Courses and structure Credits and levels of learning An undergraduate honours degree is made up of 360 credits – 120 at Level 4, 120 at Level 5 and 120 at Level 6. If you're a full-time student, you will usually take Level 4 courses in the first year, Level 5 in the second, and Level 6 courses in your final year. A standard course is worth 30 credits. Some programmes also contain 15-credit half courses or can be made up of higher-value parts, such as a dissertation or a Major Project. Assessment Coursework portfolios, long essays, examinations (various timescales and formats) and dissertation. The dissertation must be passed for the degree to be awarded. Level 4 You take four compulsory courses (120 credits) which will introduce you to the key areas, problems, and concepts of their respective disciplines. Code Course title Credits tbc Explorations in Literature tbc tbc Approaches to Text tbc tbc The Short Story tbc tbc Engaging Poetry tbc Level 5 The courses at Level 5 offer a wide range of optional elements and they are designed to allow you to start to specialise in areas of your interest. At the same time, they are characterised by literary-historical and contextual range. There is one compulsory course worth 30 credits, which must be passed for the degree to be awarded: Studies in Comparative Literature: You will look at literature and the arts during three major periods of European cultural history, seen as exemplary of a process of circulation, diffusion and adoption of new ideas and styles. Cross-national influences are investigated across a broad range of works and assimilation is observed through translation and imitation in a veriety of genres and media. The three major periods to be covered are the Renaissance, Romanticism and the Fin de Siècle. You are then able to choose COURSES WORTH A TOTAL OF 90 CREDITS from an approved list. At least one of these courses must be chosen from those designated by the Department as encompassing pre-1800 literature. The list may change from year to year but recent example have included: Code Course title Credits tbc Drama and Transgression: From Prometheus to Faust tbc tbc Inventing the Nation: American Literature in the mid-19th Century tbc tbc Literature of the English Renaissance tbc tbc Literature of the Later Middle-Ages: Society and the Individual tbc tbc Moderns tbc tbc Old English tbc tbc Post-Victorian English Literature tbc tbc Restoration and 18th-century Literature tbc tbc Sensibility and Romanticism: Revolutions in Writing and Society tbc tbc Shakespeare tbc tbc Varieties of English tbc tbc The Victorians tbc Level 6 You take: DISSERTATION 6,000-8,000-words (30 credits), which must be passed in order to be awarded the degree A COURSE WORTH 30 CREDITS which is a choice between: Studies in Literature and Film: The course explores the close relationship between literature and film in the 20th century. It offers a range of perspectives and methodologies for studying literature and film, both separately and in relation to each other, with an emphasis on cultural and historical criticism. The course also examines the particular characteristics of both literature and film and the cross-connections between them through a detailed study of selected poems, plays, essays, experimental films, and feature films. The texts studied will be drawn from a range of national literatures and cinemas. Foreign literary texts will be studied in English translation. OR Literature in Question: Writing since World War II: Taking its cue from the debate initiated by Jean-Paul Sartre’s essay ‘What is Literature?’ the course examines some of the main issues explored in literary and theoretical texts of this period and discusses how the role, scope and status of literature have been questioned and re-assessed both within literary texts and by other disciplines. The relationships between literature and philosophy, ethics, history and science will be addressed. There will be analysis of the representation and conceptualisation of issues such as the question of authenticity, individual and national identity, the role and status of language, the literary canon and the possibility of originality, the relationship between gender and writing. COURSES WORTH A TOTAL OF 60 CREDITS from an approved list (within this a rotation of single-term 15-credit courses are also available). Courses may vary from year to year, but recent examples have included: Code Course title Credits tbc Caribbean Women Writers tbc tbc Creating the Text tbc tbc Decadence tbc tbc Language and the Media tbc tbc Modern American Fiction tbc tbc Modern Poetry tbc tbc Modernism & Drama (1880-1930) tbc tbc The Art of the Novel tbc tbc Postcolonial Literatures in English tbc tbc Studies in Literature and Film tbc

Skills and careers The skills you'll develop Our degrees open up a wide range of careers by developing critical and analytical skills, proficiency in assessing evidence, the clear expression of ideas, and the ability to bring together insights from a range of subjects – all of which are attractive to a variety of employers. You will learn to solve problems, to think critically and creatively, and to communicate with clarity. Careers According to data collated by Unistats, the definitive UK university guide and part of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Goldsmiths’ English undergraduate students attain the highest-paid jobs upon graduation. Our graduates have a good employment record: professions include publishing, journalism, PR, teaching, advertising, civil service, business and industry, European Union private sector management and personnel work, and the media. Find out more about employability at Goldsmiths