Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - Literature and History

Historians and literary critics sometimes read the same documents, but they have different approaches and employ different methods of analysis. This program gives students the opportunity to learn and experiment with both ways of reading. In learning the skills of close textual analysis and engaging with narrative form, students will become historians with a marked sensitivity to sources and a lively and engaging writing style. As they encounter arguments about historical causality and assess conflicting accounts of historical events, students will become literary critics with a complex grasp of the social, political and cultural contexts in which literature is produced. The two disciplines enrich each other, and the diverse range of experts combine to deliver a course that is both flexible and distinctive.

Students will be taught by specialists from two world-leading UEA departments – the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing and the School of History. Studying in Norwich gives students access to a city rich in historical and cultural artefacts, and vivid literary and dramatic life. This unique degree program also offers many opportunities to extend studies beyond the classroom, into archives of literary and historical manuscripts, and out to sites of historical and cultural importance.

On this course students will explore how literature lives in and speaks to its historical moment, while bringing their analytical and close-reading skills to bear on historical texts themselves.