English

English as a discipline is capacious and rigorous in equal measure. It encompasses the study of literature, language, creative writing and the critical traditions through which we make sense of texts and their place in culture. At Goldsmiths, a college known for its commitment to creative and critical thinking, studying English means engaging with an unusually wide range of texts, ideas and methods, developing both your imaginative and your analytical capabilities.

This four-year full-time programme begins with an integrated foundation year, providing a supportive and thorough introduction to the discipline before you progress into the main degree.

The foundation year gives you a solid grounding in reading, writing and critical thinking, preparing you for the more intensive and independent work of the degree that follows. Across the full four years you will read widely across literary periods and genres, from earlier writing to contemporary fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction, and you will engage with literary and cultural theory, questions of language and meaning, and the relationship between texts and the social and political contexts that produce them. Goldsmiths has a distinctive approach to the humanities that takes creative practice seriously alongside critical analysis, and the degree reflects that breadth.

English graduates are valued across a wide range of sectors for their ability to read carefully, think critically and write with clarity and precision. Publishing, journalism, education, the civil service, the creative industries, communications, policy and management all recruit English graduates. The creative and critical skills developed on this degree are particularly well suited to careers that require an understanding of how language shapes meaning and how narratives are constructed and received.

Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in English, creative writing, education or related fields.