English Literature Study Guide 2026/27

What you can study

Bristol is a truly literary city, home to the Bristol Festival of Literature, Bristol Women's Literature Festival, Bristol Poetry Festival, and a host of theatres, cafés, and independent bookshops. It has inspired writers throughout its history, from William Wordsworth and Jane Austen to Helen Dunmore, as well as Bristol alumni Angela Carter, David Nicholls and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. At Bristol, you'll study texts written from medieval times to now, as you explore literary traditions ranging from the local to the global.

You will find units on:

  • poetry, fiction, children's literature, media, and visual culture
  • postcolonial theory and Black studies
  • gender studies
  • environmental studies and medical humanities

Pre-requisites

At UK universities, students specialise from their first year and rarely take units outside their degree subject. This means that:

  • Year 1 units are suitable for all students.
  • Year 2 units require some university study in the discipline.
  • Year 3 units require a strong background in the discipline.

Subject pathway students

If you have been nominated to Bristol on the Study Abroad (English pathway), you must take the majority of your credits from this guide (sections Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3).

Feature Unit

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3  Literature units outside the Department

Year 1

Pre-requisites: suitable for all students

Teaching Block 1

Teaching Block 2

Year 2

Pre-requisites: some university study in the discipline.

Students may take only ONE Seminar unit per Teaching Block due to the heavy workload involved with these units.

Teaching Block 1

Seminar units – choose a maximum of ONE:

Teaching Block 2

Seminar units – choose a maximum of ONE:

  • Literature and the Sea: The Seafarer to the Shipping News - ENGL20020. The Unit Catalogue entry will be published by late spring.
  • The Radical Gothic - ENGL20136. The Unit Catalogue entry will be published by late spring.

Year 3

Pre-requisites: strong background of study in the discipline.

Students may take only ONE Seminar unit per Teaching Block due to the heavy workload involved with these units.

Teaching Block 1

Seminar units - choose a maximum of ONE:

Teaching Block 2

Seminar units - choose a maximum of ONE:

Literature units outside the Department

The following units are delivered and taught entirely in English and are suitable for students majoring in Arts and Humanities subjects:

Teaching Block 1

Teaching Block 2

Application queries

Contact the Centre for Study Abroad inbound team if you have any queries about the application process for the study abroad programmes:

Phone: +44 117 39 40207
Email: cfsa-inbound@bristol.ac.uk