. Employability Skills 15 Credits Optional Producing graduates who are highly employable is a key aim of the University of Hertfordshire. This module aims to help you bridge gaps between your specialist academic studies and the world of graduate employment. As well as allowing you to reflect on and further develop your employability skills we will explore the changing nature of employers' needs. Using case studies, we will consider a range of issues (legal, gender, equality) that can arise in recruitment and the workplace. The module will also focus on career planning and job searching, as well as recruitment and selection processes including the work of assessment centres and psychometric testing. Overall the intention is that you will be able to develop your job-market awareness and identify and explore potential career pathways. The module is worth 15 credits and may be chosen in place of a 15-credit subject module at Level 5, or as an additional module at Level 6, alongside 120 credits of modules in your subject(s). Twentieth-Century US Literature and Culture 15 Credits Optional This module will survey twentieth-century literature and culture from the United States. We will investigate key texts (literature, film, visual culture) from the period alongside historical and cultural contexts, and theoretical frameworks. Among other things, we will discuss: the broad movement in US culture from realism modernism to postmodernism and beyond; the impact of events like the World Wars and the Depression as well as legacies of slavery and indigenous removal; and also the more general notion of the 'American Century'. By examining a range of diverse texts, we will think about race, gender, sexuality, disability and other identity positions against the backdrop of US cultural history. Possible authors studied: Nella Larsen, Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Tony Kushner, William Faulkner; possible artists studied: Mark Rothko, Carrie Mae Weems; possible filmmakers studied: Victor Fleming, Julie Dash, Spike Lee. -
Level 6
Module Credits Compulsory/optional The Humanities Placement Year 0 Credits Compulsory The Placement Year provides you with the opportunity to set your academic studies in a broader context and to utilise the intellectual skills you have gained through your degree in the work place. You will also strengthen your time management, organisational and communication skills as well as develop employability skills. You will gain experience of applying for jobs and of working within a commercial, business or professional environment prior to graduating thus increasing employability skills such as teamwork, communication skills and commercial awareness. You will gain experience in a field that is often a destination for Humanities students such as PR, marketing, management and research. You will have developed valuable industry skills and experience as well as being able to apply many of the intellectual skills you have learnt through your degree to a real world situation. Television Drama 15 Credits Compulsory This module critically investigates the contemporary 'Golden Age' of television drama from North America and Europe, from 1990 to the present day. Through a close scrutiny of long-running serial dramas, we will explore notions of 'Quality' programming, and the particular impact of each series, as well as connecting them to wider understandings of television as a medium and art form. A number of methodological frameworks are considered in relation to the individual serials (including Girls, The Walking Dead and The Sopranos) allowing for work on aesthetic, thematic, institutional, socio-cultural, and generic aspects of significance. The emphasis of the module is on the close textual analysis of the particular forms and concerns of each serial drama, to assess the merits and achievements of individual works of television. Placement with Study Abroad 0 Credits Compulsory Students on this unique module will have the opportunity to undertake both a semester at a partner university and to undertake a semester of placement, thus both improving their cultural awareness and employability. Students who have been on the Placement Year and Study Abroad Year, both normally undertaken after level 5 and before entering the final year, have reported high levels of satisfaction with both and many have said the Placement or Study Abroad year was one of the highlights of their university career. The Placement Year is offered by only a handful of universities offering Humanities subjects, so this module is a fantastic opportunity for students to explore both aspects of Study Abroad and Placement both here and abroad. Eighteenth Century Bodies 15 Credits Optional Gender and sexuality have histories; this module will explore some of the ways in which they were constructed in the shifting social contexts of the long eighteenth century and their intertwining with concepts of power, class, nationhood, and ethnicity. By examining a generically broad range of textual materials - plays, poems, novels, philosophical and political discourses, advice books and biographies - this module will analyse a variety of models of sexual behaviour and gendered identity, paying close attention to the historical moment in which the text was written. Possible themes and authors might include: Restoration libertinism and bourgeois sexuality; the shifting cultural position of marriage over the period from transactional economic exchange to companionate union; the cultural nexus between versions of 'fiction' and 'authenticity' in contemporary print culture as seen in novelistic forms and early journalism. Literature Project 30 Credits Optional The Literature Project is intended to give you the opportunity to carry out a substantial up-to-date research project based on a topic or author of particular interest. As well as enabling you to follow up particular enthusiasms, the module aims to further develop skills in planning, research, time-management and presentation. The module is taught via a programme of one-to-one tutorials with a designated supervisor. You may choose a topic from any area of literary studies but the choice of a topic must be agreed with the module leader before the end of Semester B preceding the next academic year in which the work will be undertaken. If you are taking 120 credits or more in English Literature at Level 3 (i.e. you are intending to graduate with a Single Honours degree in English Literature) your programme of study should include this module or 3HUM0231, the Independent Study and Research Project, but not both. Between the Acts: Late Victorian and Edwardian Literature 1890-1920 15 Credits Optional This module studies texts written between 1890 and 1920 in order to consider the period of transition between the end of the Victorian age and the end of the First World War. Students will be invited to consider ways in which the set texts challenge 'Victorian' ideas of stability and respectability as well as their engagement with such concepts as heroism, the `monstrous', suburbia, marriage and sexuality, trauma, class and nationhood. The texts studied will include a range of different genres and styles, from the so-called `problem play' of the 1890s and 1900s, to the horror story; from the best-selling exotic romance to the literature of World War One. Authors studied may include Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Elizabeth Robbins, E.M. Forster, Ford Madox Ford, Rebecca West, Henry James, Elinor Glyn and Rudyard Kipling. Children's Literature:Growing up in Books 15 Credits Optional This module critically analyses works of children's literature published since 1950. Primary texts will range from picture books designed for very young children to works of cross-over fiction which aim to bridge the gap between the child and the adult reader. This will enable us to consider the ways in which children's literature works on the page and in culture to interpret the process of ~growing up' in modern society. We will engage in close critical analysis of the primary material (considering, for example, questions of genre, narrative conventions and the relationship between words and illustrations) - and this will be linked at to a consideration of the ways in which literature for children interacts with wider cultural and historical contexts. Authors studied might include Maurice Sendak, Judith Kerr,Tom Percival, Ibthihaj Muhammad, Dr Seuss, Roald Dahl, C. S. Lewis, Michael Morpurgo, J.K.Rowling, Malorie Blackman and Philip Pullman. Texts and Screens: Studies in Literary Adaptation 15 Credits Optional Literature and film have had a close and complex relationship since the beginning of the twentieth century when silent cinema adopted the novel as a fruitful source for its own stories. The cinema is still one of the most frequent ways by which we first encounter literary texts. By using a number of case studies this module aims to introduce you to some of the key issues involved in adapting literary texts for the cinema, including questions of narrative technique, concepts of genre, questions of representation and notions of 'fidelity' and 'authorship'. As well as close readings of the set texts (both written and cinematic) the module will also engage with recent theoretical approaches to film and literary studies. The texts chosen for study will vary from year to year but might include such notable examples as Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare; Zeffirelli; Lurhmann); Goldfinger (Flemming/Hamilton) and Trainspotting (Welsh/Boyle). African-American Literature 15 Credits Optional This module will introduce you to some key works of African-American literature, from the late nineteenth century to the present day. You will study a range of genres, such as fiction, poetry, drama, autobiography, and nonfiction. We will trace how a unique African-American literary voice relates to a number of important modes of expression: oral culture, 'signifying', folklore, the visual arts, and music (such as spirituals, blues, jazz, work songs, gospel, and hip hop). We will identify several key themes and preoccupations in the work of African-American writers: freedom, identity, mobility (both geographical and social), and self-expression, amongst others. These will be mapped against historical events and developments, including slavery and abolition, segregation and the Jim Crow laws, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights movement, the feminist movement, and the election of Barack Obama as President. We will also explore how issues of gender, sexuality, and class specifically inform these works. Generation Dead: Young Adult Fiction and the Gothic 15 Credits Optional All over the country in the world of young adult fiction teenagers who die aren't staying dead. This module will interrogate the new high school gothic, exploring the representation of the undead or living dead (werewolves, vampires and zombies) in dark or paranormal romance. Texts range from Twilight, Vampire Diaries and Daniel Waters's zombie trilogy to Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies and Eden Maguire's The Beautiful Dead. We'll also look at examples of werewolf fiction (Shiver) and at the folklore inspired novels of Marcus Sedgwick. Y.A.F. has attracted some of the most gifted writers who address these themes as a means of confronting death or discrimination or to engage with Christianity or Mormonism and embrace the enduring power of love. We will be theorising folklore, investigating the ethics of writing for young adults, and grappling with undead issues such as the notion of free will, damnation and redemption, the sexualisation of early teens, the effects of prejudice and the politics of difference. Twenty-first Century American Writing 15 Credits Optional This module will survey contemporary American literature from the twenty-first century. We will investigate key literary texts and cultural movements from the period alongside historical contexts and new theoretical frameworks. Examining works of narrative, drama and poetry, we will look at a variety of textual strategies that contemporary authors use to investigate the contemporary world. Structured through key themes, for example, the transcultural, sexuality and race, the module will provide students with the change to explore new and diverse literary material that attempts to explore America in today's globalized world. Texts studied will vary but typically will include novels (Philip Roth's The Human Stain), poetry (Claudia Rankine's Citizen) and drama (Moises Kaufman's The Laramie Project). Euro-Crime on Page and Screen 15 Credits Optional The twenty-first century has seen a resurgence of interest in crime fiction, and screen dramas ranging from renewed interest in the "who-dunnits" of Agatha Christie to the more explicit violence of contemporary "Nordic Noir". This module examines European crime writing from popular detective fiction in the early twentieth century before looking at how successive European writers have modified the form, often using the crime at the centre of their narratives as a starting point for exploring questions of national and cultural identities. The written and filmed texts studied will take us to different European countries (read in translation). Typical examples include, but are not limited to, stories from Britain's "Golden Age" (1920s and 1930s), novels and film adaptations of work by Graham Greene (Brighton Rock), Leila Slimani (Lullaby; France), Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Sweden), and films such as Marshland (Spain) and Dance with a Stranger (UK). Gender, Sexuality and Diversity in American Film 15 Credits Optional This module focuses on the role gender and sexuality have played within the development of US cinema, from the silent era to today. We will investigate historical moments and genres such as the pre-Code era, film noir, screwball comedy, New Hollywood cinema, and others, and films such as Baby Face, Double Indemnity, All About Eve, The Color Purple and Carol. While the primary focus will be on gender and sexuality, an emphasis will also be placed on the way gender identity intersects with other marginalised identities on screen, for example in terms of race, sexual orientation, and class. The module will encourage close textual analysis and critique of these film texts, but will also cover the wider cultural and media landscape within which they were made. This will also enable us to consider the – sometimes unexpected or undesirable - ways in which fans responded to and received these films. The Literary Professional 15 Credits Optional This module enables you to incorporate practical experience, and critical understanding of the workplace, into your study of English Literature and/or Creative Writing. It focuses on students' understanding of how 'literature' (the writing process, the marketing and retailing of texts, their critical analysis, or literary history) is encountered by a non-academic audience. You must find a suitable work placement by the end of the previous semester, with guidance from the module leader. Placements should be for a minimum of 24 accumulated hours. Please note a) students must source their own work placement with the assistance of the module leader; b) students may not take this module at Level 6 if they have already completed the Level 5 ~Literature at Work' module. -
Study abroad
An opportunity for an amazing experience, which will help make you stand out from the crowd. With more and more companies working internationally, experience of living in another country can make a great impression on future employers.
This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a sandwich year abroad. The University has partnerships with over 150 universities around the world, including the USA, Canada, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America and closer to home in Europe.
If you study abroad between your second and third year of study, you’ll pay no tuition fee to the partner university and no tuition fee to us either. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it.
Find out more about Study abroad opportunities
Please note Erasmus+ funding is only available until May 2023. For students starting their course in September 2022 and wishing to study abroad in 2023-24 or 2024-25, please refer to the Turing Scheme.
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Work placement
Graduate with invaluable work experience alongside your degree and stand out from the crowd.
This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a work placement sandwich year. It’s a chance to explore career possibilities, make valuable contacts and gain sought after professional skills.
Our dedicated Careers and Employment team are here to help guide you through the process.
If you take up a work placement between your second and third year of study, at the University of Hertfordshire you’ll pay no tuition fee for this year. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it.
Why choose this course?
We give you:
What's the course about?
A degree in English Literature with Film will help you grow from passionate reader and film-fan into a critical thinker able to understand literary and cinematic works by applying a wide range of critical, theoretical, political and historical perspectives. The disciplines of Literature and Film Studies are highly complementary, and as you progress through your degree you will find many fruitful connections between them.
This fascinating degree is both geographically and historically wide-ranging. This means you’ll study literature written in English from the Renaissance to the present day, by writers from all parts of the globe; and alongside this, you’ll explore film and television from America, Asia, Britain and the rest of Europe, from the earliest days of moving images to some of the most exciting contemporary work being produced today.
In both disciplines, you’ll be taught by research-active academics who bring fresh thinking to our accessible, engaging courses. We’ll introduce you to writers and film-makers who will open doors to contemporary worlds and cultures remote from your own, and also help you explore more familiar works – both textual and visual – in ways that challenge your preconceptions.
Whatever your taste in literature, there will be something to interest and provoke you. From The Tiger Who Came to Tea to Jane Eyre, from Paradise Lost to Zadie Smith’s Swing Time, we’ll broaden your literary horizons and hone your critical thinking.
A core Literature module in your first year will equip you to read and interpret both traditional and contemporary literary texts critically as a scholar of English literature. Alongside this you can choose to revisit Shakespeare and consider his cultural relevance today through fictional, cinematic and TV adaptations; or to deepen your understanding of Gothic writing by tracing its origins back to the Romantic era.
In your second year you’ll focus on period-based literature from the Renaissance onwards and gain an understanding of literary history, from Elizabethan verse and drama, via Augustan poetry and the emergence of the novel in the 18 th century, to the radical transformations of the Victorian age, and the emergence of modernity in the twentieth century.
You’ll also have the opportunity to consider ways of reading that go beyond textual analysis or historical context, such as understanding literature through the political or ideological lens of Marxism, feminism and post-colonial theory. You can choose a work experience module, Literature at Work, which explores English in the classroom and aspects of the literary heritage industry. The module is centred around a six-week work placement where you’ll gain valuable transferable skills. Our students have worked as school classroom assistants, in publishing houses or attractions such as London’s Charles Dickens Museum and Dr Johnson’s House.
Work placement/study abroad option: Between your second and final year, you’ll have the option to study abroad or do a work placement for up to a year. Not only will this give you an amazing experience to talk about but will also give your CV a boost. If you’d rather go straight to your final year, that’s absolutely fine too.
You’ll have the chance to specialise in your final year, tailoring your literary study to reflect your own interests. Themed options include children’s literature, young adult fiction, Renaissance tragedy, European crime fiction, literary adaptations and the culture of print in the 18th century.
At the same time, your minor in Film will further hone your analytical skills, and give you a sophisticated appreciation of the craft of filmmaking. You’ll look at how the film and television industry has evolved and adapted to new technologies, how novels are recreated in film and how film gives us fresh perspectives on the world. You’ll also have opportunities to design and run film programmes, write and produce your own short films and hear guest lectures by film, television and media professionals. Topics covered range from silent movies to the Golden Age of Hollywood, the birth of the blockbuster, the influence of European style on American film, the way digital technology has transformed the industry, and why franchises have proved so successful, from James Bond and Star Wars to the Marvel cinematic universe.
Your main campus is College Lane
This is where the creative arts, science and health-related subjects are based. This means you’ll share the campus with future nurses, scientists, artists and more. You can use the common rooms to relax with friends, work out in the 24-hour gym or have a drink in our on-campus pub or cafes. We also have restaurants for you to eat in or grab something on the go. Our Learning Resources Centres are open 24/7, which means you can study whenever suits you best. Want to pop over to the other campus? You can take the free shuttle bus or walk there in just 15 minutes.
What will I study?
Students of English Literature with Film will be taught in a variety of ways according to the characteristics of each module. Many are taught via weekly lectures and weekly seminars, and there are timetabled weekly screenings to make sure that you always have the chance to see the films you are studying. Workshops are used in English Literature to discuss subjects in more depth and encourage independent analysis, and in Film for modules where the practical skills taught are enhanced by the supervision of experts in their field. You may be assessed using innovative methods such as the video-essay, for which you will be taught highly transferable skills in editing and presenting. You will also be expected to read and watch primary material in your own time, to contribute to online discussions, and to download and read notes from StudyNet, our virtual learning environment.
Check out our student blogs
Alumni Stories
April Wilson
Meet April Wilson, who used the diversity of her course to gain new experiences and learn. She is currently an Alumni Relations Coordinator at the University of Sussex.
Read more stories BA (Hons) English Literature with Film| Current job role | Alumni Relations Coordinator |
|---|---|
| Year of graduation | 2017 |
| Course of study | BA(Hons) English Literature with Film |
| MA Journalism with Media Communications |
University life and experience
April initially decided to go to the University of Hertfordshire due to our close proximity to London. She liked that it was easy to commute into the city for shopping and concerts, but that Hatfield wasn’t as expensive to live in!
While studying, April gained valuable experience which helped her develop essential skills for her current role which meant she was able to start ‘armed with the knowledge’ she needed.
However, the most useful thing she learnt from her postgraduate course was having confidence in herself and her ideas, especially when presenting. She credits this to ‘the support of my peers and lecturers who made me feel more confident in my abilities.'
She adds that her undergraduate degree helped her develop the writing and research skills which she applies daily to her current role and her approach to work.
Not only did April gain experience from her studies, but the extra-curricular activities she took part in also helped develop her skills. She says, ‘The writing and video editing experience I was able to gain from my time volunteering for societies at the University was also essential in helping me to have the skills that are valuable within my role.’
Future aspirations
April is also willing to try new experiences to help her gain valuable work experience in a variety of roles. She has previously, done everything from fundraising for charity to running my own online magazine.
In the future, April hopes to continues her studies and complete a PhD in Film Studies. She is particularly interested in looking at representation in films and how this is interpreted through social media.
- View our Alumni profiles
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Further information - includes assessment method
Course fact sheets BA (Hons) English Literature Download Programme specifications BA (Hons) English Literature Download Film Programme Specification Download Additional information Sandwich placement or study abroad year
Optional
Applications open to international and EU students
Yes Course length
- Full Time, 3 Years
- Sandwich, 4 Years
Location
- University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield
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How to apply?
2023
Start Date End Date Link 23/09/2023 31/05/2024 Apply online (Full Time) 23/09/2023 31/05/2024 Apply online (Full Time/Sandwich) 23/09/2023 31/05/2024 Apply online (Full Time/Sandwich) -
Fees and funding
Fees 2023
UK Students
Full time
- £9250 for the 2023/2024 academic year
EU Students
Full time
- £14750 for the 2023/2024 academic year
International Students
Full time
- £14750 for the 2023/2024 academic year
*Tuition fees are charged annually. The fees quoted above are for the specified year(s) only. Fees may be higher in future years, for both new and continuing students. Please see the University’s Fees and Finance Policy (and in particular the section headed “When tuition fees change”), for further information about when and by how much the University may increase its fees for future years.
View detailed information about tuition fees
Read more about additional fees in the course fact sheet
Other financial support
Find out more about other financial support available to UK and EU students
Living costs / accommodation
The University of Hertfordshire offers a great choice of student accommodation, on campus or nearby in the local area, to suit every student budget.