Overview
This programme at the University of Leeds examines how language functions to shape and convey human experience, tracing the English language alongside its literary traditions from earlier eras through to contemporary practice. Students engage with the subject from both a linguistic and a literary angle, considering how meaning is built through form, structure, and context. The course matters because it equips students to read critically across a wide range of written and spoken material, from creative works to everyday communication.

What You'll Learn

• How language changes according to region, era, social setting, and style

• Analysis of fiction, poetry, and drama alongside non-literary forms such as speeches, advertising, and news writing

• Foundational study of English structure, style, and genre, alongside how language is used and varied creatively

• Critical reading and interpretive skills applied to prose, poetry, and drama

• Optional deeper study in areas such as medieval and Renaissance writing, postcolonial literature, modern fiction, language in society, and language policy

• The relationship between creativity, power, and critical theory in shaping how literature and language are understood

• Opportunities to pursue specialist topics, from Shakespeare to the language of the media, depending on chosen options

Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to analyse texts using both literary and linguistic frameworks, recognising how language choices produce meaning and effect. They will be able to apply relevant critical and theoretical approaches to a range of genres and historical periods, and to communicate their analysis clearly in writing. Students will also develop the ability to evaluate how language operates within social, cultural, and historical contexts, and to approach unfamiliar texts—literary or otherwise—with confidence and analytical rigour.