This four-year direct honours Bachelor’s degree in English Literature focuses on traditional areas of English literary studies while also accommodating contemporary innovative approaches to literary study. Significant elements of this BA degree include comparative literature, Singapore literature and culture, international Asian literature, contemporary literature, dramatic literature, critical and literary theory, cultural studies, film studies, postmodernism, new literatures in English and gender studies. Furthermore, students are also given the opportunity to specialise in one or more of these areas during their undergraduate education. The direct honours degree includes a final year essay, which will allow students to give expression to their chosen area(s) of literature.
The Division of English encourages innovative thought, scholarly rigour, open expressions, and high levels of interaction and debate between lecturers and students with the aim of developing a thriving and exciting community of ideas and creative pursuits.
1. The Curriculum
To graduate, students must complete two categories of requirements, totaling at least 144AUs:
- General Education Requirement (GER) (57AUs)
- Major Requirements (87AUs)
(a) General Education Requirement (GER) (57AUs)
The GER consists of three sub-areas :
(i) GER - Core (6AUs)
- HW101 The Craft of Writing (3AUs)
- HW111 Mastering Communication (3AUs)
(ii) GER - Prescribed Electives (PEs) (15AUs)
- Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) (3AUs)
- Business and Management (BM) (3AUs)
- Science, Technology and Society (STS) (9AUs)
(iii) GER - Unrestricted Electives (UEs) (36AUs)
There is no restriction on the selection of courses to satisfy unrestricted elective requirements. Students may choose any course by any School so long as the prerequisite is satisfied.
Students are encouraged to take up a Minor in another discipline which they can use to fulfill the requirements for Unrestricted Electives.
(b) Major Requirements (87AUs)
The Major Requirements consists of three sub-areas :
(i) English Literature Core (15AUs)
(ii) English Literature Electives (64AUs)
(iii) Academic Essay (8AUs)
2. Requirements for the English Literature Major
All Level 1xx courses are 3AUs. All Level 2xx to 4xx courses are 4AUs.
(a) English Literature Core - compulsory courses (15AUs)
HL101 Introduction to the Study of Literature
HL102 Survey of English Literature I
HL103 Survey of English Literature II
HL104 Ways of Reading: Texts and Contexts
HL105 Singapore Literature and Culture I
Level 1xx courses must be completed in the first year while the Period Studies (see Category A below) can be selected from Semester 2 of the first year onwards.
(b) English Literature Electives (64AUs)
**NB: Students must choose at least THREE courses from Category A, and at least TWO from Category B.
The remaining ELEVEN courses may be selected from any category (A-G) provided at least ONE course from every category is selected.
Category A consists of Period Studies courses that are aimed at inculcating a sense of continuity across the tradition of English literature while encouraging attentiveness to difference and progression.
Category B is given prominence because it reflects the centrality of Asian Literature and Culture to the B.A. in English Literature at NTU.
Category A: Period Studies
HL201 Medieval Literature
HL202 Shakespeare and his Contemporaries
HL203 Renaissance to Restoration
HL204 Sensibility and Romanticism
HL205 Victorian Literature and Culture
HL206 Modernism
HL207 Contemporary Literature and Culture
Category B: Asian Literature and Culture
HL208 Singapore Literature and Culture II
HL209 Southeast Asian Literature and Culture
HL210 East Asian Literatures in Translation
HL211 Representations of Asia: Film and Fiction
HL212 Asian-American Literature
HL213 British-Asian Literature
HL214 Urban Culture Asia
Category C: Film and Theatre
HL226 Approaches to Drama
HL301 Reading Films: Film Theory
HL302 The Politics of Film: Race, Gender, Class
HL303 Film & Literature
HL304 World Cinema
HL306 Modern Drama
Category D: World Literature
HL222 South Asian Literature in English
HL307 The New Literatures in English
HL308 Women and the New Literatures
HL309 Comparative Literature
HL310 European Literature
HL401 South Asian Literature in English
HL402 African Literature in English
HL403 Australasian Literature
HL404 Irish Literature in English
Category E: Literary and Cultural Theory
HL316 Gender and Sexuality Studies
HL405 Literary Criticism: A History
HL406 Reading Texts: Advanced Critical Theory
HL407 From Cultural Theory to New Historicism
HL408 Postcolonial Studies
HL409 Popular Literature and Culture
HL410 Feminist Studies
Category F: Specific Interest Subjects
HL215 War in Literature and Film
HL216 Literature and Madness
HL217 Directed Study in Literature
HL218 Fantasy Fictions
HL219 Children's Literature
HL220 Creative Writing Workshop
HL225 Readings in Poetry
HL221 The Literature of Empire
HL311 Science Fiction
HL312 Texts and the City
HL313 Postmodernism?
HL315 Science and Literature
HL324 Contemporary Women's Writing
HL411 Magic Realism
HL412 Modern Poetry
HL413 Advanced Study in Literature & Culture
HL419 Advanced Studies in Victorian Literature & Culture
HL420 Advanced Studies in Modern Literature
HL421 Advanced Studies in Romanticism
Category G: American Literature and Culture
HL223 Introduction to American Literature
HL318 19th-Century American Literature and Culture
HL319 20th-Century American Literature and Culture
HL320 Ethnic American Literature
HL321 Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century American Literature
HL322 Contemporary American Literature
HL418 Advanced Studies in American Literature and Culture
Combination of English Electives
The distribution criteria for the B.A. in English ensure that students can specialise within a number of the Elective categories in addition to fulfilling their overall requirements.
(c) Academic Essay (8AUs)
The aim of the written project is to provide training in independent research. Students will choose a topic for the project. With the guidance of a supervisor, they will develop their theoretical and scholarly direction. At the end of this academic exercise, the student will have gained experience in developing and applying theoretical strategies, working with a longer narrative and all that this entails, intellectually and linguistically, and they will learn how to develop effective research skills.