English Literature and Creative Writing (with integrated foundation year) BA (Hons)

In choosing Aberystwyth University's English and Creative Writing, with integrated Foundation Year, degree you will have the opportunity to develop both your creative and critical writing skills.

Taught by distinguished, practising writers, you will find the degree both innovative, challenging and rewarding. By studying various genres and styles, writing forms and techniques, you will develop a range of competencies and capabilities, skills and attributes that are widely sought by employers.

The integrated foundation year - designed for prospective students who do not have a sufficient or relevant academic background - is the perfect option to access this highly-sort scheme. In the foundation year, you will be brought up to speed on the fundamentals of English and Creative Writing, providing a solid base for you to go on and enjoy the full undergraduate degree.

What will I learn?

The breakdown below will provide you with an illustration of what you may study during the four-year degree scheme.

This degree is based on our strongly held belief that in order to become a really great writer you need to be a good reader. You will develop advanced skills in the interpretation and analysis of literary texts, you will encounter texts from a range of historical periods and genres. Throughout the course you will use your knowledge of literature and textual production in your own creative work, exploring the relationship between creative and critical practice.

In the first foundation year, you will be introduced to core components of English and Creative Writing.

In your second year you will discover:

• A range of techniques for reading and writing fiction and poetry;
• Modes of descriptive writing;
• The importance of plot;
• The use of dialogue;
• Some key figures from literary history (from Shakespeare to the Brontës);
• Lesser known texts, and writers who are new-to-you;
• A variety of “ways of reading” and some theoretical approaches to textual analysis;
• Poetry, prose, drama, American Literature, adaptations, Classical literature, contemporary writing, medieval texts and much more.

In your third year you will explore:

• The theoretical approaches to, and the practice of, literary criticism;
• Your own writing style, informed by your reading and research;
• A range of selected core texts from the medieval period through to the twenty-first century;
• A number of specialist topics chosen by you (these might focus on a specific genre (such as crime fiction), historical period (such as the Victorian era), or theme (such as “transpositions”).

In your final year you will master:

• Theory for writers and the application of theoretical perspectives the production and critical evaluation of your own creative work;
• Extended writing and independent research in your final year writing project (chosen and defined by you with the support of a published author);
• Your own specialisms drawn from a diverse range of option modules taught by writers in those fields. Our option modules include topics such as Elizabethan drama, the ghost story, queer fiction, writing for children, science fiction and fantasy, and much more.

In your final year you will have the opportunity to take part in a writing retreat at a country house in mid-Wales - an amazing opportunity to spend time with fellow students and staff, developing your final year projects and dissertations, in a splendid rural setting.