2026/27 Undergraduate Programme Catalogue

BA Classical Literature and English

Programme overview

Programme code
BA-CLAS&ENGL
UCAS code
QQ38
Duration
3 Years
Method of Attendance
Full Time
Programme manager
Emma Stafford
Contact address
E.J.Stafford@leeds.ac.uk
Total credits
360
School/Unit responsible for the parenting of students and programme
School of Languages, Cultures and Societies
Examination board through which the programme will be considered
Relevant QAA Subject Benchmark Groups
Classics and Ancient History (including Byzantine Studies and Modern Greek)
English

Entry requirements

Entry Requirements are available on the Course Search entry

Programme specification

A joint honours degree allows you to study the same core topics as students on each single honours course, but you’ll take fewer optional modules so you can fit in both subjects. Classical texts are taught in translation, so you don’t need to have studied an ancient language. However, we offer Ancient Greek and Latin in every year of the degree if you want to learn or continue with either.

This degree programme enables you to explore literature from the ancient world to contemporary Britain and beyond, putting English literature into the context of its classical heritage. Students on this programme will benefit from contact with leading scholars in their field in both of the partner subjects. The Schools of English and LCS are both internationally-recognised research leaders in their fields, with long-established reputations for excellence in research and teaching.

Core modules will introduce you to key classical texts such as the Iliad and Aeneid, as well as poetry, prose and drama in English across literary periods. The range of diverse research interests at Leeds also means we can offer an impressive array of optional modules so that you can follow your interests in ancient literature alongside a full range of English topics.

Throughout the course, you will develop valuable interpretative and analytical skills, as well as becoming a confident researcher. You will demonstrate these qualities in when you undertake a Final Year Project on a topic of your choice in either English or Classical Literature.

Students on this programme may apply for transfer to an International Degree. The opportunity to apply for a work placement (Industrial Degree) is also available. Classics at Leeds has exchange links with Verona University (Italy) and modern language classes are available before you go to prepare you for the experience. There are also opportunities at our partner universities across the world where courses are taught in English.

Year 1

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable

Compulsory Modules

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS1615Greek Poets20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
CLAS1625Roman Poets20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL1065Reading Between the Lines20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL1110Literature, Culture and Critique20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Optional Modules

The remaining 40 credits may be taken either as Discovery credits, or as choices from the optional modules listed below, or as a combination of both.

The remaining 40 credits may be taken either as Discovery credits, or as choices from the optional modules listed below, or as a combination of both.

Candidates may study up to 40 credits from the following optional modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS1100Ancient Lives20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL1221Modern Fictions in English: Conflict, Liminality, Translation20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL1261Poetry: Reading and Interpretation20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL1286Drama: Reading and Interpretation20Not running in 202627
ENGL1855Race, Writing and Decolonization20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Candidates may study up to 20 credits from the following optional modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS1030Advanced Ancient Greek20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS1200Intermediate Ancient Greek20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS1810Beginners Ancient Greek (Level 1)20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Candidates may study up to 20 credits from the following optional modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS1045Advanced Latin20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS1250Intermediate Latin20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS1910Beginners Latin20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it

Discovery Modules

Students may study up to 40 credits of discovery modules.

Year 2

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable

To be eligible for a joint honours award, students must pass at least 40 credits at level 2 and 40 credits at level 3 in each of the named subjects.

Compulsory Modules

Students will be required to study the following compulsory Classical Literature module:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS2800Evidence and Enquiry in Classics20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)PFP

Optional Modules

Students will be required to study at least 20 credits from the following optional Classical Literature modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS2600Virgil's Aeneid20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS2700Homer's Iliad20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Students must take at least 20 credits of English modules per semester, with a minimum of 40 credits for the academic year. They should select no more than 80 credits of English modules.

Students must select at least one of the following modules. They may also select both options, if preferred:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2030Writing Environments: Literature, Nature, Culture20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2045Body Language: Literature and Embodiment20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Student may also select one or more modules from the options below, to fulfil the minimum requirement of 20 credits of English modules per semester.

Students can select a maximum of one module (20 credits) per basket.

Basket 1:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2029Renaissance Literature20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2144Life, Love and Death from Chaucer to Marlowe20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note these are optional modules and run subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose a module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.

Basket 2:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2065Postcolonial Literature20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2090Modern Literature20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note these are optional modules and run subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose a module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.

Basket 3:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2095Other Voices: Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Literature20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2096The World Before Us: Literature 1660–183020Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note these are optional modules and run subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose a module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.

Basket 4:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2055American Words, American Worlds20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2080Contemporary Literature20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note these are optional modules and run subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose a module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.

Basket 5:
Please note that some of the modules in this basket have pre-requisites for enrolment.

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2024Language in Society20Not running in 202627
ENGL2034Cursing and Courtesy: (im)politeness in English20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2039Keywords: the words we use and the ways we use them20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2042Language Policy, Planning, and Politics20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2044Prose Fiction Stylistics and the Mind20Not running in 202627
ENGL2049Language of the Media20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note these are optional modules and run subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose a module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.

Basket 6:

Please note that some of the modules in this basket have pre-requisites for enrolment

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2023Power of Language20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2032Children, Talk and Learning20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2033Crime Fiction Stylistics: Crossing Languages, Culture, Media20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2037Forensic Approaches to Language20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2038Global English: Colonialism, Postcolonialism, and Decolonisation20Not running in 202627
ENGL2043The Politics of Language20Not running in 202627
ENGL2048Dialect Hunting20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2181Digital Discourse: language, social media, AI20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note these are optional modules and run subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose a module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.

Students may study up to 40 credits from the following optional modules. Not all modules in this list will run every year.

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS2255The Worlds of Alexander the Great20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
CLAS2350Herodotus and the Beginning of History20 
CLAS2390The Rise of Rome: Myth and History20Not running in 202627
CLAS2420Augustus and his Legacy20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
CLAS2650The Image of Sparta20Not running in 202627
CLAS2680Greek Art and Society20Not running in 202627
CLAS2740Greek Religion20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
CLAS2890The City in the Roman World20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
CLAS2926A Water History of the Ancient World20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS2927Time, Space and Place in the Greek and Roman Worlds20Not running in 202627

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Students may study up to 40 credits from the following optional modules. Not all modules in this list will run every year.

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS2120Traversing Time: The Voyage of Argo20Not running in 202627
CLAS2125Writing Love in the Ancient World20Not running in 202627
CLAS2220Classical Receptions in the Brotherton Archives and Special Collections20Not running in 202627
CLAS2450Screening Antiquity20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
CLAS2595Heroines: Representations of Mythological Women from Antiquity to the Present20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
CLAS2750Happiness and the Good Life in the Greek and Roman Worlds20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
CLAS2760Thinkers and Storytellers: Myth and Reason in the Ancient World20Not running in 202627
CLAS2790Greek Tragedy20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
CLAS2924Ancient Comedy20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
CLAS2925The Ancient Novel20Not running in 202627

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it

Students may study up to 20 credits from the following optional modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS2200Intermediate Ancient Greek (Level 2)20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS2810Beginners Ancient Greek (Level 2)20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Students may study up to 20 credits from the following optional modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS2260Intermediate Latin (Level 2)20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS2910Beginners Latin (Level 2)20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Discovery Modules

Students may study up to 40 credits of discovery modules

Year 3

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable

To be eligible for a joint honours award, students must pass at least 40 credits at level 2 and 40 credits at level 3 in each of the named subjects.

Optional Modules

Candidates will be required to study ONE of the following modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS3200Major Research Project40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)PFP
ENGL3005Textual Editing Project40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)PFP
ENGL3041Final Year Project40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)PFP

If CLAS3200 is taken, students will be required to study at least 40 credits from the following optional modules in Baskets 1-2; if either ENGL3005 or ENGL3041 is taken, students may study up to 40 credits from the following optional modules in Baskets 1-2:

Basket 1:

The list provided below is indicative and subject to change year by year depending on staff availability

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL3031Sex and Suffering in the Eighteenth-Century Novel20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3033Writing and Gender in Seventeenth-Century England20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3034Romantic Lyric Poetry20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3046Parts, Periodicals, Newspapers: Literature and the Nineteenth-Century Press20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3073Turks, Moors and Jews: Race and Identity in Early Modern Drama20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3114Forming Victorian Fiction20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3321Angry Young Men and Women: Literature of the Mid-Twentieth Century20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3477Cursing and Courtesy: (im)politeness in English20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3479Forensic Approaches to Language20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3482Language Policy, Planning, and Politics20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3491Language of the Media20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3579Law and Literature: Transgression, Justice, and Interpretation20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3680Postcolonial London20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
FOAH3001Global African Writing20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 2:

The list provided below is indicative and subject to change year by year depending on staff availability.

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL3008Writing Modern Sexualities20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3027Shakespeare20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3061Heart Disease in Contemporary Literature20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3062Charles Dickens Then & Now20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3065Page, Publication and Audience20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3068African American Narrative20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3072Narratives of Witchcraft and Magic20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3164Imagining Posthuman Futures20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3181Digital Discourse: language, social media, AI20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL32111Gender, Culture and Politics: Readings of Jane Austen20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3391September 11 in Fact and Fiction20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3394Bowie, Reading, Writing20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3396Fictions of the End: Apocalypse and After20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3462Slavery and Antislavery in the Atlantic Imagination20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3475Children, Talk and Learning20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3476Crime Fiction Stylistics: Crossing Languages, Culture, Media20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3481Keywords: the words we use and the ways we use them20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3485Trial Discourse: The Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-191320Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3489Dialect Hunting20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

If either ENGL3005 or ENGL3041 is taken, students will be required to study at least 40 credits from the following optional modules in Baskets 3-6; if CLAS3200 is taken, students may study up to 40 credits from the following optional modules in Baskets 3-6:

Basket 3: students may study up to 40 credits from the following. Not all modules in this list will run every year.


Basket 3: candidates may study up to 40 credits from the following. Not all modules in this list will run every year.

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS3001Ancient Comedy20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
CLAS3002The Ancient Novel20Not running in 202627
CLAS3007Writing Love in the Ancient World20Not running in 202627
CLAS3120Traversing Time: The Voyage of Argo20Not running in 202627
CLAS3220Classical Receptions in the Brotherton Archives and Special Collections20Not running in 202627
CLAS3450Screening Antiquity20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
CLAS3595Heroines: Representations of Mythological Women from Antiquity to the Present20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
CLAS3750The Divine and the Diviners: The Philosophy and Practice of Roman Religion20 
CLAS3760Ancient Pastoral Poetry: Theocritus and Virgil20 
CLAS3790Greek Tragedy20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MODL3045From Inferno to the world. Reading Dante’s Divine Comedy in a global context20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 4: candidates may study up to 40 credits from the following. Not all modules in this list will run every year. 

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS3004A Water History of the Ancient World20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS3006Time, Space and Place in the Greek and Roman Worlds20Not running in 202627
CLAS3150The Worlds of Alexander the Great: From Pella to Punjab20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
CLAS3350Herodotus and the Beginning of History20 
CLAS3390The Rise of Rome: Myth and History20Not running in 202627
CLAS3420Augustus and his Legacy20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
CLAS3650The Image of Sparta20Not running in 202627
CLAS3680Greek Art and Society20Not running in 202627
CLAS3740Greek Religion20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
CLAS3890The City in the Roman World20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it

Basket 5: candidates may study up to 20 credits from the following:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS3230Intermediate Ancient Greek (Level 3) 20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS3815Beginners Ancient Greek (Level 3)20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS3835Advanced Ancient Greek20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it

Basket 6: candidates may study up to 20 credits from the following:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
CLAS3260Intermediate Latin (Level 3)20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS3915Beginners Latin (Level 3)20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
CLAS3935Advanced Latin20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Discovery Modules

Candidates may study up to 40 credits of discovery modules.

Last updated: 30/04/2026 16:10:00

Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team