English and Creative Writing and History (Hons) University of Strathclyde

Overview

The emphasis in the English and Creative Writing and History (Hons) course from the University of Strathclyde is on helping you develop a range of skills to grow your future career, including textual analysis and interpretation. With us, you can study everything from poetry, the novel and drama (stage, screen, and radio) as you would expect on an English and Creative Writing degree, but in addition, at Strathclyde, we offer the opportunity to use creative writing skills as part of your approach to literary criticism. 

Studying history – the story of humanity through the ages – develops your knowledge of the past and gives you a better understanding of the present.

What you’ll study

All students take one English & Creative Writing class in each semester of the first year. These classes introduce the advanced study of literature and include a focus on research methods and techniques for writing essays – with the option of using a creative as well as critical approach.

Texts studied currently include Shakespeare, Othello; Bronte, Jane Eyre; Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea; Woolf, Flush; Kay, Trumpet; Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, and a range of poetry from the Renaissance to contemporary slam and rap.

In the second year students take two core classes:

• Writing Through Time 1 (semester one) 

• Writing Through Time 2 (semester two)

You then have a choice of one or two interdisciplinary electives:

• The Construction of Scotland: Text and Context (semester one)

• Making the Modern Human (semester two)

Writing Through Time 1 and 2, our core classes, give you the confidence to discuss the historical range of English literature, which will include poetry, drama, the novel, and a screenplay. The interdisciplinary elective classes will open out a variety of different ways of thinking about literary Studies in a broader context.