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English and History BA (VQ32)

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Discover more about our English and History degree at Warwick

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VQ32

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Bachelor of Arts (BA)

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3 years full-time

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26 September 2022

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English and Comparative Literary Studies

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University of Warwick

3a

Literature and History are vitally intertwined. Both subjects ask questions about how human experience is written and recorded – in the past and in the present – and both probe the relationship between what is real and what is represented.

3b

Literature and History are vitally intertwined. Both subjects ask questions about how human experience is written and recorded – in the past and in the present – and both probe the relationship between what is real and what is represented.

In this course, you will think about, question, and blur the line between them: how history always involves modes of representation that are themselves literary, and how literature has imagined and influenced the political and social contours of history.

Taught across the English and Comparative Literary Studies and History departments, this degree will allow you to explore these issues from a variety of angles and through a wide range of optional modules that span time and geography: from the medieval to the contemporary, and from Britain to America and the Caribbean. As well as developing your subject knowledge, we will encourage you to develop your own ideas and arguments, to critically analyse what others say and write - and to reflect upon how the disciplines of history and literature might best speak to one another, today and in the future.

3c

In your first year you will take the core module History and Textuality, which will get you thinking about how the subjects of history and literature interact. In Making of the Modern World, you will tackle the major concepts of modern history, such as democracy, imperialism, and revolution. And by taking either Epic into Novel or Medieval to Renaissance English Literature you will delve into classic texts and ask questions about the forms and genres we've used to tell stories across the centuries.

In your second year you choose from the modules on offer in the English and History departments as well as taking a further core module, Writing History: Truth, Memory, and Fiction, which considers the myriad ways in which history has been written, re-written, imagined, and staged.

Finally, in your third year you will write a specific English and History dissertation. You will also have a free choice of modules offered by - or beyond - the English and History departments and will have the opportunity to tailor your studies to your strengths and interests.

3d

At Warwick you will experience a varied combination of seminars, tutorials, lectures, and workshops. Some of your modules might include field trips. In your first year you lay the foundations for your future studies, and you will study modules that give you a strong grounding in the different approaches and skills central to the study of English and History.

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Targeted teaching with class sizes of 10-15 students (on average).

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Guided learning of typically eight contact hours per week, plus extra-curricular workshops and reading groups. Seminars are usually 1, 1.5 or 2 hours each; lectures are an hour.

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Assessment will usually take the form of both coursework and examination, but some of your modules might have creative options as well. Coursework can include essays, reports, oral presentations, video-essays, blogs, vlogs, and mini-projects. In your final year you will complete a dissertation based on your own research.

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Study abroad

As a student on our English degrees, you will have the opportunity to spend your third year at one of our partner institutions in the USA, Europe, China, Australia or Japan.

You will then return to Warwick to complete the fourth and final year of your degree. You will be able to apply to transfer to the four-year course when you are in your second year at Warwick, subject to the availability of places from the University's International Office.

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Additional requirements

The Social Sciences and Humanities subjects we will accept include:

• Art
• Business
• Classics
• Creative Writing
• Design
• Drama
• Economics
• English Language
• English Literature
• English Language and Literature (combined)
• Environmental Studies
• Geography
• History
• History of Art
• Journalism
• Languages (modern or classical)
• Law
• Media
• Music
• Philosophy
• Politics
• Psychology
• Religious Studies
• Sociology
• Theatre Performance

4a

A level typical offer

AAA or A*AB to include grade A in English Literature or English Language and Literature (combined) or History. You will also need one other Social Sciences or Humanities A level. Please see the subjects listed below under Additional Requirements.

A level contextual offer

We welcome applications from candidates who meet the contextual eligibility criteria and whose predicted grades are close to, or slightly below, the contextual offer level. The typical contextual offer is ABB including an A in English Literature or English Language and Literature (combined) or History. Applicants only taking one of the above will require one further Social Sciences or Humanities subject. See if you're eligible.

General GCSE requirements

Unless specified differently above, you will also need a minimum of GCSE grade 4 or C (or an equivalent qualification) in English Language and either Mathematics or a Science subject. Find out more about our entry requirements and the qualifications we accept. We advise that you also check the English Language requirements for your course which may specify a higher GCSE English requirement. Please find the information about this below.

4b

IB typical offer

38 to include 6 at Higher Level in English Literature or English Language and Literature (combined) or 6 at Higher Level in History. You will also need one other Social Sciences or Humanities subject at Higher Level. Please see the subjects listed below under Additional Requirements.

IB contextual offer

We welcome applications from candidates who meet the contextual eligibility criteria and whose predicted grades are close to, or slightly below, the contextual offer level. The typical contextual offer is 34 including 6 at Higher Level in English Literature or English Language and Literature (combined) or History. Applicants only taking one of the above will require one further Social Sciences or Humanities subject. See if you're eligible.

General GCSE requirements

Unless specified differently above, you will also need a minimum of GCSE grade 4 or C (or an equivalent qualification) in English Language and either Mathematics or a Science subject. Find out more about our entry requirements and the qualifications we accept. We advise that you also check the English Language requirements for your course which may specify a higher GCSE English requirement. Please find the information about this below.

4c

We welcome applications from students taking BTECs alongside A level English Literature or English Language and Literature (combined) or History.

You will also need one other Social Sciences or Humanities A level. Please see the subjects listed below under Additional Requirements.

5a

Year One

History and Textuality

In this core first-year module for students taking BA English and History, you will explore the limits of history and narrative by considering subjects that have traditionally been said to be ahistorical, such as the emotions, sensation, the “primitive,” and the non-human world. By gaining exposure to a wide range of historical and literary topics and focusing attention on the theoretical frameworks that scholars use to study these topics, you will help develop your interests and concentrate your studies within the degree.

Making of the Modern World

We live in the here and now. But what got us here? This module studies the string of major social, political, and cultural developments that established our modern world. Radical (and not so radical) ideas from the Enlightenment, the industrial revolution’s structural transformations of how we work, build and buy things, and the struggles and stumbles of imperialism, capitalism and globalisation have gone far to set terms of life in the twenty-first century. The module will also help you develop your critical voice as a historian while asking comparative questions about historical difference across the world.

Medieval and Early Modern Literature

Taking you from the mythical court of King Arthur to the real world of ambition, intrigue, and danger in the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, this module introduces you to early literature written in a range of genres (romance, epic, fabliau) and poetic forms. You will study texts like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Thomas More’s Utopia, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, and Shakespeare’s sonnets to explore some of the period’s highest ideals—‘trawthe’ or integrity—as well as some of humanity’s darkest impulses: greed, deception, revenge, and desire.

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Epic into Novel

Tracking the transition from the epics of the ancient world to the novels of modernity, this module introduces you to some of the most influential and formative works of world literature. You will study central texts of the classical world, such as Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid; the ancient Indian epic The Mahābhārata; Milton’s Paradise Lost; as well as novels like Henry Fielding’s bawdy comedy Tom Jones and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s novel of decolonising Kenya, A Grain of Wheat. Reading across history and cultures, between languages and genres, you will develop the skills to analyse narrative, character, and style.

Plus one further first-year English or first year History module of your choice

Year Two

In your second year, you will study 30 CATS of English modules, 30 CATS of History modules, and 30 CATS of your choice (which can be English or History modules, or selected modules from other departments). Your module choices for this year must include at least 30 CATS of early-modern (pre-1800) material. In addition, you will take our core module:

Writing History: Truth, Memory, and Fiction

‘Writing History’ explores how knowledge of the past is constructed, and contested, in texts. It examines a sequence of four historical episodes, and considers how they have been portrayed as cohesive and meaningful events in history, to widely varying intellectual and political ends. You will develop your ability to historicise and critically evaluate historical and literary texts, and enhance your understanding of how narrative and artistic representation shape historical knowledge and ‘truth’.

Year Three

In your third year, you will study 30 CATS of English modules, 30 CATS of History modules, and 30 CATS of your choice (which can be English or History modules, or selected modules from other departments). In addition, you will take our core module:

English and History Dissertation

The English & History dissertation enables you to undertake a substantial independent, inter-disciplinary research project, and to produce an article-length essay. It provides the opportunity to work in a way similar to a literary scholar or historian: identifying a research topic; mastering the relevant scholarship; identifying and critically analysing primary texts; and articulating and sustaining a coherent argument. As the final-year core module, it completes the intellectual training that has been provided in your earlier work on the degree, particularly the two core modules.

5b

• American Horror Story
• The English Nineteenth-Century Novel
• Literature, Environment, Ecology
• US Writing and Culture
• Literature, Environment, Ecology
• US Writing and Culture, 1780-1920
• Romantic and Victorian Poetry
• Shakespeare and Selected Dramatists of his Time
• Crime Fiction
• Latin America: Themes and Problems
• Mind, Body and Society
• A History of Africa, 1830-1980
• Slavery and Slave Life in the American South, 1619-1865
• From the Blues to Hip Hop
• The Drug Trade in the Americas
• Slavery, Memory and Memorialisation