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BA English and History

University of Southampton

Institution
University of Southampton
Level
undergraduate
Subject
English and History
Duration
3 years
UCAS code
QV31
Typical offer
A-level ABB, IB 32

Entry requirements

A level: ABB IB: Pass, with 32 points overall with 16 points at Higher Level

About this course

Bachelor of Arts in English and History, an English Literature and History degree exploring literary texts alongside historical events and global contexts. Core topics include Critical & Analytical Thinking, Historical Research, and Research Methods. Students can undertake an integrated placement year or spend time studying abroad at an international partner institution as part of their degree. The first year introduces foundational disciplinary perspectives through compulsory modules such as English on the Move, History Matters (Object, Image, Text), The Novel, and World Histories Introduced, alongside optional choices ranging from Antiquity and Authority: Ancient Persia in Modern Iranian Politics to The French Revolution. The second year examines long-century literature and public history through compulsory modules including Desire and Decay: Literature of the Long Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries and Making History: Historians and Audiences, while offering specialist options like Corpus Linguistics: Working with Large-scale Text Data and Ancient Greeks at War. Optional modules in the final year allow further study in specialized areas such as American Gothic and A Short History of the Far Right.

Modules

  • English on the Move
  • History Matters (Object, Image, Text)
  • The Novel
  • World Histories Introduced
  • Antiquity and Authority: Ancient Persia in Modern Iranian Politics
  • Introduction to Ethnography: Food and Culture
  • Literary Transformations
  • Putin and the Politics of Post-Soviet Russia
  • Rebellions and Uprising in the age of the Tudors
  • The Crimean War
  • The French Revolution
  • The Invention of English Literature: Medieval to Early Modern
  • Theory and Criticism
  • World Dramas
  • Desire and Decay: Literature of the Long Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
  • Humanities Study Abroad Preparation Module
  • Making History: Historians and Audiences
  • Year Abroad Report Module for Humanities Students
  • Year in Employment
  • Eve and the Angels: Love, War, and the End of Epic in Milton's Paradise Lost
  • Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art
  • African Freedoms and the Novel
  • Ancient Greeks at War
  • Ancient Rome: the First Metropolis
  • Brief Encounters: Writing Short Stories
  • Building London: the history of a city, 1666 – 2012
  • Celebrity, Media and Mass Culture, Britain 1888-1952
  • Cold War? Post-War Conflict from a Jewish perspective
  • Corpus Linguistics: Working with Large-scale Text Data
  • Decolonising Modernity
  • Discipline and Punish: Prisons and Prisoners in England 1775 - 1898
  • Film, Realism and Reality: representing the world, from revolution to the everyday
  • Global Hip Hop
  • Great Writers Steal: Creative Writing and Critical Thinking
  • How the Arts Work: A Practical Introduction to Cultural Economics
  • Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in France
  • Imperial China: From China’s mythical emperors to the 19th century
  • Islam's Identity Crisis: Between Violent Jihadism and Peaceful Reformation
  • Jews in Germany before the Holocaust
  • Latin 1
  • Latin 2
  • McCarthyism
  • Myth and the Ancient World
  • Napoleon and his legend
  • Nelson Mandela: A South African life
  • Peasants, Empresses and Holy Virgins: Women in Late Antiquity
  • Plague, Fire and Popish Plots: The Worlds of Charles II
  • Puzzles about Art and Literature
  • Queens, Devils and Players in Early Modern England
  • Ragtime! The Making of Modern America
  • Responses to the Holocaust
  • Retail Therapy: A Journey Through the Cultural History of Shopping
  • Romantics and Victorians
  • Songs of the Earth: Landscapes and Environments of Early Medieval England
  • Speech Acts
  • Sweatshops, Sex workers, and Asylum Seekers: World Literature and Visual Culture after Globalisation
  • The Early Modern Body
  • The Fall of the Russian Empire
  • The First British Empire: the beginnings of English dominance, 1050-1300
  • The Global Game: Football in the Modern Era
  • The History of US: Telling Student Stories, 1862-Present
  • The Life and Afterlife of the Vikings
  • The Making of Modern India
  • The Worlding of English Literature
  • Vienna and Berlin: Society, Politics and Culture from 1890 to the Present
  • Witchcraft in England, 1542-1736
  • Women, Writing and the Canon, 1770-1900
  • Burning Worlds, Drowning Worlds: Oil Cultures, Climate Crisis, and Traumatic Desires in World Literatures
  • A Short History of Exploration
  • A Short History of the Far Right
  • A Short History of the Populist Leader
  • AI Utopias and the Climate Crisis
  • American Cinema Since 1965
  • American Gothic
  • China in the Cold War – Part 1 (The Chronology)
  • China in the Cold War – Part 2 (Themes)
  • Cities of the Dead: Death, Mourning and Remembrance in Modern Britain
  • Creative Writing in Schools
  • Crime and Punishment in England c.1688-1840 part 1
  • Crime and Punishment in England c.1688-1840 part 2
  • Cultures in Contact: A Diverse Ancient World
  • Cultures in Contact: Resisting Rome
  • Darwin and the Making of Evolutionary Thought: Myth, Memory, and Modern Society
  • Data, Culture, and Justice
  • Digital Futures of the Past: Power, Ethics, and Representation
  • Digital Life: Myths, Social Media, And Artificial Intelligence
  • English Dissertation
  • Environmental Cinema and Media
  • Eve and the Angels: Love, War, and the End of Epic in Milton's Paradise Lost
  • Fantasy Film and Fiction
  • Framing the Past:Stardom, History and Heritage in the Cinema
  • From Tyranny to Revolution: England 1625-49: Part 1
  • From Tyranny to Revolution: England, 1625-49 Part 2
  • Historical Memory in Modern Latin America
  • History Dissertation
  • Holocaust Literature
  • Language and the City
  • Latin 1
  • Latin 2
  • Money and Meaning in American Fiction
  • Pirates, Princesses and the Politics of Romance
  • Queering the Digital
  • Reading Histories
  • Scriptwriting
  • Shakespeare Then and Now
  • Streaming, Social Media, and Stans: Music Culture in the Platform Era
  • Telling True Stories: Narrative Non-Fiction
  • The Hammer and the Scalpel: The American Precision Ethos and Culture of War (Part 1)
  • The Hammer and the Scalpel: The American Precision Ethos and Culture of War (Part 2)
  • The Origins of Climate Crisis: Ecology in Victorian Literature
  • The Third Reich 1
  • The Third Reich 2
  • The imperial Other: Race, Religion and Identity in modern Britain and France
  • The imperial Other: Race, Religion and Identity in the Russian and Soviet empires
  • Utopias and Dystopias in Literature and Culture
  • War, State and Society: The Hundred Years War (1337-1453), Part 1
  • War, State and Society: The Hundred Years War (1337-1453), Part 2