BA (Hons) English Literature and History course preparation
To help you feel prepared for your university studies, we’ve gathered together a range of course related activities including suggested reading, useful websites and some great things to do right now. Open the links below to find out more:
Suggested reading
You will be given lots of information about which textbooks to read and introduced to the University Library, as well as the many ebooks we have for you to access, when you begin your studies in September.
In the meantime, there are a few suggested books you might like to read before starting your degree if you can. We don’t recommend rushing out to buy texts before you arrive but if you can pick some up second hand, borrow from a library or access online to read over the summer, we suggest:
Ready, set, READ!
Reading enhances your imagination, increases your vocabulary and strengthens your writing ability, but reading can also reduce stress levels and help improve overall focus.
These are three pieces of literature that we think you should read if you’re thinking of studying an English degree (and they’re all set text on first year modules – so you’ll get a great head start!)
Jane Eyre – by Charlotte Bronte
Frankenstein – by Mary Shelley
Some poetry! Choose from: Derek Walcott (‘Love After Love’), Christina Rossetti (‘Goblin Market’), Grace Nichols (The Fat Black Woman’s Poems), and Robert Browning (‘Porphyria’s Lover’).
English Literature
LIT1020: Ways of Reading
Set Texts:
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (Penguin or Oxford edition)
Arthur Conan Doyle, select stories from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. For class we read: ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, ‘The Man With the Twisted Lip’, and ‘The Copper Beeches’
Henrik Ibsen, ‘A Doll’s House’ in Four Major Plays (Oxford, 2008)
Indicative secondary reading – There is no need to go out and purchase your own copies of any of the following texts, but they will all provide some useful introductory reading if you can find them in libraries:
Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle, This Thing Called Literature (London: Routledge, 2015)
Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle, An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory, 5th edition (London: Routledge, 2016)
Rhian Williams, The Poetry Toolkit (London: Bloomsbury, 2013)
LIT1024: Literary History
Set Texts:
Hughes, Ted, Tales from Ovid (London: Faber, 1997)
Armitage, Simon, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (London: Faber, 2009)
Homer, The Odyssey, transl. Robert Fagles (London: Penguin, 2000) – we look at books 9-12 in class
Indicative secondary reading – There is no need to go out and purchase your own copies of any of the following texts, but they will all provide some useful introductory reading if you can find them in libraries
Alexander, Michael, A History of English Literature. 2nd ed. (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
Sanders, Andrew, The Short Oxford History of English Literature. 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004)
Widdowson, Peter, The Palgrave Guide to English Literature and its Contexts 1500-2000. (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
HIS1010: The Medieval Outlook
Set Texts:
McEvedy, The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History (London, 1992)
MacKay and D. Ditchburn, Atlas of Medieval Europe (London, 1997)
Jotischky, C. Hall, Penguin Historical Atlas of the Medieval World (London, 2005)
Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (Peterborough Ont., 2002)
Nicholas, The Evolution of the Medieval World: Society, Government and Thought in Europe, 312?1500 (London, 1992)
C. Davis, A History of Medieval Europe: From Constantine to St Louis, 3rd edn (Harlow, 2006)
Indicative secondary reading – There is no need to go out and purchase your own copies of any of the following texts, but they will all provide some useful introductory reading if you can find them in libraries
Michael Clanchy, England and its Rulers, 1066-1272 (1983)
RHC Davies, From Alfred the Great to Stephen (1991)
Harvey (ed.), The Twelve and Thirteenth Centuries: 1066-1280 (2001)
N J Higham, The Convert Kings. Power and religious affiliation in Anglo-Saxon England (1997)
McKitterick (ed.), The Early Middle Ages: Europe, 400-1000 (2001)
J Riley-Smith, What were the Crusades (2001)
Ullmann, A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages (1972)
J M Wallace-Hadrill, The Barbarian West 400-1000 (1985)
Briggs and P. Clavin, Modern Europe, 1789-2002 (second edition, 2003)
R. Gildea, Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800-1914 (third edition, 2003)
T. Blanning, ed. The Nineteenth Century: Europe 1789-1914 (2000)
S. Berger, ed. A Companion to Nineteenth Century Europe (2004)
C. Bayly. The Birth of the Modern World 1780-1914 (2004)
Indicative secondary reading – There is no need to go out and purchase your own copies of any of the following texts, but they will all provide some useful introductory reading if you can find them in libraries
M. Evans & E. Godin. France 1815-2003 (2004)
G. Ellis. The Napoleonic Empire (2003)
J. Sperber. Revolutionary Europe 1780-1850 (2000)
S. Gemie. French Revolutions 1815-1914: an introduction (1999)
E. Hobsbawm. The Age of Revolution 1789-1848 (1988)
E. Hobsbawm. The Age of Capital 1848-1875 (1988)
E. Hobsbawm. The Age of Empire 1875-1914 (1989)
G. Eley Forging Democracy: the history of the Left in Europe, 1850-2000 (2002)
R. Bullen States System 1814-1914 (2005)
S. Berger Germany: Inventing the Nation (2004)
D. Blackbourn History of Germany, 1780-1918: the long nineteenth century (2002)
B. Porter . The Absent-Minded Imperialists: Empire, Society and Culture in Britain (2004)
M. P.Johnson. The Dreyfus Affair (1999)
M. Mazower . The Balkans: from the end of Byzantium to the present day (2000)
Mombauer The origins of the First World War: controversies and consensus (2002)
HIS1016: Time Detectives
The texts for this module will be determined by the specific Research Projects offered each year. As these projects will be based on tutors’ own research interests, it is expected that all required texts will already be available in the library. Key reading will be provided via the module handbook and blackboard. Students will also be directed to the subject resources provided by Learning Services.
Other Learning Resources
The module will use a range of electronic learning resources, including but not limited to:
The library catalogue and Discover More tool
The bibliography of British and Irish history
Gale NewsVault
Roger Spalding, Christopher Parker, Historiography: An Introduction (2007)
Jeremy Black, Historiography: Contesting the Past; Claiming the Future (2011)
Eileen Ka-May Cheng, Historiography: An Introductory Guide (2012)
HIS1017: History and Society: Theory, Practice and Impact
The reading for this module is supplied in the module handbook, so there are no set texts
Indicative secondary reading:
Margaret MacMillan (2009) The Uses and Abuses of History
John Tosh (2008) Why History Matters?
Read Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Read Charlotte Brontë as a pre-arrival task – you can pick up cheap editions online. Even if you have studied this text before, please reread over the summer and think about the following questions:
To what extent does Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre draw on themes and figures from fairy tales and the Gothic to tell the story of Jane’s development from a child into a young woman?
To what extent is Jane Eyre a politically engaged novel? Find out what you can about what events were going on in Britain and the world in the 1840s.
How does Brontë represent Jane’s psychological development in the novel?
How does Brontë represent masculinity through the different characters of Mr Rochester and St John Rivers, among others?
To what extent is Jane a reliable narrator of her own story?
Useful websites
If you’re looking for something to read, have a look at the Poetry Foundation website.
Make sure to visit the Prospects website if you’re thinking about a future career in English.
Get into the habit of reading broadsheet newspapers including The Independent, The Guardian, The Times, and The Daily Telegraph. Wrestling with the complexities of the present is good practice for dealing with the complexities of the past.
Read for at least 30 minutes every day
Try to read in an interactive way – identify the author’s argument, spend time thinking about its validity. Just because something is in print, it is not necessarily either right or accurate.
This session examines how to make a successful transition to university. From planning your results day, accommodation and commuting tips, extra support available to you and general advice on uni life.
The following information provides an insight into what to expect when coming to university along with some good advice on how to navigate some of the potential challenges you may face.
