This degree allows you to explore the great variety of literature, both originally written in English and in English translation, within a programme that covers a wide range of genres and periods. This degree will enable you to examine in greater detail authors and genres that you already know (from tragedy to Gothic, from Shakespeare and Dante to Plath and Barthes), but it will also introduce you to aspects of literary studies that you may not know so well, from children’s literature to publishing studies and the history of the book. Our academics have published research on everything from medieval poetry to contemporary American fiction, and they will help you to develop your own literary enthusiasms. In English literature, the first-year core modules ensure that all of our students have the advanced skills in literacy analysis necessary for undergraduate work. We explore the different ways that literary texts respond to their cultural context (‘Genre and Context’); we trace the development of poetry in English over time and across the globe (‘Poetry in English’); we examine how literary texts accrue new meanings in the process of interpretation (‘Research and Criticism’). In the second year degree you will be thinking about the career choices that will enable you to thrive after graduation: we will help you put in place the skills and experience that you need to launch that career. A joint degree with comparative literature will help you develop a range of transferable skills, including critical thinking; research and writing; ability to analyse a diverse range of materials; time-management; adaptability; and a high degree of cultural literacy.