Immerse yourself in literary texts from the English Renaissance to contemporary American graphic novels. As an English and American Literature student at Keele, you'll examine the full chronological range of English and American literature, considering their direct intersections from the nineteenth century onwards. You might study poets like Lord Byron, Derek Walcott and Allen Ginsberg, dramatists including Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Tennessee Williams, and novelists such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry James and Jackie Kay.

Our intellectually stimulating and engaging approach to exploring a wide variety of literary genres produces intelligent, perceptive, socially aware and compassionate individuals who are able to make a real impact.

You'll tackle a range of issues and unprecedented challenges of our cultural moment, which could include decolonisation, sustainability and the environment, gender and sexuality, migration, political extremism, or the role of literature as an arbiter of truth in an era of information overload and fake news. We are committed to enabling you to tailor your degree. Alongside the compulsory English and American Literature modules, you are given the flexibility to choose optional modules which not only align with your literary interest, but also your career aspirations. We enable you to embed an interdisciplinary approach to your studies, by offering you the opportunity to explore modules outside of the English and American Literature curriculum, including those from areas such as Creative Writing, Film, History, Media, Education and Modern Languages.

Studying English and American Literature at Keele enables you to develop key skills in reading, writing and critical thinking. Taught by expert lecturers, you will explore and interpret literary texts that will challenge your views, advance your tastes, prompt your creativity, and give you the opportunity to become a versatile graduate. Through a range of activities and assessments, our diverse course will equip you with a wide array of attributes that employers are looking for, including problem solving, creativity, emotional intelligence, and digital literacy. You will pursue your passions, grow in confidence, and gain a unique set of transferable skills that will be invaluable for your future career in a variety of sectors.

English and American Literatures at Keele will provide you with a wide range of skills – in research, presentation, written and oral communication – with real appeal to employers. Some careers may require further study or training, but you might work as a teacher, journalist, editor, librarian, advertising copywriter, solicitor, arts administrator or writer. You could go into marketing, research, broadcasting, publishing, the compiling of dictionaries, or teaching English as a foreign language.