BA English Literature and American Studies
About this course
BA in English Language and Literature and English Literature, American Studies and Creative Writing, exploring literature, history, and culture. Students can undertake a semester abroad in North America or Europe during the degree.
Written by AI from the university's course page and module list. It can get details wrong, so check the official course page before you rely on it.
Entry requirements
A level: AAB including A in English Literature or English Language & Literature
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What students say
Based on about 9 final-year students who answered (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Teaching on my course: 92%
- Learning opportunities: 77%
- Assessment and feedback: 82%
- Academic support: 92%
- Organisation and management: 96%
- Learning resources: 86%
- Student voice: 72%
Do students stay on the course?
Based on about 20 students who started (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Continued on course: 80%
- Left higher education: 20%
What graduates do next
Based on about 110 graduates who answered, across similar courses at this university
- Working: 64%
- Working and studying: 9%
- Further study: 8%
- Unemployed: 11%
Most common jobs
- Business and public service associate professionals: 15%
- Elementary occupations: 13%
- Teaching Professionals: 12%
- Artistic, literary and media occupations: 10%
- Media Professionals: 9%
- Find their work meaningful: 79%
- Feel on track for their future plans: 60%
- Use what they learnt on the course: 39%
Where graduates work (5 years on)
Based on about 330 graduates, across similar courses at this university
- North East: 1%
- North West: 36%
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 7%
- East Midlands: 2%
- West Midlands: 4%
- East of England: 3%
- London: 32%
- South East: 6%
- South West: 5%
- Wales: 1%
- Scotland: 1%
Who gets in
Based on about 25 students who started (a small group: a rough guide only)
- A levels: 95%
- Access course: 5%
Accreditation & quality ratings
TEF 2023 (whole university): Silver overall, Silver for student experience, Gold for student outcomes.
Modules
- Introduction to American Literature to 1900
- Twentieth Century American Literature
- Introduction to American Studies
- Reading Literature
- Theory and Text
- A Global Nation: Power, Politics, and Struggle Across the American Century, 1870-2020
- Literature and History
- American Cultural Studies
- American Film Studies
- Cold War America, 1950-1991
- Work and Play in the USA, 1880-2020
- From Jamestown to James Brown: African-American History and Culture
- American Literature and Social Criticism, 1900-Present
- Twentieth Century African American Literature
- The American Civil War
- Creative Writing: Fiction
- Chaucer: Texts, Contexts, Conflicts
- Shakespeare
- Gender, Sexuality and the Body: Theories and Histories
- Writing, Identity and Nation
- Postcolonial World Literatures
- Creative Writing: Poetry
- Medieval Metamorphoses
- Renaissance Literature
- Old English: Writing the Unreadable Past
- Satire and Sentiment: British Literature, 1660–1820
- Modernism
- Romanticism (1776 - 1832)
- Introduction to Screenwriting
- Victorian Literature
- Long Essay
- Slavery and the Old South
- America Abroad: Non-State Actors and the Making of a World Power
- Love American Style
- History of California
- Conspiracy Theories in American Culture
- Harlem and the State of Urban America
- Climate Change & Culture Wars
- American Hauntings
- James Baldwin in Context: Race, Sexuality and Activism
- Creative Writing: Fiction
- Culture and Conflict: Neoliberalism and Cultural Production
- Creative Writing: Poetry
- Irish Fiction Since 1990
- Radical Turns: Culture and Politics in the 1930s
- Culture and Politics in the Contemporary Global Novel
- Eros: Love and Desire in Victorian Poetry
- The History of the Book in Early Modern England
- Apocalypse: Early Modern Imaginings
- Queer Forms: Objects and Animals in Eighteenth-Century Poetry
- Hypercontemporary Queer and Trans Fiction
- Haunting the Stage: The Supernatural in Early Modern Drama
- Things that Talk: Nonhuman Voices in Anglo-Saxon Literature and Culture
- Culture and Politics in the Contemporary British Novel
- British Fiction and Empire in the Twentieth Century
- Creative Writing: Creative Non-Fiction
- Romantic Venice
- Co-operation, Competition, and Happiness: Dangerous Ideas in the Nineteenth Century
- Crime and Contemporary Culture
- Vital Matters: Medieval Ecologies
- Humans and other Animals in Contemporary Literature
- Women’s Writing, Citizenship, and Political Radicalism
- Literary and Sexual Experimentalism Between the Wars
- Contemporary South Asian Literatures
- Literary Landscapes
- Imaginations of the Future: People, Earth and Power
- Interdisciplinary Literature and Theology: Empathy, Ethics, Liberation
Questions about this course
How much do graduates of BA English Literature and American Studies at University of Manchester earn?
The median salary is £27,000 after 15 months, £26,000 after 3 years, £32,000 after 5 years. After five years the middle half of graduates earn between £25,500 and £39,500. The £32,000 median after five years is £4,000 more than the UK median for Literature in English.
What do graduates of BA English Literature and American Studies at University of Manchester do next?
81% were in work or further study 15 months after finishing (Graduate Outcomes 2023-24).
Are students happy with the teaching on BA English Literature and American Studies at University of Manchester?
92% of final-year students were positive about the teaching in the National Student Survey 2025-26.
What grades do I need for BA English Literature and American Studies at University of Manchester?
The typical offer is AAB at A level. The average entrant had 149 UCAS points.
How many students continue on BA English Literature and American Studies at University of Manchester?
80% of students continued into their second year, and 20% left higher education.