English with Film Studies

English literature and film studies make natural intellectual companions. Both are concerned with how stories are told, how meaning is constructed and how texts, whether printed or projected, engage with the societies and histories that produce them. Studying the two together at King's College London allows you to bring the interpretive habits of literary criticism to bear on film, and to bring the visual and formal sophistication of cinema studies into your reading of literary texts.

In London, you also have access to one of the world's great literary and cinematic cultures as a living context for your studies.

You will engage with a wide range of English literature, from medieval writing to contemporary global fiction, developing the close reading skills, historical awareness and theoretical understanding that serious literary study demands. The film studies component gives you a detailed knowledge of cinema's creative potential, its formal languages, and the relationships between film, media and the societies in which they are made and watched. The two strands inform each other throughout the degree, and you will develop the capacity to analyse, contextualise and evaluate texts across both media with real sophistication.

The programme is taught in one of London's leading university English departments, with access to an exceptional research culture and cultural environment.

Graduates of this programme move into a wide range of careers. Publishing, journalism, broadcasting, scriptwriting, education and the arts are all common directions for those whose passion for literature and film translates into professional life. The critical thinking, research and communication skills the degree develops are also valued in the civil service, law, communications, media and the cultural sector more broadly.

Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in literature, film studies, creative writing or cultural studies, where the intellectual foundations laid in the undergraduate degree are deepened and extended.