BA (Honours) English Language and Literature: Standard 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.Q39-1,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.Q39-1,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.Q39-1,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

Your study at Level 2 will give you a wide-ranging introduction to English language and literature. 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.Q39-1,module,A230,,1, is a 60-credit module designed to equip you with different approaches and techniques for reading texts. You’ll explore:

• a selection of 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 and prose fiction as well as autobiography, travel-writing and film
• how contemporary texts make use of literature of the past.

Your language study, with the 60-credit module Worlds of English (U214)Worlds of English::What are the origins of the English language? How has it spread internationally? Is the worldwide influence of English a cause for celebration or concern? How is it changing in response to social, cultural, and technological developments? These are just a few of the questions that you will investigate in this course which looks at the history, diversity, and use of English around the world. Using a combination of printed materials and computer-based resources you will be introduced to the major debates in the field, and to some of the ways language is described and analysed.undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q39-1,module,U214,,1, will range from the history of the English language to its current international role, and equip you with the means to describe, analyse and critically reflect on English use around the world. You’ll explore:

• the role and status of English and how it interacts with other languages
• how English varies between different speakers and writers in different regional and social contexts
• the structure of English-language texts and how to analyse them
• how English is learned as a first and as an additional language and its significance to people’s sense of identity.

These modules can be studied in any order and throughout your Stage 2 studies, 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

Your Level 3 study is divided equally between language and literature. Current English language options include:

• English grammar in context (E303)English grammar in context::This course is for you if you’re interested in understanding and analysing how English ‘works’ in a wide range of contexts, including the media, fiction, academic writing and everyday conversation. This course provides an up-to-date framework for describing, analysing and evaluating how the English language is used. It takes a functional approach to grammar and includes hands-on computational analysis of large databases of texts to help you engage with real-world data and problems. Work on this course is both intellectually stimulating and practical.undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q39-1,module,E303,,1: focusing on English grammar and how English works, using specially developed software tools to investigate contexts including the media, academic writing and conversation

• The art of English (E301)The art of English::The art of English looks at creativity in the English language: from everyday language use (conversation, children’s language, letter writing, online chat) to ‘high culture’ literary language and new kinds of media texts. You’ll consider how ‘verbal art’ works in a wide range of texts, and the extent to which the seeds of literary creativity may be found in more routine uses of English. The course has an international dimension too, enabling you to explore language use in different parts of the English-speaking world, and should help you consider your own daily experiences of the English language.undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q39-1,module,E301,,1: investigating creativity in language, from everyday use of English (conversation, children’s language, correspondence, online chat) to ‘high culture’ literary language and media texts.

For your English literature study, you’ll choose from a list of options:

• 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.Q39-1,module,AA306,,1: covers a range of Shakespeare's 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.Q39-1,module,AA316,,1: focuses on understanding the novel's relationship with society 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.Q39-1,module,A300,,1: featuring key writers such as Chekhov and Virginia Woolf
• Advanced creative writing (A363)Advanced creative writing::Advanced creative writing develops your writing ability by widening your generic range and developing your knowledge of style. The course works on the forms introduced in the Level 2 course Creative writing (A215) – fiction, poetry and life writing – and supplements these with dramatic writing, showing you how to write for stage, radio and film. You’ll explore how these scriptwriting skills might enhance your prose style, improve your writing across the range of forms, and further develop your individual style and voice. The course offers guidance on professional layouts for the dramatic media, and is a natural progression from Creative writing (A215).undergraduate.qualification.pathways.Q39-1,module,A363,,1: improves your creative writing style; explores how scriptwriting might influence and improve your fiction, poetry and life writing
• 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.Q39-1,module,EA300,,1: from its beginnings in eighteenth-century fairy tales, through nineteenth-century novels to contemporary fiction, poetry and films.

These modules can be studied in any order and being 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.