BA (Honours) Humanities: English literature pathway

Stage 1

You’ll begin your studies with the compulsory 60-credit module The arts past and present (AA100)The arts past and present::This broadly-focused course introduces you to university-level study in the arts across a range of subject areas - art history, classical studies, English, history, philosophy, music and religious studies. It is structured around four themes, in order to guide you through some of the basic concerns of arts subjects: Reputations; Tradition and Dissent; Cultural Encounters; and Place and Leisure. Your studies will range from poetry to string quartets, and from sculpture to short stories – across a wide variety of cultures and historical periods. This key introductory Level 1 course is also a useful means of acquiring the key skills required for further study of arts and humanities subjects.undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q03-9,module,AA100,,1, an absorbing and broad-based grounding in the arts and humanities, including:

• history    
• philosophy
• music
• literature
• art history
• classical studies
• religious studies.

You’ll develop essential study skills while engaging with a wide range of topics, periods and approaches and enhancing your enjoyment and understanding of fascinating and diverse aspects of human culture.

We recommend that you build on this with two 30-credit Level 1 modules designed to hone your critical and analytical skills and prepare you for study at Level 2. In the first, Voices and texts (A150)Voices and texts::Designed to follow our key introductory course in arts and humanities, The arts past and present (AA100), which you are strongly advised to study first, this course focuses on language in a wide range of contexts and from the perspective of different academic subjects. These include subjects familiar from studying The arts past and present - classical studies, history, literature, music, religious studies - and two additional subjects, creative writing and English language studies. Voices and texts will help you to prepare for your studies at Level 2 by giving you opportunities to sharpen your analytical skills and to develop new approaches to your own writing.undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q03-9,module,A150,,1, you’ll explore language, particularly English, in a wide range of contexts and from the perspective of related academic subjects, with a particular emphasis on questions of voice in literary texts and in creative writing. In the second, Making sense of things: an introduction to material culture (A151)Making sense of things: an introduction to material culture::This course is designed to follow our key introductory Level 1 course, The arts past and present (AA100), which you are strongly advised to study first. It introduces you to the study of objects, or material culture, in both the past and present from a variety of different perspectives. These include heritage studies, art history, classical studies, history, philosophy and religious studies. Making sense of things will prepare you for Level 2 study, giving you opportunities to develop a range of critical and analytical skills within the context of this exciting new subject.undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q03-9,module,A151,,1, you’ll be introduced to the study of objects, in both the past and present. From October 2014, these 30-credit modules are being merged into one 60-credit module Voices, texts and material culture (A105).

Alternatively, you could choose from other options which include languages, social sciences and design.

Stage 2

At this stage, you’ll begin your specialist study with the core 60-credit module Reading and studying literature (A230)Reading and studying literature::Reading and studying literature builds on the introductory courses in arts and humanities, The arts past and present (AA100), Voices and texts (A150) and Making sense of things: an introduction to material culture (A151). It will introduce you to the study of English literature by looking at a selection of texts from the Renaissance to the present day. The course offers a stimulating mix of classic texts and less well-known works from a range of genres, including drama, poetry and prose fiction as well as autobiography, travel-writing and film. An overarching concern of the course is the uses we make in the present of the literature of the past.undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q03-9,module,A230,,1 which will equip you with essential techniques for reading texts. You’ll explore:

• selected texts from the Renaissance to the present day
• a stimulating mix of classic texts and less well-known works
• a range of genres, including drama, poetry, fiction, autobiography, travel-writing and film
• how contemporary texts relate to literature of the past.

You could decide to complete Stage 2 by continuing your study of interdisciplinary humanities. Alternatively, you can choose from a wide range of modules covering art history, classical studies, classical languages, creative writing, heritage studies, music, English language, philosophy, religious studies, history, French, German and Spanish. Before you decide, you should think ahead to Stage 3, because most modules recommend you should study a particular Level 2 module first.

These modules can be studied in any order and throughout this stage, you’ll continue to develop your critical thinking, writing and analysis skills. You’ll also begin to work and think more independently in relation to a range of problems and questions posed by your course of study.

Stage 3

In Stage 3 you’ll have the choice of four specialist options exploring:

• Shakespeare: text and performance (AA306)Shakespeare: text and performance::This intensive study of ten Shakespeare plays and the Sonnets takes close account of the social and political circumstances in which they were written and performed. This broad historicist approach is complemented by a strong emphasis on the diversity of twentieth-century critical responses to the plays and on modern productions of them, both on stage and on screen. The course will develop your knowledge of the range and variety of Shakespeare’s dramatic and poetic work; examine how its reception and status has been shaped by cultural and institutional factors; and explore themes such as questions of genre, politics, sexuality and gender.undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q03-9,module,AA306,,1: covers a range of his dramatic plays and poetic work
• The nineteenth-century novel (AA316)The nineteenth-century novel::Novels in the nineteenth century were particularly engaged with the events, circumstances, beliefs and attitudes of their time. This course encourages you to enjoy and understand them through the study of twelve texts from England (mainly), France and the USA, including works by Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Dickens, George Eliot, Flaubert and Conrad. The focus is on understanding the role of the novel in representing and exploring social and cultural change, the flexibility of the genre and how it developed aesthetically, stylistically and structurally. You’ll also engage with academic debates appropriate to study at Level 3, through the examination of contemporary and current critical approaches.undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q03-9,module,AA316,,1: focuses on understanding it’s context and how it developed through the works of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, amongst others
• 20th century literature: texts and debates (A300)20th century literature: texts and debates::This course takes you right to the heart of twentieth-century literature – the excitement it has caused, the provocative critical debates it has generated, the political and historical influences it has developed from. Alongside close critical study of works by the century’s major literary lions (Brecht, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Chekhov and others), you will place them in the contexts in which they were written and read, examine the debates and arguments of influential critics, and analyse alternative interpretations. The course is divided into four blocks: the function of literature; different modernisms; notions of popularity; and questions of evaluation.undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q03-9,module,A300,,1: covers key writers such as T.S.Eliot, Chekhov and Virginia Woolf and discusses the critical debates central to literature in the period
• Children's literature (EA300)Children's literature::This course provides a broad introduction to the vibrant and growing field of children’s literature studies. You will study children’s literature in English ranging from its beginnings in eighteenth-century chapbooks and fairy tales, through seminal nineteenth-century novels, to contemporary examples of fiction illustrating current trends. The course also includes the study of picture books old and new, stage performance and film, young adult fiction, storytelling and poetry. You will learn about the distinctiveness and purposes of children’s literature, its prestigious and popular modes and its different representations of children’s worlds.undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q03-9,module,EA300,,1: from its beginnings in eighteenth-century fairy tales, through nineteenth-century novels to contemporary fiction, poetry and films.

You can study another of these options to complete your degree, or choose from a wide range of modules covering art history, classical studies, creative writing, music, English language, philosophy, religious studies, history, French, German and Spanish. You should bear in mind that most of these modules recommend that you have studied a particular Level 2 module first.

(If you live in England and intend to apply for a student loan, please note that some of the Level 3 history options are produced in collaboration with other universities and are therefore not eligible for student loan funding.)

These modules can be studied in any order and at Level 3, you’ll work more independently than you did at levels 1 and 2, devoting some of your study time to exploring topics and issues in greater detail.

If you have already completed some successful study at higher education level at another institution you may be able to transfer credit for this study and count it towards an Open University qualification. If you wish to apply to transfer credit you must do so as soon as possible, and before you register for your chosen qualification. If you are awarded credit for study completed elsewhere, you may find that you need to study fewer OU modules to complete your qualification with us.

Visit our Credit Transfer site for more information and details of how to apply for credit transfer.