English and Film Studies

English and Film Studies is a pairing that has become more than the sum of its parts. Both disciplines are fundamentally about storytelling, representation and the way meaning is made, but they use different tools and ask different questions. English trains close attention to language: the way words are chosen, arranged and placed in historical and cultural context.

Film Studies asks similar questions about the image, the cut, sound design and the technologies of production and distribution. Studying them together gives you a richer understanding of narrative and culture than either could provide alone, and it develops the critical vocabulary to move fluidly between written and visual texts.

This four-year programme at the University of St Andrews includes a year abroad, which gives you the chance to study in a different national context and to experience how literature and cinema are taught and understood elsewhere. Throughout the degree you will read closely across a range of literary genres and historical periods, considering the ideas, human values and historical forces that have helped shape writing in English. Alongside this you will develop frameworks for analysing film form, genre, authorship and the wider industrial and cultural conditions that shape what gets made and seen.

You will write extensively, argue in seminars, and learn to construct sustained analytical arguments supported by careful evidence.

Graduates bring strong communication, critical thinking and research skills to careers in journalism, publishing, broadcasting, arts administration, education, media production, public relations and the creative industries. The analytical rigour developed by close reading and critical theory also underpins success in law, policy, management and many other graduate professions. Further study in English literature, film studies or cultural studies is a common path for those who want to pursue academic or specialist careers.