Undergraduate Degrees

BA Art History & Visual Culture and English

Please note: This page is for 2027 entry. Click here for 2026 entry.

UCAS code QV33
Duration 3 years
Entry year 2027
Campus Streatham Campus
Typical offer

View full entry requirements

A-Level: ABB
IB: 32/655
BTEC: DDM

Contextual offers

A-Level: ACC
IB: 28/554
BTEC: DMM

Why study Art History, Visual Culture, and English at Exeter?

  • Interpret works of art (including architecture, and design) as well as images, objects and practices in order to understand contemporary and past societies.
  • Art, history and culture embedded on campus with the Exeter Northcott Theatre, Bill Douglas Cinema Musuem, Lemon Grove and Great Hall as music venues and student theatre Roborough Studios. Exeter has also recently been awarded UNESCO City of Literature status.
  • Develop your expertise in subjects that range from early medieval to contemporary literature, film and creative writing.
  • In your final year write a dissertation in English Literature, Creative Writing or Art History & Visual Culture.

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Contact

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Phone: +44 (0)1392 72 72 72

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Top 10 in the UK for English

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Top 50 in the world for English Language and Literature

QS World University Subject Rankings 2026

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Top 15 in the UK for History of Art, Architecture and Design

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Internationally recognised fine art, heritage and film collections on site, including the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum

The teaching is very hands on, and I always feel that I can talk to my module convenor or personal tutor when I have any queries or concerns regarding my course.

Moving away from Hong Kong was a hard decision, having spent my whole life there, however the social aspect of being at university has allowed me to become an extrovert, networking with people who share a similar interest and passion within the subject of culture and humanities.

Read more from Carrie

Carrie

BA Art History & Visual Culture and English

Carrie

Entry requirements (typical offer)

Qualification Typical offer Required subjects
A-Level ABB B in an accepted Humanities or Social Science subject* (see below)
IB 32/655 HL5 in an accepted Humanities or Social Science subject* (see below)
BTEC DDM Applicants studying a BTEC Extended Diploma will also require GCE A-Level grade B in an accepted Humanities or Social Science subject* (see below)
GCSE C or 4 English Language
Access to HE 24 L3 Credits at Distinction Grade and 21 L3 credits at Merit Grade To include at least 12 L3 credits at Merit Grade in an accepted Humanities or Social Science subject* (see below)
T-Level Distinction Applicants studying a T-Level will also require GCE A-Level grade B in an accepted Humanities or Social Science subject* (see below)
Contextual Offer

A-Level: ACC
IB: 28/554
BTEC: DMM

Specific subject requirements must still be achieved where stated above. Find out more about contextual offers.

Other accepted qualifications

View other accepted qualifications

English language requirements

International students need to show they have the required level of English language to study this course. The required test scores for this course fall under Profile B1. Please visit our English language requirements page to view the required test scores and equivalencies from your country.

NB General Studies is not included in any offer.

Grades advertised on each programme webpage are the typical level at which our offers are made and provide information on any specific subjects an applicant will need to have studied in order to be considered for a place on the programme. However, if we receive a large number of applications for the programme we may not be able to make an offer to all those who are predicted to achieve/have achieved grades which are in line with our typical offer. For more information on how applications are assessed and when decisions are released, please see: After you apply

*Accepted Humanities and Social Science subjects: 

  • Anthropology
  • Classics and Ancient History
  • Drama
  • English
  • Geography
  • Government and Politics
  • History
  • Law
  • Media Studies
  • Modern Languages
  • Philosophy
  • Politics
  • Psychology
  • Religious Studies
  • Sociology 

Course content

You may notice changes to some of our modules over the coming months. This is because we are making space for the following:

  • Minors: Future Skills Pathways - Alongside your main degree you may be eligible (depending on your course) to choose modules from another subject to broaden your skills and interests.
  • Skills to Thrive built into every degree - Essential skills for your future, including communication, problem-solving, teamwork and digital confidence.
  • Increased innovation and wellbeing - More room for creative learning, real-world projects and a healthier study rhythm.

Please note that the module information displayed here is subject to change.

Students must take: 30 credits of compulsory Art History & Visual Culture modules, 30 credits of compulsory English modules, 30 credits of optional Art History & Visual Culture modules and 30 credits of optional English modules.

Compulsory modules

CodeModuleCredits
Compulsory 1
Questions and Methods in Art History and Visual Culture30
Beginnings: English Literature before 180030

AHV1011: Questions and Methods in Art History and Visual Culture

This module introduces you to the key methods used to analyse works of art and visual culture and, in doing so, raises critical questions about the disciplines of Art History and Visual Culture and their relationship to one another. While Art History is a long-established field of study, Visual Culture can be viewed as an interdisciplinary mode of enquiry that has emerged in more recent times, which is both attuned to a history of visual culture as much as a definition of contemporary culture. Together, both fields of study continue to evolve in line with a series of common intellectual debates. You will be introduced to the appropriate terminology used in academic literature and to the foundational texts upon which both fields rely. You will also learn about a range of historical and contemporary theoretical approaches that inform the study of Art History & Visual Culture.

Art History & Visual Culture will be a new subject for almost all students at University level, and this module aims to:

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EAS1035: Beginnings: English Literature before 1800

This module selects texts that represent some of the richest sources and most complex moments of English cultural history before 1800. These texts, and the cultural elements they combine, went on to have afterlives of great significance for English language, literature and other media. In other senses, they offered legacies that were not taken up, and what has been lost in cultural transformations will also be considered.

The module aims to

  • introduce you to these major literary texts. In doing so, we aim to cultivate modes of reading and critical analysis broadly informed by an attention to history and context. Such analysis will include ideas of subjectivity, identity, conflict, community, myth, the transmission of stories, storytelling, translation, transformation, and influence. This module will emphasise essay-writing skills that are fundamental to research and communication in English literature.

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Optional modules

CodeModuleCredits
Combined Honours Options
Inside the Museum15
Visual Media15
Topics in Art History and Visual Culture I15
Topics in Art History and Visual Culture II15
Approaches to Art History and Visual Culture30
Combined Honours Optional 1
Digital Cultures: Narrative, Creativity, Industry15
The Novel15
The Poem15
Academic English15
Rethinking Shakespeare15
Imagine This: Prompts for Creative Writing15

AHV1005: Inside the Museum

This module is a conceptual introduction to the artistic, social, aesthetic, and political implications of the museum from roughly the 17th century to the present. It will involve specific case studies and theoretical writings that will challenge you to think about the museum as not merely a repository and exhibition space for objects, but rather as a complex technology for ordering and classifying material objects to create forms of knowledge; for constructing narratives of material and cultural history, aesthetics, and civic ideals; and for providing us with experiments in seeing patterns of meaning emerge in physical and virtual spaces.

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AHV1006: Visual Media

This module offers an introduction to the history of specific media and the materials, techniques and processes used by artists to produce works of various types. The module is organised in a broadly chronological way, beginning with 'traditional' media, such as drawing and painting (egg tempera and oil), with a focus on late Medieval and Early Modern artists and their techniques, before then moving through innovations in modern art up to and including the nineteenth century (e.g. French Impressionism), and culminating with contemporary art and practice. Each week addresses a specific media or 'type' of artwork, and you will be introduced to the different properties and capabilities of each media and learn to examine and understand the visual effects achieved.

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AHV1008: Topics in Art History and Visual Culture I

This module introduces you to one of the most influential and enduring traditions in Western culture. Classicism has its roots in the material cultures of the ancient Greeks and Romans (c. 500 BCE to c. 476 CE) but its uses and meanings have evolved over centuries. As a phenomenon, it is remarkably wide-spread and persistent in European history and as a canon of qualities and ideals—for example proportional systems, formal language, restraint, balance, clarity and harmony—it appears repeatedly in a series of deliberate revivals. Classicism is inherently retrospective in nature but its traditions have also served as dynamic sites of cultural negotiation that continue to inform thought and practice in many spheres from art to political theory. This module considers the reception of ancient Greece and Rome from the 16th C to the present day in painting, prints, architecture, art theoretical texts, gardens and photography. We will consider the uses and functions of classical forms and concepts as well as the problematic nature of its relationship to canon-formation and canonicity.

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AHV1009: Topics in Art History and Visual Culture II

This module offers a critical introduction to the history of Modernism in Europe and North America. Taking its lead from the work of Manet and his contemporaries, it will explore the key developments in art, design and photography during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Beginning with an investigation into the various ways in which the term Modernism has been used, the course will address both the origins of the term and its relationship to notions of modernity. Building upon this foundation, it will then explore the various '-isms' which constituted the European avant-garde and the rise of their American counterparts. Possible topics for discussion include Cubism, Pictorialism and the New York School. The course will conclude by considering the various ways in which the modernist paradigm has been called into question, from the changing status of the art institution to the rise of Postmodernism.

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AHV1012: Approaches to Art History and Visual Culture

Building on AHV1011, this module offers a critical introduction to the key terms and concepts that have shaped the study of Art History and Visual Culture (e.g. beauty, skill, heritage, power). Through a combination of lectures, seminars and practical workshops, it traces the emergence and development of these keywords, locating them within their broader socio-political histories and accompanying theoretical frameworks. Each week will focus on a single term, exploring its connection to artworks, cultural artefacts and institutions to help you expand your critical and visual vocabulary. The module will also introduce you to a range of University resources, such as the Creative Quadrant and the collections of the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, equipping you with the skills to undertake creative assessments both in this module and throughout your degree.

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EAS1016: Digital Cultures: Narrative, Creativity, Industry

Digital technology has transformed almost every area of human life over the last sixty-five years, and the written word remains at the core of this ongoing transformation. This module will introduce you to some of these developments across literary cultures, and you will gain an understanding of how phenomena such as interactive storytelling, artificial intelligence and the Internet have come to influence literature's subject matter as well as its modes of publishing and production. Alongside critical readings and discussions, you will conduct practice-based research by learning to use some of the technologies and software that define modern literary cultures..

This module aims:

  • To consider how digital technology makes itself apparent in modern literary, visual and creative cultures.
  • To introduce you to a diverse range of authors, poets, artists, technologists, theorists and critics both commenting upon and using digital technologies to explore new possibilities in literature.
  • To explore the historical relationship between literary cultures, visual cultures and emerging technologies, grounding students' understanding of current debates in this field.
  • To enable you to create a diverse portfolio of creative and critical responses to the topics explored in class, including both traditional written outputs and digital prototypes.

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EAS1037: The Novel

This module will introduce you to an exciting range of novels representative of diverse narrative styles drawn from different historical periods and national contexts. The module covers the development of this important genre from the birth of the novel in eighteenth-century England through the nineteenth-century and modernist periods into the present day. It provides an invaluable foundation for future study in a number of literary fields.

  • To introduce students to an exciting range of novels representative of diverse narrative styles drawn from different historical periods and national contexts. The module covers the development of this important genre from the birth of the novel in eighteenth-century England through the nineteenth-century and modernist periods into the present day.
  • To address the emergence and reception of the novel in relation to its historical and literary contexts and to its adoption, and adaptation, of particular voices and forms. Close readings of chosen novels will be supplemented by theoretical and critical analysis. Stylistic changes - such as the move from nineteenth-century realist fiction to modernist experimentation - will be explored alongside specific texts which illuminate the impact of cultural change on fictional form.
  • In looking at a variety of examples of prose fiction, to examine the pleasures of the novel, as well as the historical conditions and textual strategies which underpin those pleasures.

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EAS1038: The Poem

Despite its strong oral traditions and origins, poetry is the origin of all written literature. It is the base on which all that literature - drama, novels, non-fiction prose - is built. Many of its formal elements are used in common and rhetorical speech. This module is designed to introduce you to the mechanical aspects of poetry and to its history; in addition, it offers you insight into the history and influence of important poetic eras, as well as into how understanding of it may be enriched by literary theory. By the end of the module, you will have a firm grounding in the poem as a form and as a literary force.

The aim of the course is to cultivate skills of formal analysis which can be used in combination with other interpretive and creative techniques later in the degree. There will thus be a close focus in seminars on details of language in particular examples of poetry.

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EAS1040: Academic English

Academic English introduces you to the techniques needed to write successful, university-level analytical essays on literary texts and topics. Using model essays and articles, seminar discussions, your own essay writing, and guided readings, you will learn how to write well structured, clearly argued persuasive analytical essays, with a focus on some of the fundamentals of writing: arguments/thesis statements, paragraphing, clarity of expression, essay formatting and accurate referencing. You will also learn how to locate, evaluate, and use secondary (critical) sources that support your essay's argument, as well as how to cite those sources correctly. There will also be attention to ways of analysing literature effectively.

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EAS1041: Rethinking Shakespeare

This module explores Shakespeare's plays from a wide range of perspectives. You will study in depth some of the plays and examine the contexts of their production and reception; the plays' print history; early modern performance practices, and how other writers and film directors have adapted Shakespeare's plays. Through engaging with the sources and precursors to Shakespeare's plays, the intricacies of textual production and editorial history, as well as how these plays have been reimagined by other writers, you will be asked to rethink notions of textual stability in relation to the 'Shakespearean text' and encounter the nuances and richness available within Shakespeare Scholarship.

The module aims to explore the processes by which Shakespeare's plays came into existence, how they achieved their unique status in English literature and culture, and how Shakespeare's dominance has been and continues to be challenged. The module illuminates the role (and texts) of other writers involved in the legacy of Shakespeare's plays, from the Restoration to the twenty-first century, and encourages you to examine these often neglected influences within modern understandings of Shakespeare. Throughout, the module pays close attention to the particular possibilities of theatre as a mode of cultural production.

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EAS1044: Imagine This: Prompts for Creative Writing

This module will ask you for a creative writing response to whatever 'prompt' is suggested - whether it's a newspaper headline, the Ted Hughes archive in The Old Library, or a geographical feature. It will invigorate your entrepreneurial spirit, and will include expressions written in both poetry, prose and dramatic forms. Working across a wide range of writing styles and genres, you will make literature that works for the ear and the body and the page. The assessment will be entirely creative, and in that sense the module complements the other term-2 compulsory module on the Combined Honours English and Creative Writing degree programme, 'Critical Reflections', for which the assessment will be wholly critical/academic.

This module has a clear set of learning strategies, offering you a series of stepping stones that navigate the creative process in different forms. You will develop learning strategies that will encourage self-starting intelligence and invention, an entrepreneurial spirit. It will explore the notion of the 'good idea' and its relationship with form - whether poetry, prose, or dramatic expression, as well as strategies for successful drafting/rewriting. The overall intention of the module is for you to develop an individual creative process that might be carried forward into a writing life.

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Please note that the module information displayed here is subject to change.

Students must take: 30 credits of compulsory Art History & Visual Culture modules, 30 credits of optional Art History & Visual Culture modules and 60 credits of optional English modules.

- English modules in stage 2 are divided into three groups:

Group 1, modules concerned with pre-1750 literature;

Group 2, modules concerned with post-1750 literature;

Group 3, modules not concerned with a particular historical period.

Combined Honours students may not take more than one module from each group.

Compulsory modules

CodeModuleCredits
Compulsory 1
Art History and Visual Culture Field Study for Blended Learning30

AHV2015: Art History and Visual Culture Field Study for Blended Learning

The Art History and Visual Culture field study module is an essential part of your degree programme at Exeter. It culminates in an intensive one-week field trip in a location in continental Europe. During the visit you will participate in a range of staff-guided and self-managed visit options, including architectural/urban studies, visits to permanent galleries/museums and temporary exhibitions.

The module provides an opportunity to develop and apply research skills in virtual and real-world environments and to view and interrogate a variety of museums, objects and spaces in a single urban environment. The module also develops digital literacy and skills development using app software. The module consists of three main parts:

1) Firstly, it addresses a range of thematic and methodological approaches to Field Study, introducing you to a range of ways of approaching and thinking about culture, broadly conceived, and the urban environment, exploring relationships between places, people and objects;

2) Secondly, through applied group work and project development (involving digital project), you will develop key skills and knowledge identified in term 1 work;

2) Finally, the trip itself, which lasts 5-6 days and consists of a series of staff-led visits and individual/group project exercises.

View an example full module specification

Optional modules

CodeModuleCredits
Combined Honours Options
Debates and Contestations in Art History15
Contemporary Visual Practices15
Photography and Evidence15
Contemporary Art and Curation15
Common Threads: Art, Craft and Activism15
Renaissances North and South: Italy and the Netherlands15
Revolutions! Art and Society in France, 1770-183015
The Dutch Golden Age15
The New York Avant-Garde 1955-198015
Comics Studies: Histories, Methodologies, Genres15
Creative Industries: Their Past, Our Future30
Intimate Spaces of the French Enlightenment15
Chinoiserie and Européenerie: Artistic and cultural exchanges between China and Europe15
Group 1 Optional Modules
Desire and Power: English Literature 1570-164030
Theatrical Cultures in Early Modern England30
Chaucer and His Contemporaries30
Renaissance and Revolution30
Satire and the City: English Literature 1660-175030
Group 2 Optional Modules
Revolutions and Evolutions 19C Writings30
Modernism and Modernity: Literature 1900-196030
Romanticism30
Empire of Liberty: American Literature of the Long Nineteenth Century30
Group 3 Optional Modules
Adaptations: Text, Image, Culture15
Creative Writing: Building a Story30
Creative Writing: Making a Poem30
British Cultures: The Exeter Seminar15
Comics Studies: Histories, Methodologies, Genres15
Creative Industries: Their Past, Our Future30
Humanities after the Human: Further Adventures in Critical Theory30
Culture, Crisis and Ecology in a Postcolonial World30

EAS2026: Desire and Power: English Literature 1570-1640

This module introduces you to a wide range of literature written during a crucial turning point in the English Renaissance, when society was undergoing enormous change and upheaval at every level. It covers the work of dramatists, such as Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Webster; poets, including Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Wroth, Spenser, Sidney, and Donne; and inventive prose writers like Thomas Nashe and John Stow. It deals with constructions of race, sexuality, and disability; explores issues of cultural contact and migration; examines the role of literature in upholding and subverting authority; and investigates the representation and meanings of violence.

The module aims to familiarise you with the breadth and depth of the literature of the English Renaissance, its fascinating contexts, complexities, and contradictions. You will engage with the ways in which Renaissance writers address eroti-cism, religion, race, class, authorship, social change, and anxiety about the power of the monarchy. You will learn about theoretical and critical landmarks in Renaissance Studies, as well as recent, cutting-edge critical perspectives on the Re-naissance, its cultural discourses and current resonances.

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EAS2036: Theatrical Cultures in Early Modern England

Theatrical Cultures in Early Modern England focuses on the 'golden age' of English drama from the Elizabethan period through to the Civil War which produced the works of Shakespeare and other playwrights who continue to influence our understanding of this period and its drama today. Each week, you will explore a new performance environment, so that over the course of the term you will acquire a nuanced understanding of the performance culture that shaped the work of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, Cary and their fellow playwrights.

Through the prism of theatre history, the module explores how gender, sexual, national and racial identities were constructed not just through the written texts but also through theatrical conventions and technologies such as cross-dressing, blackface performance and the use of stage space, lighting and costuming. The study of both texts and their performance contexts will shed light on how popular and elite culture responded to immigration and the beginnings of colonial expansion and the slave trade.

The module's texts furthermore illuminate how increasing opportunities for women's participation in theatrical culture, foreign policy under Elizabeth I and James I and the growth of a mercantile middle class are related to the development of English drama.

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EAS2071: Chaucer and His Contemporaries

This module introduces you to late medieval English literature. You will have the chance to explore some exceptionally inclusive poetic imaginations and a world of devotion, brutality, exclusion, chivalry, urbanity, misogyny, piety, courtly sophistication, sharp minds and some very bodily bodies.

We will look at religious and secular, and courtly and popular traditions, and themes such as 'courtly love', that adores women and puts them on a pedestal, arguably the better to ignore them; the constructions of femininity and masculinity in a Christian chivalric culture; the ways in which a tension-riven society went about presenting a harmonious vision of itself; and a Christianity that approached its God with a mixture of familiarity and awe. The module is split more or less equally between the works of Chaucer and the anonymous literature of the late Middle Ages.

The module aims to provide an introduction to the literature of the late Middle Ages in England.

The syllabus is split more or less equally between the works of Chaucer and the anonymous literature of the late Middle Ages. You will also consider the particular nuances of Middle English as a vehicle for literary expression and explore late-medieval culture.

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EAS2080: Renaissance and Revolution

This module introduces English literature written during the most violent and turbulent period of English history: the seventeenth century. The module traces literature from Shakespeare to Milton, exploring literary culture at the courts of the Stuart kings James I, Charles I, and Charles II, as well as literary reactions to the civil war, the execution of the king, and the rule of Oliver Cromwell. It includes drama, poetry, and prose, and studies major male and female writers within their wider literary and historical landscape.

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EAS2102: Satire and the City: English Literature 1660-1750

The period 1660 to 1750 was politically and culturally tumultuous. The Stuart dynasty was restored to the throne, and then deposed again. London expanded massively, becoming the largest city in Europe and a centre for financial and criminal activity. The theatres - closed during the civil war and interregnum - reopened, and actresses appeared on the English stage for the first time. The spread of literacy and growth of the press led to the emergence of many new literary genres - above all the periodical and the novel - and of the first professional authors, many of whom were women. Satire and polemical writing flourished in the period, as writers reacted against (or celebrated) these seismic shifts. This module offers an in-depth look at the writing of this period.

The long eighteenth century is a key period in British history and literature, when many of the cultural productions that inform our contemporary modernity - the novel, the periodical, the marketplace for a new, expanded print culture - emerged and started to take shape. You will read a broad range of texts, drawn equally from the poetry, prose and drama of the period, and learn to identify how these relate to the revolutionary times in which they were written.

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EAS2029: Revolutions and Evolutions 19C Writings

Revolutions and Evolutions explores a wide range of literature written during the Victorian period. You will study literary texts by writers such as Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, and Thomas Hardy in relation to central historical, social, and cultural developments in the nineteenth century. The texts on this module are thematically arranged in order to illuminate a number of the important and exciting conceptual developments of the nineteenth century including industrialisation and progress; class consciousness and democracy; globalisation and colonialism; developing notions of the self and subjectivity; and conceptions of nature , ecology and evolution.

As well as studying a selection of major Victorian texts in depth, to consider these texts in their historical, social, and cultural contexts. The use of a course reader will introduce you to a range of texts beyond the core reading that will give you a broad understanding of the major themes that influence the literary production of the period. Such themes include imperialism, industrialisation and urbanisation; gender and identity, religion, secularism and the rise of science; liberalism; the emergence of the mass market; and the development of new literary forms such as the short story

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EAS2103: Modernism and Modernity: Literature 1900-1960

Modernism and Modernity explores a wide range of British, American and Irish authors from the first half of the twentieth century (1900-1960). In different ways, these authors sought to challenge established ways of using language and reinvent literature itself. You will study the texts in relation to their political, aesthetic and critical contexts. Particular attention is paid to innovation and experimentation, to the emergence and development of literary and cultural movements and to literatures' perceived responsibility in a time of change. You will learn skills in contextual and historical analysis, and independent research.

  • As well as studying literary texts in depth, this module aims to strengthen your skills in contextual and historical analysis and research. Lectures and seminars will introduce key concepts and provide advice on further independent research. Study group meetings and prepared seminar presentations will give you the opportunity to develop your own approaches to the syllabus texts and other materials.

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EAS2106: Romanticism

The Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries transformed European culture, and had profound implications for a modern understanding of the self, nature, feeling, gender, imagination, the sublime, freedom and the role of the artist as an interpreter of all these. This module introduces some of the key canonical texts of British Romanticism produced during the years 1780-1830, in order to understand the phenomenon of Romanticism, its relation to historical, political, and aesthetic developments, and its legacy in today's world. The module is essential study for an understanding of literary history as a whole, and prepares you for more in-depth study of Romantic topics in Year 3 and beyond.

In addition to the primary literature, we will pay close attention to the central concepts and concerns of the era; the visual arts; Romantic experimentation with poetic forms; and the intertextual literary circles that formed between key Romantic figures. The early weeks of the module will introduce key Romantic concerns. At the centre of the module will be an exploration of writings by leading authors of the period, including Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Keats, Lord Byron, and Charlotte Smith.

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EAS2116: Empire of Liberty: American Literature of the Long Nineteenth Century

This module explores key literary texts of the United States during the long nineteenth century. You will study a broad range of major contributions - including poetry, the novel, the short story, slave narratives, and autobiography - as well as the intersections of literature with broader contextual issues, such as literary nationalism, the literature of enslavement and the American Civil War, and the Gilded Age.

You will learn how the turbulent social and political development of the US during this time is reflected through literature, considering contexts such as the constitution of the democratic state, the fraught history of ethnic and race relations, the changing gender politics of US society, and how transnational models of culture have affected our understanding of the US literary canon.

Module aims:

  • To consider major artistic forms and styles such as the American gothic, poetry, the tale and the short story, the autobiography, the slave narrative, and the American novel

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EAF2520: Adaptations: Text, Image, Culture

The process of adapting material between media, including literary forms, such as scripts, short stories, novels and plays and visual forms, including film, television, graphic novels, webtoons, and games is one of the oldest, most dominant and most ubiquitous strategies in the creative industries. By analysing a wide range of adaptations in different forms you will be able to understand the rich and complex relationships between textual and visual media at distinct historical moments and in specific cultural contexts. This module introduces key issues in transmedia studies and offers you the opportunity to understand adaptation as a creative process and adaptations as cultural products.

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EAS2031: Creative Writing: Building a Story

The module develops a toolbox of writing techniques and approaches for contemporary short fiction. It will prepare you for the contemporary writing world by focusing on the kinds of writing that are being published at the present time, while examining the production of literary texts within their traditions and lineages. Through practical exercises and seminar discussions, you will explore a variety of techniques, styles and content and build towards a portfolio of short stories and an accompanying critical essay that will show how you have reflected on and implemented the concepts and techniques taught on the course.

The course comprises a fortnightly lecture on key aspects of short story writing, as well as technical material on the set texts; a weekly 2-hour seminar that helps you develop the techniques introduced in the lectures, and fortnightly 'Workshops' to further develop and give and receive critical feedback on creative work and critical reading in progress. These approaches are designed to enhance the understanding of the practice, as well as the historical, social and critical contexts that produce short story writing and writers.

Only B.A. English and Creative Writing students and Creative Writing majors on the Liberal Arts programme are permitted to take BOTH EAS2031 AND EAS2032: Making a Poem.

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EAS2032: Creative Writing: Making a Poem

The module develops a toolbox of writing techniques and approaches for writing contemporary poetry. It will prepare you for the contemporary poetry world by focusing on the kinds of 'page poetry' that are being written and published at the present time, while examining the production of literary texts within their traditions and lineages. Through practical exercises and seminar discussions, you will explore a variety of textual form and content.

The course comprises lectures on key aspects of poetry writing technique, as well as material on the set texts; seminars that help you develop the techniques introduced in the lectures, and workshops to receive and give detailed criticism and feedback on works in progress. These approaches are designed to enhance the understanding of the practice, as well as the historical, social and critical contexts that produce poetry and poets.

Only students enrolled on the B.A. English and Creative Writing programme and who are Creative Writing majors on the Liberal Arts programme may take BOTH this module and EAS2031: Building a Story.

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EAS2033: British Cultures: The Exeter Seminar

This module is especially designed for inbound study abroad students and will enhance your experience of visiting Britain by providing you with a critical introduction to British Culture from the medieval period through to the present day. The module covers a variety of cultural forms (including literature and film) and genres (including drama, fiction and poetry) and encourages you to reflect on the processes by which - sometimes competing - ideas about national identity have been created, disseminated and interpreted in Britain. Teaching is by regular seminars and assessment is by a reflective learning log, a presentation, and an independent study.

This module aims to provide inbound study abroad students with a distinctive critical introduction to British Cultures, including national legends, icons, beliefs and values. It will provide you with the opportunity to study some familiar texts in depth and will introduce you to some that you might not yet have encountered. The aim is to equip you with skills that will enable you to interpret examples of British Culture in relation to their contexts. The module is taught by a convenor with frequent guest contributions from specialists in the department who have research interests in this area.

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EAS2037: Comics Studies: Histories, Methodologies, Genres

This module will introduce you to the academic analysis of the medium of comics, including graphic novels, periodicals (‘comic books’), and webcomics, examining comics from the US, Franco-Belgian, and British industries. Comics Studies moves from the origins of comics in the nineteenth century all the way through to the digital present, and will equip students for further intellectual adventures into the study of sequential art.This module engages with the various methods that comics scholars deploy, from close-reading texts to sociological accounts of fandom, from studying sales figures to the history of censorship. After encountering multiple methodologies, students are encouraged to make connections between different weeks and to pursue interdisciplinary approaches to Comics Studies.As well as online resources such as the Underground and Independent Comics database, students benefit from the material held in the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. Seminar teaching draws upon these archives

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EAS2089: Creative Industries: Their Past, Our Future

Creative Industries: Their Past, Our Future tracks the profound changes that the creative industries have gone through during the 20th and early 21st centuries. The module, which focuses on the publishing industry, museums, film and theatre, looks at how each of these industries has become increasingly focused on 'users', tracking how the industries have worked with emergent technologies, including social media and AI, to shape new forms of engagement; how they have widened participation and redefined access; reinvented values (aesthetic, economic, social); and dealt with generational and social divides.

You will learn about how the creative industries operate as organisations; how they design their relationships to readerships, visitors and audiences; how they use a range of technologies to reach out to different communities; how they produce novel forms of aesthetic, social, and economic value; and how they usually operate through shrinking budgets.

The module requires no prior knowledge or skills and is open to anyone with an interest in the current and future developments of the creative industries.

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EAS2090: Humanities after the Human: Further Adventures in Critical Theory

Humanities After the Human considers how critical theory - a constellation of writing that includes philosophy, sociology, political manifesto, and cultural commentary - has decentred the (white, heterosexual, able-bodied, cisgender, male) human subject as the privileged site of meaning, knowledge, and creativity. In so doing, this course tries to imagine those yet-to-be-enumerated possibilities of being and relating to others and the world around us that models of subjectivity in late consumer capitalism tend to foreclose. You will build on concepts introduced in Approaches to Criticism and reflect on the challenges that critical theory poses for the study of literature, the limits of the self, possibilities of kinship, and the organisation of social life. It is advantageous for you to be familiar with the material in Approaches , although it is not a prerequisite.

On this module we will interrogate the assumptions bound up with white Euro-American neoliberal subjectivity, such as interiority, individualism, private property, and naturalised partitions. How have critics deterritorialised the received coordinates of self and world, public and private, mind and body, man and woman, human and non-human? What happens when familiar myths of being are left behind in favour of new utopian communalities, queer and trans futures, and rhizomatic connections? And what does this mean for how we read literature and other cultural texts?

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EAS2113: Culture, Crisis and Ecology in a Postcolonial World

This module offers an introduction to World Literatures and film focused on Africa, the Caribbean, Middle East and South Asia, assessing how texts inscribe the social, historical and environmental impact of colonialism and new and adapted forms of imperialism. Focussing on issues such as development and disaster, conservation and animal rights, resource exploitation, and the effects of neoliberalism and global tourism, the module will introduce you to a range of texts - essays, films, novels, poems, and short stories - to investigate the cultural representation of the consequences of global crisis. While considering stylistic and thematic features, the module will map the convergences and divergences of postcolonial and environmental perspectives. This focus enables you to explore the deep connections between imperial power relations and contemporary issues of globalization.

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Please note that the module information displayed here is subject to change.

Typically, any placement year will take place in Year 3. If you are not taking a placement year please see the Final Year modules for year 3.

With Study Abroad

120 credit compulsory placement module

Compulsory modules

CodeModuleCredits
Compulsory 1
Study Abroad120

HAS3999: Study Abroad

The Study Abroad programme enables you to undertake a year-long study placement at a partner university outside of the UK, as part of your degree programme.

This module serves as the administrative mechanism for recording the Study Abroad assessment results of students within the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS). Students participating in the Study Abroad programme and based in a HASS department (except for the Law School, the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Modern Languages, and the School of Education) will be registered on this module during their Study Abroad placement year.

The Study Abroad programme widens the range of modules available to you during Stage 3 of your degree programme; enables you to broaden your academic horizons by studying in a different learning culture and (where relevant and appropriate) in languages other than English; and aims to promote resilience, independence, cultural awareness, and communication skills.

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With Employment Experience

120 credit compulsory placement module

Compulsory modules

CodeModuleCredits
Compulsory 2
Employment Experience120

HAS3998: Employment Experience

This module allows you to undertake and to learn from an extended work placement during the third year of a four year “with Employment Experience” programme. You will use one or more work placements to gain skills that equip you to work in the employment market and to improve your knowledge of the work environment. You are encouraged to think about the intercultural competence and the employability skills that you acquire during your year.

To progress to this module, you will have secured a suitable placement for a minimum of 26 weeks.

Having developed the skills necessary to find relevant roles and apply for roles in the graduate labour market, this is an invaluable opportunity to develop work-related skills and experience that will further enhance your success in the graduate labour market and support your future career choices.

During your placement year you will be supported by the Module Convenor and Placement Team.

The module assessment structure provides opportunity and support for you to evaluate your skills and achievements using personal development techniques.  You will also write an Employer Report to showpiece the culmination of your academic and business skills.

This module aims to:

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Please note that the module information displayed here is subject to change.

Students must take: 0-30 credits of compulsory Art History & Visual Culture modules, 0-30 credits of compulsory English modules, 30-60 credits of optional Art History & Visual Culture modules, and 30-60 credits of optional English modules.

Compulsory modules

CodeModuleCredits
Compulsory Choice
Art History and Visual Culture Dissertation30
Dissertation30
Creative Writing Dissertation30

AHV3000: Art History and Visual Culture Dissertation

The dissertation is an independent research project which enables you to produce a piece of work that is self-selected, rather than prescribed. It highlights your ability to work autonomously, identifying a topic, articulating the relevant issue(s) that in your view require analysis and devising a plan of work that is largely self-managed. The skills you have learnt over the course of your degree programme are a very good preparation for this, not only because you will have a broad understanding of the field of Art History and Visual Culture, but also because you have worked with a variety of research methodologies and, by now, should be in a position to produce a dissertation that is not only responsive to the best current thinking in the field but also demonstrates your commitment to a specific approach. You will receive guidance from a supervisor and receive support through a series of workshops and seminars. The dissertation module teaches you time management skills and gives you the flexibility to devise and follow your own research questions, extending your knowledge in a specialism which you have particularly enjoyed.

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EAS3003: Dissertation

The dissertation is an independent research project, which enables you to operate autonomously and responsibly, and take a positive and active role in your learning. You will plan and produce a sustained piece of critical work that highlights the skills you have learnt over the course of your degree programme, incorporating a range of research methods and methodologies.

You will receive guidance from a supervisor and receive support through a series of workshops and lectures. The dissertation module teaches you time management skills and gives you the flexibility to devise and follow your own research questions, extending your knowledge in a specialism which you have particularly enjoyed.

  • To enable you to operate independently and responsibly, and take a positive and active role in your learning, in the service of the production of a sustained piece of critical work. It allows you to devise your own research questions and to pursue these lines of inquiry. You will work under the guidance of an academic supervisor, with extra support provided by occasional workshops and lectures to develop key skills for researching a chosen subject and preparing a finished manuscript.

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EAS3122: Creative Writing Dissertation

This module gives the opportunity to pursue a sustained piece of original writing of your choosing. You will have the chance to develop both your imaginative and critical abilities through the completion of a portfolio of creative work and reflective commentary. Possible project forms include an extract from a novel, a sequence of short stories, a collection of poetry, a combination of poetry and prose or a screenplay.

You will choose your project in consultation with academic staff and then write the dissertation, along with a related self-reflexive essay, under appropriate academic supervision.

The dissertation provides the opportunity to gain skills in active learning, research and writing.

  • This module aims to provide the opportunity, at the end of your BA programme, to pursue a sustained piece of creative writing. A project is chosen by you, in consultation with an academic member of staff, and thereafter you write the dissertation, along with a related self-reflexive essay, under appropriate academic supervision. The module therefore develops qualities of independence, active learning, research and writing.

View an example full module specification

Optional modules

CodeModuleCredits
Options
Understanding Space in Renaissance Italy15
The Face15
Global Modernisms15
Performance Art15
Paris to the World: Modelling the Modern City15
Installation Art15
Conceptual Art15
"Queen City of Europe": Art, Culture and Society in Renaissance Antwerp, c.1500-7015
Subjectivity and Storytelling: from Decorative Arts to Digital Futures15
The Place of Meaning: Gardens in Asia and Europe15
Something to See: War and Visual Media15
Art, Industry and the Modern, 1840-190015
Dictatorships on Display: History Exhibitions in Germany and Austria15
Optional 1
Queering British Screens15
Hardy and Women Who Did: the Coming of Modernity30
Writing the Short Film30
Heroes and Exiles: English Poetry of the Age of Beowulf30
James Joyce's Ulysses30
Life and Death in Early Modern Literature30
Visual and Literary Cultures of Realism30
Encountering the Other in Medieval Literature30
Writing for Children and Young Adults30
Resource Fictions: Oil, Water and Conflict in the World-System30
Acts of Writing: From Decolonisation to Globalisation30
The Death of the Novel30
Virginia Woolf: Fiction, Feeling, Form30
"Reader, I Married Him": The Evolution of Romance Fiction from 1740 to the Present30
Romance from Chaucer to Shakespeare30
Citizens of the World30
The Rise of Science30
Harlem and After: African American Literature 1925-present30
Food, Environment and Literature in Early Modern England30
The Poetry of Place30
Piracy in Early Modern Literature, 1570-173030
Poetry and Politics30
Ghosts, Witches and Demons: the Renaissance Supernatural30
Jane Austen: In and Out of Context30
The Development of British Children's Literature30
Art, Industry and the Modern, 1840-190015
American Counterculture in Literature30
Fiction Matters30
Migration, Literature and Culture30
Surrealism and its Legacies30
"Mad": Cultures, Histories, Phantasies, Imaginaries of Mental Distress30

Course variants

BA Art History & Visual Culture and English with Study Abroad

UCAS code: QV34

Our four-year ‘with Study Abroad’ degree offers you the possibility of spending your third year abroad, studying with one of our many partner universities.

Why study abroad?

Living and studying in a different country is an exciting experience that broadens your academic and cultural horizons, as well as giving you the opportunity to widen your circle of friends. Students who have studied abroad demonstrate initiative, independence, motivation and, depending on where they stay, may also have gained a working knowledge of another language – all key qualities that employers are looking for in today’s competitive employment environment.

Where can I study abroad?

We have partnership arrangements with many prestigious institutions across the globe. Exactly where you can apply to study will depend on the subjects you are studying at Exeter. For a full list please visit the Study Abroad website.

Are there any academic requirements to study abroad?

Yes. If you wish to study abroad as part of this degree course, you must achieve an overall grade of at least 60% (a 2:1) for your first year of study. This applies to all students, even if you are registered on the 'with Study Abroad' variant from the start of your degree.

Does it count towards my degree?

Credit for academic work during your year abroad is arranged by agreement between the University of Exeter and the host institution. These marks are then translated back into your degree at Exeter. If you are studying abroad for a semester or full year, your time abroad will count toward your final degree. 

How does it affect my tuition fee and funding?

For the year that you spend studying abroad you will pay a significantly reduced tuition fee to Exeter, but nothing to your host university – for more information visit our fees pages. If you were previously eligible, you will continue to receive a maintenance loan whilst on your Study Abroad year.

BA Art History & Visual Culture and English with Employment Experience

UCAS code: QV32

Our four-year ‘with Employment Experience’ degree offers you the option of spending your third year carrying out a graduate-level work placement or placements, within the UK or abroad, as part of your degree.

Why choose to include Employment Experience?

Undertaking graduate-level work during your degree unlocks a world of experience that allows you to develop essential employability and interpersonal skills that relate to your degree and future career.

A work placement will dramatically boost your confidence, enhance your CV and develop graduate-level skills and competencies that employers are looking for.

Where will I do my work placement?

The sector and country you choose to work in is very much your choice, as you will be responsible for finding and organising your placement.

We will provide plenty of guidance and support during your first and second years which will prepare you to research and apply for placements. Ultimately, the university will give final approval to your placement to make sure you have a valuable experience.

How does it affect my tuition fees and funding?

For your ‘Year In Industry’ you will pay a significantly reduced tuition fee to Exeter – for more information visit our fees pages. If you were previously eligible, you will continue to receive a maintenance loan whilst on your year of work placement/s.

Is the placement paid?

You will be paid in accordance with the rules of the country you work in and there may be visa restrictions or requirements which you need to consider when applying.

Find out more

Learn more about employment experience opportunities.

Fees

Tuition fees for 2026 entry

UK students: £9,790 per year
International students: £24,950 per year

Scholarships

The University of Exeter offers a wide range of scholarships to support your education, with £7 million available for international students applying to study with us in the 2026/27 academic year, including our prestigious Exeter Excellence Scholarships*. We also provide scholarships for sport, music and other achievements, alongside regional and partner awards such as Chevening, The Beacon Trust and the British Council. Financial support is available for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, lower income households and other under-represented groups to help them access, succeed and progress through higher education.

* Terms and conditions, including deadlines, apply. See our website for details.

Find out more about tuition fees and scholarships

Learning and teaching

Learning and teaching

You will be taught by internationally respected staff who are leading researchers in their specialisms. We use a wide variety of techniques and approaches including seminars, lectures, study groups and web-based learning, as well as valuable field study. We integrate the latest approaches with traditional learning and teaching to give you a varied and challenging programme. As you study the compulsory modules, you will learn through individual practical and project work, teamwork and a research project, all of which are designed to help you develop key skills for success throughout your degree and into your future career.

Contact time

In your first year, you will receive a minimum of 10 hours of contact with academic staff per week. You will also be expected to attend other activities such as study groups, workshop activities and film screenings. Your total workload should average about 40 hours per week during term time. The exact amount of time spent working independently varies from module to module.

Museums, galleries, and field trips

We believe it’s really important for you to gain first-hand exposure to works of art and other visual artefacts. You will profit from engaging with the museums and galleries in the region, in addition to field trips to collections in London and elsewhere. You will also can develop expertise in curation through the University’s Bill Douglas Cinema Museum.

Art History and Visual Culture field trip abroad

In the second year of the programme we offer a core module, Art History & Visual Culture Field Study, which involves an intensive study trip abroad to immerse our students in the art, architecture and visual culture of a specific location in Europe. In recent years our study abroad trip has taken place in Florence Italy*.

Research-inspired teaching

Teaching that is inspired by research ensures lectures are up-to-date and relevant: you will benefit from access to the latest thinking, equipment and resources. All options are taught by staff with expertise including art history, architecture, film, photography, visual media, art and technology, curation and exhibition, mixed and virtual realities, performance art and visual culture in the UK and abroad.

Academic support

All students have access to a personal tutor who is available for advice and support throughout your studies. There are also a number of services on campus where you can get advice and information, including the Students’ Guild Advice Unit.

Assessment

You will be assessed in a variety of ways but primarily through exams and coursework. Coursework includes essays, a dissertation and presentation work. The ratio of formal exams to coursework is on average 40:60 (depending on your choice of modules). Your first year doesn’t count towards your final degree classification, but you do have to pass it in order to progress. In order to be eligible for ‘with Study Abroad’ programmes, you will need to attain an average of 60 per cent or more in your first year. The assessments in the second year, year abroad (if applicable) and final year will contribute to your final degree classification.

*Field course destination subject to change

Optional modules outside of this course

Each year, if you have optional modules available, you can take up to 30 credits in a subject outside of your course. This can increase your employability and widen your intellectual horizons.

Minors: Future Skills Pathways

You can study a Future Skills Pathway alongside your main degree by choosing up to 30 credits of modules from a different subject area in your second and final years.

Find out more about minor options

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Your future

Employer-valued skills this course develops

Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Exeter is a bold interdisciplinary programme, which will enable you to stand out in the job market. This programme will give you specialist knowledge of everything from traditional art forms such as architecture and sculpture, to today’s visual practices such as film, video, performance and digital art. You will develop a broad range of highly desirable skills in analysis, critique, research and theoretical and practical creativity.

Career paths

Art History & Visual Culture graduates compete very successfully in the employment market, with many employers targeting the University when recruiting new graduates.

Examples of roles recent graduates are now working as include:

  • Art Gallery Intern
  • Brand Intern in fashion industry
  • Civil Service Fast Stream
  • Collections Information Officer
  • Editorial Assistant
  • Events Planner
  • Marketing Intern
  • PR Account Executive
  • Researcher
  • TV Promotions Assistant

Further study

Every year a high proportion of Humanities graduates choose to progress to further study or professional training. The Art History and Visual Culture programme presents its graduates with opportunity to undertake further study or training in areas such as education, arts management and journalism, amongst others.

Career Zone

The services offered by the careers and employability team are complementary to the services offered by our central Career Zone, where you can participate in practical sessions to develop your skills; access paid internships and volunteering opportunities; explore postgraduate study options; meet prospective employers; get one-to-one advice and learn how to secure the right job for you.  

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