English and History BA

at University of Warwick

The first year of your degree provides a thorough grounding in the methods and techniques of history and literary studies. The core module, History and Textuality, is specially designed for this degree programme and gives you an advanced training in the most innovative approaches to historical and literary scholarship.

In your second year, you’ll choose modules from the two departments alongside another specially-designed core module, Writing History, which explores the relationship between history and literature through a series of source-based case studies (which in previous years have included the revolutionary Atlantic, colonial India, the Harlem Renaissance, and 9/11).

Finally, in your third year you’ll complete an independent research project and choose from a range of modules offered by the two departments (and others), tailoring your studies to your own interests.

By the time you graduate you will have acquired an exceptional intellectual training for further study in either discipline—or both—and for a range of careers beyond academia; and you’ll never think about literature or history in quite the same way again.

Year One
History and Textuality
For historians and literary scholars alike the past is irretrievable, yet inescapable. On History and Textuality you will explore how the two disciplines address this dilemma, focusing particularly on issues that have been marginalised in traditional historical inquiry—such as the emotions, the ‘primitive’, and the non-human—and on the ways in which history has been shaped by operations of power. As the first-year core module for the English and History degree, this module also has a programme of assessments designed to help you make the transition from school to university-level study.

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.

or

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: the English and History Dissertation.

English and History Dissertation
The English and 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.

Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:

• 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
   

All applicants, regardless of their visa requirements, are required to show that their ability to understand and express themselves in both written and spoken English is sufficiently high for them to derive full benefit from their degree course. The level of competence required depends on what type of degree you wish to study. Many applicants can demonstrate this through a satisfactory level of achievement in, for example, GCSE English Language or the English courses within the International Baccalaureate.

Applicants whose academic qualifications meet the University’s admissions requirements, but whose English language qualifications are not accepted as equivalent, may be offered a place at Warwick conditional on an acceptable English language qualification being achieved before they join the University. A number of English language tests are accepted; some of the most frequently offered ones are detailed below.

Please note that certain English tests (including IELTS and PTE) must be taken within two years and one month prior to the start of your course at Warwick. Applicants whose tests fall outside this timescale will need to retake a suitable English language test.

Applicants who require a visa to study in the UK may, depending on the circumstances, be asked to provide evidence of a secure English language test (e.g. IELTS for UKVI (Academic)), rather than an examination (such as International Baccalaureate English) due to the visa requirements set by the UK government.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS (2022 Entry)

If you do not meet the English Language Requirements for your course in full, you may still be eligible for the course on condition of:

• Meeting the English Language Requirements for our Pre-sessional English course, and
• Successfully completing the Pre-sessional English course

Please use the table below to find the relevant band for the course(s) in which you are interested. You can sort the table by clicking on the heading of the column you wish to sort by.

If you are an overseas or EU student enrolling in 2022, your annual tuition fees will be as follows:

• Band 1 – £22,280 per year (classroom-based courses, including Humanities and most Social Science courses)
• Band 2 – £28,410 per year (laboratory-based courses, plus Theatre and Performance Studies, Economics, and courses provided by Warwick Business School, with exceptions)

Fees for 2023 entry have not been set. We will publish updated information here as soon as it becomes available, so please check back for updates about 2023 fee rates before you apply.

Warwick Undergraduate Global Excellence Scholarship 2022

We believe there should be no barrier to talent. That's why we are committed to offering a scholarship that makes it easier for gifted, ambitious international learners to pursue their academic interests at one of the UK's most prestigious universities. This new scheme will offer international fee-paying students 250 tuition fee discounts ranging from full fees to awards of £13,000 to £2,000 for the full duration of your Undergraduate degree course.

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