Classics and English

Classics and English is a combination that traces the literary and intellectual traditions of the Western world from ancient Greece and Rome to the present. Classics encompasses the languages, literature, art, material culture, and thought of antiquity, developing deep engagement with the Greek and Latin texts that have shaped European civilisation. English literature brings you into the long afterlife of that classical tradition, exploring how writers from Shakespeare and Milton to Keats, Joyce, and Toni Morrison have absorbed, transformed, and challenged their classical inheritance.

Together they develop an unusually rich and historically grounded understanding of how literature works and what it has meant across the centuries.

At the University of Warwick this three-year full-time programme enables you to study classical antiquity alongside its reception in English literature through the Western tradition. You will engage with major texts in both traditions, developing close-reading skills and the critical vocabulary to discuss literature across a vast historical range. The degree includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to pursue your studies in a different intellectual environment and to encounter classical and literary traditions from other national and academic perspectives.

The typical entry tariff of 168 points reflects the demanding and competitive nature of entry to a joint degree at Warwick.

You will develop precision in reading and argument, deep cultural knowledge, and the capacity to write with clarity and analytical sophistication. These are skills valued across law, publishing, journalism, education, heritage, and the civil service.

Graduates pursue careers in education, publishing, journalism, law, heritage, arts administration, the civil service, and the wider cultural sector. Postgraduate study in classics, English literature, classical reception, or creative writing is a natural and well-supported next step.