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Summary of Course Content
First Level (1st year) The School offers two First-level modules. Ghosts and Doubles: An Introduction to Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature explores texts in prose and verse, ranging from Wuthering Heights and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to Toni Morrison’s Beloved and contemporary Scottish poetry. Emphasis is on practical criticism, close reading and the importance of literary/historical contexts. Explorers and Revolutionaries: Literature 1680-1830 covers, among other works, Gulliver’s Travels, Frankenstein, Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads, and looks at travel, colonialism, the Gothic and the Romantic.
Second Level (usually 2nd year) Mediaeval and Renaissance Texts provides an introduction to the earliest literature in English and the language in which it is composed. The mediaeval element draws on editions prepared by scholars in the School of English, designed to make early texts readily accessible. The Renaissance element focuses on Donne’s Songs and Sonets and Milton’s Paradise Lost.
The Second level programme concludes with Drama: Reading and Performance, a module that concentrates on the special characteristics of drama as an art form that crosses the boundaries of written text and public performance. The module includes plays by Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams and Caryl Churchill.
Honours (3rd and 4th years) Students at Honours level have an exciting range of some 40-50 modules from which to choose, including those focused on individual writers such as Chaucer, Jane Austen, or TS Eliot, genre studies such as The Historical Novel or Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction, period studies such as Literature in the Enlightenment or Reading the 1940s and a wide variety of other approaches to the study of literature written in English, from its earliest surviving examples right up to the present day. Single Honours students normally take eight modules in their two Honours years (two each semester, over four semesters). Single Honours students must include at least one module on Mediaeval Literature, one module on early modern literature and one other module on eighteenth-century, Romantic or nineteenth-century literature. Joint Honours students normally take four modules in English (including one on pre-twentieth-century literature), and four in another subject. The Dissertation, which is compulsory for Single Honours students, allows you to write an extended essay on a literary topic of your own choice. Creative Writing I and II are also popular Fourth-level modules.
Several other modules involve creative coursework which – as well as the traditional essay – may involve literary journal-keeping (Literature and Ecology); or a speech on a set topic (Speeches and Speechwriting); or the opportunity to try a bit of mediaeval forgery (Arthurian Legend). We aim to provide a range of topics and approaches that allow students to follow their own interests, whether towards specialising in particular authors or periods, or towards wide-ranging exploration in a variety of areas.
Teaching Most modules at all levels are taught by a combination of whole-class lectures and small discussion groups, either tutorials or seminars. For first-year modules we expect about 250 students, who are divided into groups of about eight for weekly tutorials which follow the lecture series; arrangements are similar for second-year modules. Class sizes in Honours vary between modules. We aim to give all students in English the chance to discuss their work in tutorials or seminars, since we think that is the best way of teaching and learning. Prospective students should note that candidates who are allowed to write their exams on a computer are not permitted to use Spellcheck.
Extra-Curricular Events The School of English also offers a lively and enriching programme of events open to undergraduate students, ranging from regular Spotlight Workshops, where creative writers meet to share their work and exchange ideas, to readings and discussions with leading poets, novelists, critics and scholars. Many students write for The Red Wheelbarrow, our in-house magazine of poetry and opinion, or become involved in the Literary Society, student drama, or debating.
Careers Recent graduates in English have entered a wide variety of professions and career paths. They have taken up internships with the United Nations, become writers and editors for Penguin Books, Harper Collins, The Times, Country Life Magazine, and The Field Magazine. They have gone into sales in a number of spheres such as books and music, e.g. Waterstone’s, WH Smith, and work for charitable organisations (Save the Children), into public policy (Scottish Executive, British Council), and into arts administration (the Barbican Centre,
Sotheby’s). A couple of graduates have gone into the financial sector – KPMG and Abbey National, and one is a head-hunter for a small film company.
A large number of our graduates go into postgraduate study, some to other universities but many remaining with us in St Andrews. A considerable number of graduates follow careers in teaching in a wide variety of school environments.
Please see page 42 for details of the University’s Careers Centre.
Robert Burns, J Valentine collection – registered 1878
English
“Studying English at St Andrews has been a constantly fascinating and enjoyable experience. I chose the course here because of the flexibility and variety in sub-honours years and the excellent range of Honours modules, meaning that I was simultaneously able to pursue an interest in both twentieth-century and Romantic literature.”
Philippa (Ashbourne, Derbyshire)
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