English at Exeter
Professor Jane Spencer, Head of Department
Exeter English: Choice, range, and flexibility
•60 modules a year, covering everything
from Chaucer to modern digital culture
•Creative writing and film options within
the English programme
•Study Abroad opportunities
•The option of 25% of your studies in a
non-English discipline each year
Exeter English: World-class teaching
•56 specialists involved in undergraduate
teaching from 2013 – and still growing.
•Diversity of interests and backgrounds.
•Our success in attracting students means we can
continue to invest more in teaching and study
resources.
Exeter English: World-class research
•In the last UK research rankings (2008), Exeter English was
ranked 1st in the UK for world class research
•Our research enhances the quality, dynamism and diversity
of our teaching
Degree programmes
BA English
BA Film Studies
BA English with Study in North America
BA English with Study Abroad
BA English and Film
BA English and Classical Studies
BA English and Modern Languages*
BA English and Visual Culture
BA English and Drama
Flexible Combined Honours
* Spanish, French, German, Italian or Russian
Valuing our
students’ views
• We review and discuss student feedback on all modules
• We discuss changes to our programme with students before
implementation
• We also review The National Student Survey (NSS) results - the
judgment of our graduates
• The Students’ Guild Teaching Awards: inspiring innovative teaching
Looking after the future
•In 2011-12, 91% per cent of English graduates
were in job or further study, within 6 months of
graduating
•Exeter provides over 900 employment focused
events a year
•A work experience module is offered at level 2, as
part of your degree.
•The University offers professional careers advice
and runs schemes (e.g. Exeter Award) which help
you build a CV and relevant experience.
In 2013:
• 93% of English graduates were satisfied
with their degree
• 95% believed it intellectually stimulating
• 96% were awarded a 2:1 or better
English on the Penryn campus
• Different campus, same department, similar programme
• Approximately 70 students per year group
• In 2013, of our Penryn students:
95% found their degree intellectually stimulating
100% were in work 6 months afterwards
(source: NSS)
Studying English at Exeter
Dr. Corinna Wagner, Admissions Tutor
The English degree
Year 1: The Platform
(Compulsory modules on critical theory, research and writing skills, literary history to 1800, and
The Poem. Options in Film, Creative Writing, The Novel and Shakespeare)
Year 2: Breadth and Depth
(choose 4 of 12 period-based literature, film or creative writing options)
Year 3: Specialisation and Fulfilment
(Dissertation, choose 1 of 3 core option modules, 2 of 35+ specialist options)
English in the 2nd year
Choice of 4 of the following, 2 from pre-1800:
Chaucer and his contemporaries
Desire and Power: English literature 1570-1640
Renaissance and Revolution: 17th-century literature
Theatrical Cultures, Renaissance to Restoration
Satire and the City: English literature 1660-1750
Introduction to American literature
Revolutions and Evolutions: 19th-century literature
Modernism & Modernity: Literature 1900-1960
Crossing the Water: Transatlantic Literary Relations
Shots in the Dark (FILM)
Spectacular Attractions (FILM)
Finding a voice (CREATIVE WRITING)
Humanities in the Workplace (EMPLOYABILITY)
3rd year special options (a selection)
•Romance in the Age of Chaucer
•Performing Digital Humanities
•Spectacular Bodies: Shakespeare
•Literature and Anti-Literature
•Charles Dickens
•Jane Austen
•Hardy and Women Who Did
•James Joyce's Ulysses
•India Uncovered
•Antique Romans
•After Elizabeth
•The Gothic
•Imperial Encounters
•American Childhoods
•Crime & Punishment
•Myths of Nation / Postcolonial
Literatures
•British Poetry of the First World War
•The Graphic Novel
•Classics of Children's Literature
•The American Novel Since 2000
•Chamber of Horrors
•Digital and Cyberculture Studies
•Advanced Critical Theory
•Serious Play (CW)
•Short Fiction (CW)
•Life-Writing: History, Form, Practice (CW)
•Writing the Short Film (CW)
•American Independent Film (FILM)
•Cityscapes (FILM)
•The Animated Film (FILM)
•Film & Literature (FILM)
Beginnings, 1st year
Syllabus:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Stories of origin: extracts from Genesis and Atrahasis
Homer, The Odyssey
Beowulf (tr. Heaney)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (tr. O’Donoghue)
Robert Henryson, Moral Fables (tr. Heaney)
Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander
William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale
John Milton, Paradise Lost, books 1, 2, 4, 9
Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Assessment:
Critical analysis, 2 essays (1 reviewed in draft), group presentation,
seminar participation
Sample Syllabus, 2nd year:
Modernism and Modernity
1. Modernist Manifestos
2. Urbanity: Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (1907)
3. Visual Culture: Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (1915)
4. Modernist Subjectivity: T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)
5. Colonialism and Nationalism: James Joyce, Dubliners (1914)
5. Feminism: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (1927)
6. Regional Modernism: William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930)
7. The 1930s, Class, Social Change: Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark (1932)
8. The Rise of Fascism: W. H. Auden, Poems
9. War and Fascism: Elizabeth Bowen, The Heat of the Day (1949)
10. After Modernism: Samuel Beckett, Endgame (1958)
Sample Syllabus, 3rd year:
Gothic Evolutions, Literature and Visual Culture
1: Art viewing: Piranesi, Goya, Fuseli, Friedrich, Blake
2: The Uncanny and Domesticity: E. T. A. Hoffmann, “The Sandman,” Freud, “The
Uncanny”
3. Medicine, the Body and the Gothic: Samuel Warren, “Grave Doings”; Poe, “Ligeia,”
short stories on anatomy, disease and epidemic
4. Science and the Monstrous: Hawthorne, “The Birthmark”; Mitchell, “The Case of
George Dedlow”; Le Fanu, “Green Tea”; Machen, “The Inmost Light”; Wells, “The
Stolen Bacillus”
5. Disability Theory and Difference: Dr Frederick Treves, Case Studies, film The
Elephant Man
6: Degeneration: Bram Stoker, Dracula
7: Gender and Re-visioning Literary History: Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber; 4.
Film viewing, Let the Right One In
8. Darwin, Social and Biological Evolutionary theory: HG Wells, The Island Of Dr
Moreau; Darwin, readings
9. Imperial Gothic: Ryder Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines
10: Race, Technology and the Gothic: Alan Moore, The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen
Assessing the degree
• Writing: coursework, exams (together approx. 70%+ of
all assessment), creative writing portfolios, and the final
dissertation.
• Oral and team building: Group presentations, group
wikis, class participation (level 1)
• Final Degree = ⅓ level 2 + ⅔ Level 3
We value and encourage: creativity, independence,
intellectual rigour, good verbal and oral
communication.
Supporting your Studies
Minimum 10 weekly contact hours at level 1:
Seminars and Workshops (1-2.5 hrs)
Lectures (1 hour)
In addition:
Office Hours (10 mins - 1 hour)
Film screenings
Personal tutors offer regular academic and
pastoral support
Undergrad Writing Centre, Royal Literary Fund
fellows
The Forum, Library, Study Zones, Multimedia
facilities
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