english and creative writing degree scotland

BA Hons English & Creative Writing

• UCAS Code: Q301

Applicant visit day:  March each year

Ranked:  3rd for English (Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023) / 2nd for Creative Writing (Complete University Guide 2024)

Study with us

• study English language and literature while developing your voice as a writer
• work with experienced, award-winning published novelists, poets and screenwriters to hone your creative practice in a range of literary genres
• read everything from Renaissance drama to modernist poetry while solidifying your knowledge of literary history and theory
• join a dynamic, creative community of emerging writers and take advantage of opportunities to collaborate and share your work
• learn how to express yourself and construct arguments verbally and in writing while developing skills transferable to a number of industries and fields
• get practical experience via a work placement

Why this course?

The BA English & Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde combines critical analysis of language and literature with technical and artistic instruction in creative writing.

As an English student, you'll enjoy the best of old and new: a grounding in the classics as well as an insight into new fields of literature. You'll read texts from a wide range of literary periods, and debate key issues such as identity, race, gender and what it is to be a human.

At the same time, you will work with experienced, award-winning published authors to become a better writer. You will develop your technical skills in the company of other burgeoning writers and gain a fuller understanding of how to use character, plot, structure and genre.

As well as becoming a better, more knowledgeable writer, you will strengthen your skills in presentation, verbal communication and critical thinking. Many graduates go on to become working writers – either creatively or in journalism – or move into careers in publishing, advertising, marketing, PR, and education.

Hear more reasons from course leader, Elspeth Jajdelska

[Strathclyde] gave me brilliant contacts and taught me how to look more closely at the world. It also gave me a killer reading list. I’m always grateful for being exposed to writers I would never have learned about otherwise.

Single & joint Honours information

English, English and Creative Writing, History, Politics and International Relations and Psychology may be studied to Single or Joint Honours level.

Education, French, Spanish, Law, Journalism, Media and Communication and Social Policy are available only as Joint Honours Programmes. Economics, Human Resource Management, Marketing, Mathematics and Tourism can also be studied alongside a Humanities and Social Sciences subject.

The available subject combinations may change each year. Once accepted on the programme you'll be allocated an advisor of studies who will be able to let you know which subjects can be combined, in first year, and beyond.

We're based in the  Lord Hope Building  which provides a social hub and access to student services such as the library, cafés, meeting areas and exhibition spaces.

The Andersonian Library  - directly opposite - has around a million print volumes as well as access to over one million electronic books and over 105,000 e-journals.

Course content

English 1A & 1B

This first semester module offers an introduction to the study of English at university level. It offers a foundation for students who are interested in the historical and critical analysis of literary texts and for those who want to write creatively for themselves. It's the first module in the English degree and the English and Creative Writing degree. In taking this module you'll have an opportunity to understand how particular historical and social contexts shape literature and to discuss ways in which historical literature continues to live and have relevance to the contemporary reader.  You'll also study in detail the ways in which literary texts are constructed. In understanding the mechanisms that make literary texts work – the choices made by an author about genre, form, and language – you'll become a subtler, more-attentive reader and a better-informed and better-equipped writer.  

Reading lists:

• English 1A Reading List 2023-24
• English 1B Reading List 2023-24

Writing Through Time 1&2

These will situate texts in context, from genre to historical period and theory. The texts include poetry, drama, novels,  short stories, life writing, and screenplays and you'll have the chance to choose between critical and creative writing responses for one assessment on each class.

The Construction of Scotland

This class looks at a range of literary texts and how they interpret and create the idea of ‘human’ at different points in history.

This class explores how Scottish fiction and drama of the 20th and 21st centuries creates the idea of Scotland.

Writing Short Fiction & Poetry

Writing Short Fiction and Poetry is a module studying contemporary short stories and lyric poetry. Generally speaking, the aim of this class is to get you writing as soon as possible – each week is aimed at teaching some of the basics of Creative Writing alongside a case study of a writer and their particular approach to elements of the craft.

We'll be reading screenplays, talking about them, and writing our own. What is the difference between writing for the page and writing for the screen? Screenplays are, in practice, a series of instructions: for actors, for crew members, for potential financiers. A screenplay is a dual-purpose document. It exists as proof of concept (i.e., proof of narrative); and it is there to communicate the spirit and tone of the finished film. More than anything, our first job as writers for the screen is to make the reader hear and see. Primarily it is to make the reader see. There are many ways in to a life in writing for the screen. But, as with any good work of fiction, it begins with engaging characters. Do they appear to us fully formed? Or does it take development? How can we get them onto the page? What are the decisions we make at the start of a project? What is visible and the invisible writing? This class encourages you to consider the shape of your story in order to point yourself—and your narrative—in the right direction.

This class aims to introduce you to some of the major forms and themes in the 20th century American novel with some more contemporary content. The module investigates how major social and historical issues have shaped some of the most important American novels and how the novel, as a form, has developed and adapted to describe new and different realities. Some of the historical and social issues covered in the class include:

• the suburbs and the city
• the legacy of slavery
• queer life in the US
• stories of migration and travel

This module is designed to equip students who wish to pursue studies in American literature or culture in more depth with an overview of the period. It's also designed to expand the knowledge of students with a general interest in the novel.

This class will study the literature of the Victorian period (1837-1901) and will focus on fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose. It aims to situate this writing both in its contemporary political, social and cultural contexts and in the light of recent critical and theoretical debates. Themes to be covered may include:

• the 'crisis of faith'
• science and evolutionary theory
• realism and the Victorian novel
• medievalism and Victorianism
• literature and the visual arts
• key peotic genres, including elegy and dramatic monologue
• popular fiction
• the 'Woman Question'
• Empire and travel writing
• the new journalism and Victorian reading publics
• representations of the city and technology
• issues of canon and periodisation

This class explores twentieth-century English literature with a focus on fiction, poetry, and drama. The survey examines major literary figures from the first half of the century, such as Woolf and Stein, along with their contemporaries and successors. Particular attention will be paid to the literary culture of Modernism before exploring the texts, culture and politics of the later 20th century through writers such as Spark, McGrath and Smith. Emphasis will be placed on understanding a diverse range of literature in historical, critical and theoretical contexts as a means of engaging with the rich literary heritage of the twentieth century, and what the twenty-first century might bring.

Sex, Revenge & Corruption in Renaissance Drama

This module will focus on drama, a key genre in the period from the 1580s to the closure of the playhouses in 1642. Reading work by major dramatists, we'll engage with a form that addressed a highly literate audience as well as a popular one, and is thus a particularly interesting place to trace ways of thinking in the period. The common thread that ties this selection of plays together is their interest in transgression: what happens when humans cross the limits set by tradition, religion and the state?

In the process of this theatrical interrogation, the plays pose questions about violence, identity, gender, desire, citizenship and the role of the theatre itself. We'll read tragedies and comedies; alongside these, you'll also be asked to think about the moral and theological debates that were taking place at the time these works were produced and consumed. Thus, for example, we'll read plays by Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and Thomas Middleton alongside writing by Robert Burton, Sir Francis Bacon and Niccolo Machiavelli. This will enable us to explore how ideas about sex, revenge and corruption in the period are developed and contested between the stage and the work of some of the most influential thinkers at the time; it will also allow us to consider how some of these early modern limit cases still ask questions of us today.

Lectures will provide context for tutorials, which will be organised around worksheets that will be circulated in advance, and so will give you the chance to prepare for each class, and will allow everyone the chance to contribute to discussions.

Language in Business & Organisations

This class explores the ways in which language is used in businesses and other organisations. The class assumes no prior knowledge of linguistics, and teaches technical skills in discourse analysis, conversation analysis, and the analysis of other types of verbal interaction, in speech, writing and electronic communications. The analytical skills learned in this class, and the theoretical ideas, will be useful also in the analysis of literature or any other aspect of language in use. Seminars give you practice in the analytical skills. The class assumes that you have no prior knowledge or experience in discourse analysis, conversation analysis, pragmatics, etc.

The Body: Theories & Representations

What does it mean to ‘write the body’? How has the world of sensory experience been rendered in theory, literature, and film? What metaphors do we summon to understand physical experiences of joy, sickness, health, desire, exhaustion, and intoxication?

This class will approach these questions (and more) by studying literary, visual, and theoretical engagements with the body in late 20th and 21st -century culture. Over the course of the semester, you'll encounter some key debates about the body and its representation in literature and film. You'll engage with the fields of gender theory, queer theory, critical race theory, and disability theory. You'll also learn some strategies for analysing contemporary culture through the ‘lens’ of theory, developing skills you can take into other areas of your study.

Textlab is one of several  Vertically Integrated Projects  (ViPs) running across the University. Each ViP brings together a team of undergraduates, postgraduates, and staff to work on a research-based project.

TextLab brings together students and staff from English/Humanities and Computer and Information Science. We work on research projects in the field of Digital Humanities (the application of computer-based technologies to the study of texts) – specifically using computers to analyse Shakespeare’s language, and building a  website aimed at schools .

English & Creative Writing Work Placement

This placement module offers you the opportunity to gain practical, work-based experience (minimum 60 hours) in an area that is professionally related to or relevant to your BA. For your degree this might be working with a publisher, or literary agency, or in an office environment where you are using your skills in reading, interpretation and writing. Or you might use this as an opportunity to look towards a future career: so, if you plan to go into teaching, for example, you could look to get a placement working in a subject-related environment with young people.

The Glasgow Novel

This class will trace the development of fictional representations of Glasgow from the beginnings of industrialism to the present age. In doing so, it will consider a wide variety of historical and literary approaches to depicting the city. Beginning with a brief history of the pre-C20th Glasgow novel, the course goes on to consider some of the most famous literary depictions of Glasgow, including McArthur and Long’s No Mean City , Archie Hind’s The Dear Green Place and Alasdair Gray’s Lanark .

The Dissertation is compulsory for single honours students and optional for joint-honours students.

Dissertation

This individual project involves original academic research under one-on-one supervision with a member of staff. In addition, you will choose from a range of research and practice led options.

This class examines how contemporary authors make sense of gendered experience. We'll investigate cultural practices of writing (and rewriting) gender in the twenty-first century, paying particular attention to the relationships between gender and literary genre, from transgender memoirs to autofictional masculinities, twenty-first-century romance novels, and the queer graphic novel. We'll also investigate the impact of feminist political activism on the publishing industry, from the indie press to the Women’s Prize for Fiction. The class will introduce you to key theories of gender and equip you with strategies for reading literature through the lens of feminist theory. Over the course of the semester, you'll encounter some of our most exciting contemporary writers and deepen your understanding of literary gender politics in the present day.

This class introduces you to twenty-first-century science fiction from across the globe. Contemporary science fiction creates alternative technological bodies and worlds, allowing us to address questions around what it means to be human, what our relationship is to technology and how we might build worlds that are less destructive. With these major themes in mind, this class will focus on four key critical lenses:

• colonialism
• sexuality and gender

Questions to be explored include:

• how are worlds reconfigured through queer sexualities and genders
• what futures are brought into being for previously marginalised peoples
• what is science fiction’s relation to the past
• how does contemporary science fiction challenge tropes of colonialism
• what bodies emerge in these future worlds and why?

Each week you'll read, watch or listen to a contemporary, global science fiction text exploring how histories, worlds, bodies and relations are represented and reimagined.

New Narratives

The publishing world is changing rapidly with the advent of digital publishing and the ebook. This class will enable students to explore new possibilities and write for new markets and platforms. It will also look at skills that students need for a career in both traditional and digital publication such as editing, submitting work and performing/reading work in front of an audience.

This class aims to hone the skills students have acquired in previous years to produce new work for print, performance and for a range of digital platforms. It will also provide an up-to-date examination of the publishing world and will include reflective element.

Neo-Victorian cultural products have been recognised as a crucial site for the critical rediscovery and reinterpretation of Victorian literature and culture (in particular the themes of class, race, gender and sexuality). Evoking the genres of crime and mystery fiction, themes of science, technology and alternative futures, the figure of the Victorian author and the voices of marginal characters from Mrs Rochester to the ghosts of the séance circle, neo-Victorian writing seeks to understand the continuing impact of the nineteenth century on the present day. This class will consider how and why these texts have problematised Victorian discourses (e.g. imperialism, madness, sexual deviance, technology, the cultural roles of reading and writing). We'll draw on a range of interpretative strategies from post-colonial, feminist, queer, adaptation, appropriation, heritage and film studies.

This class traces the development of the Gothic across the nineteenth century, from its origins in the Romantic period to its heights in works like Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The class is organized around key concepts of the Gothic genre, including the sublime, the unseen, textual hybridity, un narrative unreliability.

We'll also look at subgenres like the Female Gothic and Eco-Gothic, examining how the Gothic allows authors to explore cultural anxieties including women’s rights, deviant sexualities, urbanisation, migration, and environmental devastation. Iconic monsters like Frankenstein’s monster, Mr Hyde, and Dracula will thus be situated within their specific cultural milieu, helping us to understand both their origins and their continued popularity.

The concept of 'the wild' is one that emerges in many different ways in the writings of the Renaissance; in relation to self-cultivation (holding back the wildness within), the control of one's world (taming the ever-present wilderness); and in relations with fellow humans in a changing world (in savage domination). These ideas get played out in numerous ways in the period - from poetic use of the symbolic resonance of gardens and gardening; the religious underpinnings of the 'missionary endeavour' in the New World and what that says about the concept of human nature; to the anxious self-examination of humanity's inevitable sinfulness.

This class will thus introduce you to key canonical texts from the period – plays, poetry, and court masques – by writers including Shakespeare, Jonson, and Milton, and will also engage with a critical and theoretical debates about the relationships between humans and the natural world from the new fields of animal studies and ecocriticism.

The 1960s are often thought of as the decade of hedonism, hippies, free love and The Beatles. Yet the sixties were also a time of deep political unrest and activism, during which political movements for civil rights, anti-war and women’s liberation gained momentum. In addition, the 1960s were a decade of important technological advancements (including the introduction of colour television and developments in space exploration) which would have a fundamental effect on culture in Britain and beyond. The aim of this class, therefore, is to explore the legacy of the 1960s, its representation through a variety of key literary, cultural and critical texts. Beginning with an examination of British culture through a literary lens in the late 1950s, it goes on to explore the central tensions of the decade. In doing so, students will engage with a variety of classic texts of the period, examining the 1960s in terms of culture vs counterculture, class, race and gender, reflecting on just how controversial the decade actually was.

Soviet Literature in Translation 1917-1967

This class uses a particular place and historical era (the first 50 years of the Soviet Union) to look at the relationship between socio-political context and literary form. This encourages students to draw conclusions about literature in general from the literature of one language and a comparatively small set of cultures in particular. In addition, the class broadens knowledge about otherwise neglected areas of Europe in the east, an area whose rapid political and economic change is increasing its present day influence. Finally, it provides a unique opportunity for Strathclyde students to learn about the culture and history of Eastern Europe in the twentieth century. This will allow students to approach existing classes on Europe, which focus often on Western Europe, with a new perspective.

Writing fiction and nonfiction

This class focuses on the commonalities between, and differences between, fiction and nonfiction writing, encouraging students to consider what tools as writers they can learn from and utilize in both forms.

In the Creative Writing Portfolio, we encourage you to look at work that is based on other work. This is the layering process involved in adapting a piece of underlying material either for literature or for the screen. We will examine a comprehensive range of source texts that inform much of the literary material and screen drama available in the current marketplace. What it is about our culture’s increasing use of, and dependence on, underlying material?

Most classes are assessed by a mixture of essays or other written work. For some classes, there are exams and in some cases, oral work is assessed.

Learning & teaching

Glasgow is scotland's biggest & most cosmopolitan city.

Our campus is based right in the very heart of Glasgow. We're in the city centre, next to the Merchant City, both of which are great locations for sightseeing, shopping and socialising alongside your studies.

International students

We've a thriving international community with students coming here to study from over 140 countries across the world. Find out all you need to know about studying in Glasgow at Strathclyde and hear from students about their experiences.

Fees & funding

All fees quoted are for full-time courses and per academic year unless stated otherwise.

Fees may be subject to updates to maintain accuracy. Tuition fees will be notified in your offer letter.

All fees are in £ sterling, unless otherwise stated, and may be subject to revision.

Annual revision of fees

Students on programmes of study of more than one year (or studying standalone modules) should be aware that tuition fees are revised annually and may increase in subsequent years of study. Annual increases will generally reflect UK inflation rates and increases to programme delivery costs.

Please note:  All fees shown are annual and may be subject to an increase each year.  Find out more about fees .

How can I fund my studies?

Students from scotland.

Fees for students who meet the  relevant residence requirements in Scotland, you may be able to apply to the Student Award Agency Scotland (SAAS) to have your tuition fees paid by the Scottish government. Scottish students may also be eligible for a bursary and loan to help cover living costs while at University.

For more information on funding your studies have a look at our University Funding page .

• England, Wales & Northern Ireland

Students from England, Wales & Northern Ireland

We have a generous package of bursaries on offer for students from England, Northern Ireland and Wales:

• Strathclyde Access Bursary
• Strathclyde Excellence Scholarship
• Strathclyde Accommodation Bursary

You don’t need to make a separate application for these. When your place is confirmed at Strathclyde, we’ll assess your eligibility.  Have a look at our scholarship search for any more funding opportunities .

• International

International Students

We have a number of scholarships available to international students. Take a look at our scholarship search to find out more.

Scholarship search

Dean's International Excellence Award

This scholarship is for new international students who will begin a full-time undergraduate course in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in September 2024. The award is a £5,000 scholarship per year for the duration of their degree (total of £20,000 for a four year course). All offer-holders are eligible for this scholarship.

Please note that you only need to apply once for our BA degree programme.

For instance, if you have applied for BA Honours English and are considering your options for a Joint Honours degree, e.g. a BA Joint Honours in English and French you only need to apply for one or the other on UCAS.

If accepted on to the BA programme, you can study one of the many available subject combinations.

Start date :

English & creative writing ( 1 year entry), start date : sep 2024, ucas applications.

Apply through UCAS if you are a UK applicant . International applicants may apply through UCAS if they are applying to more than one UK University.

Direct Applications

Our Direct applications service is for international applicants who wish to apply to Strathclyde University at this time.

Chat to a student ambassador

If you want to know more about what it’s like to be a Humanities & Social Sciences student at the University of Strathclyde, a selection of our current students are here to help!

Our Unibuddy ambassadors can answer all the questions you might have about courses and studying at Strathclyde, along with offering insight into their experiences of life in Glasgow and Scotland.

Prospective student enquiries

Telephone: +44 (0) 141 444 8600

The data you provide will be used by the University to process your request. Further information is available in our Privacy Policy

Discover Uni

Discover Uni includes official statistics about higher education courses taken from national surveys and data collected from universities and colleges about all their students.

Our graduates have gone on to success in a very wide range of careers including in publishing, the Civil Service, management, marketing, journalism, creative writing, administration, and teaching. Employers' value our graduates ability to express themselves well and think critically.

Our faculties & departments

Engineering.

• Faculty of Engineering
• Architecture
• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemical & Process Engineering
• Civil & Environmental Engineering
• Design, Manufacturing & Engineering Management
• Electronic & Electrical Engineering
• Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
• Naval Architecture, Ocean & Marine Engineering

Humanities & Social Sciences

• Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences
• Centre for Lifelong Learning
• Government & Public Policy
• Psychological Sciences & Health
• Social Work & Social Policy
• Faculty of Science
• Computer & Information Sciences
• Mathematics & Statistics
• Pure & Applied Chemistry
• Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences
• Strathclyde Business School
• Accounting & Finance
• Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship
• Management Science
• MBA & General Management
• Strathclyde Executive Education & Development
• Work, Employment & Organisation

English and Creative Writing MA (Hons)

School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Combine the study of English literature with our distinctive creative writing course

September 2024

On this course you can study the history of English literature from the medieval period right up to the present day, and combine this with studies in creative writing.

A range of modules give you the option to study anything from Shakespeare to science fiction, Romantic to contemporary poetry, or Victorian novels to Hollywood films.

Our creative writing modules help you explore and extend your own potential as a writer and engage you in a range of literary activities. Our students write novels, stories, poetry, monologues, as well as exploring creativity in non-fiction, essays, journalism, reviewing, and writing for the theatre.

For English literature we start by covering topics such as how to analyse a poem and how to read a novel as a literary critic, introducing you to key skills in critical-creative ways of reading and writing.

We then move on to historical surveys of literature, before exploring in more detail many of the periods, movements, and topics previously covered.

Kai Durkin, MA (Hons) English and Creative Writing student, 2018/19

National Student Survey 2022

If you have any questions about the admissions process, studying, or living in Dundee, please contact us

Use our online form