English Literature and Politics

English literature and politics is a pairing that might seem unexpected but is, on reflection, deeply natural. Both disciplines are concerned with power, with how it is exercised and justified, with how it is resisted and imagined otherwise, and with the stories and arguments through which societies make sense of themselves. Literature provides the imaginative dimension of political life, exploring how people experience the effects of power, injustice, war or ideology from the inside.

Politics provides the analytical frameworks for understanding how those forces operate institutionally and structurally. Together they develop a capacity for both close reading and rigorous argument that is genuinely unusual.

At the University of Reading this three-year full-time programme allows you to study both disciplines with genuine engagement. In English literature you will read widely across periods, genres and traditions, developing the skills of close textual analysis and critical argument that the discipline demands. In politics you will engage with political theory, comparative government, international relations and public policy, developing the analytical tools of contemporary political science.

The programme includes a sandwich year placement and a year abroad, as well as built-in work experience, giving you professional exposure and an international perspective alongside your academic studies. These structural features make graduates from this programme particularly well-rounded and competitive in the jobs market.

Graduates from English literature and politics programmes go on to work in journalism, publishing, the civil service, public affairs, think tanks, law, international organisations, education and the arts. The combination of literary sensitivity and political understanding is valued wherever complex communication and analytical clarity are both required. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in literature, political theory, journalism, law or public policy.

The programme suits people who find that a single discipline is not enough to accommodate their curiosity about how the world works and how it is represented.