BA

Creative Writing and History

BA Creative Writing and History Code WV81 Attend an Open Day Attend an Open Day

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You are viewing this course for September start 2024

Key Facts

WV81

  • UCAS Tariff

    120 - 104

  • Course duration

    3 years

Further details on entry requirements

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If you are interested in enhancing, broadening, and developing your voice and, if you want to explore, discover and immerse yourself in the words and historical eras that have shaped our world through the medium of literature and media platforms and culture, then a degree in Creative Writing and History at Aberystwyth University is for you. Our cross-disciplinary degree will introduce you to an ever-expanding industry, providing you with a promising and advantageous start after graduation. Learn the craft of writing poetry, fiction, non-fiction, screenplays and more. You will also develop the critical and analytical skills necessary for a career in a broad array of creative industries. Under the expert guidance of a team of award-winning writers you will discover hidden talents and find out what sort of writer you are. On completion of this degree you will have not only a portfolio of exceptional creative material but also the skills and attributes to flourish in any workplace that demands dexterity with the creative aspect and written word.

Course Overview

Why study Creative Writing and History at Aberystwyth University?

The Creative Writing component of this course enables you to discover our comprehensive programme which includes prose, poetry, scriptwriting for stage and screen, journalism, writing for new media. There is an opportunity for you at Aberystwyth University to flourish and develop your creative writing skills.

The History component of this course will provide you with an existing opportunity to explore many eras of History which includes Medieval and Early Modern History, Politics and Modern History, History and Welsh History. We also have a vast range of exciting modules which includes Europe and the World (1000-2000), Medieval and Early Modern Britain and Europe (1000-1800), History as Myth-Making: the ‘myth of the Blitz’, Image Wars in South East Asia: Studying 20th Century Propaganda to name a few.

A highlight for students on this course is the writing retreat  which is organised during the third year. The writing treat enables you to hone in on your writing skills and talents, develop your abilities further and grow as a creative writer with your peers. This is a residential retreat and previous years have visited the well-known Gregynog Hall, roughly an hour and half outside of Aberystwyth. 

The University main teaching campus also known as Penglais Campus is our learning and socialising hub. This course is taught across two departments which include the Department of English and Creative Writing and the Department of History and Welsh History, both of which are located on Penglais campus. Discover the two departments in our Virtual Tour.

Next door the Penglais Campus is the National Library of Wales which is a copyright library that houses every book that has been published in the United Kingdom. A vital resource to this degree.

Our Staff

All academic staff in the Department of English and Creative Writing are active scholars and experts in their fields. They are either qualified to PhD level or have commensurate experience. Our Lecturers either hold or are working towards a Higher Education teaching qualification and the majority of academic staff also hold the status of Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Staff in the Department of History and Welsh History are active researchers and experts in their field of History. Most are qualified to PhD level and hold PGCHE. To find out more about our staff, please visit our departmental staff page.

Modules September start - 2024

Please note: The modules listed below are those currently intended for delivery during the next academic year and may be subject to change. They are included here to give an indication of how the course is structured.

Core

Module Name Module Code Credit Value
Beginning the Novel WR20220 20
Making History * HY20120 20

Options

Module Name Module Code Credit Value
A Century in Crisis: 1790s to 1890s WL20720 20
Adventures with Poetry WR22120 20
African-American History, 1808 to the Present HY28320 20
Between Revolution and Reform: China since 1800 HY28520 20
Classical Drama and Myth CL20320 20
Contemporary Queer Fiction EN21620 20
Contemporary Writing and Climate Crisis EN21120 20
Crime, Riot and Morality in Wales 1750-1850 WH23420 20
Culture, Society and the Victorians HY29320 20
Effective Academic and Professional Communication 1 IC27720 20
Environmental History of the Neotropics (Latin America and the Caribbean) in the Capitalocene HY29120 20
Famine in Medieval England HY25520 20
From Poor Law to Welfare State: Poverty and Welfare in Modern Britain, 1815-1948 HY29220 20
Germany since 1945 HY29620 20
In the Olde Dayes: Medieval Texts and Their World EN23120 20
Literary Geographies EN21020 20
Literary Modernisms EN20920 20
Literary Theory: Debates and Dialogues EN20120 20
Literature and Climate in the Nineteenth Century EN21220 20
Literature since the '60s EN22920 20
Magic in the Middle Ages: From Antiquity to the Eve of the Witch Craze HY25920 20
Media and Society in Twentieth Century Britain HY27520 20
Medieval England and Germany, c. 1050-1250 HY25620 20
Place and Self EN22120 20
Roads to Modernity: Germany and Japan in the Age of Empires, 1860s-1930s HY28920 20
Science, Religion and Magic HY28620 20
Shaping Plots WR21720 20
Short stories: Grit and Candour WL20320 20
Southeast Asia at the crossroads (c.1400 to the present) HY29920 20
TESOL Approaches, Methods and Teaching Techniques IC23420 20
Telling True Stories: ways of Writing Creative Non-Fiction WR21120 20
The Atlantic World, 1492-1825 HY29720 20
The British Isles in the Long Eighteenth Century HY22020 20
The European Reformation HY26520 20
The Making of Europe: Christendom and beyond, c. 1000-1300 HY25720 20
The Nazi Dictatorship: Regime and Society in Germany 1933-1945 HY29420 20
The Tudors: A European Dynasty? HY20920 20
Wales and the Kings of Britain: Conflict, Power and Identities in the British Isles 1039-1417 WH20120 20
Wales under the Tudors WH23520 20
War, Politics and People: England in Context in the Fourteenth Century HY26720 20
Writing Selves WR20620 20
Writing Women for the Public Stage, 1670-1780 EN28720 20
History as myth-Making: the 'Myth of the Blitz' HY23420 20
Interdisciplinary and decolonial history HY24320 20
Memory, Myth and History: Investigating Medieval Chronicles, c. 1000-1250 HY24120 20
Reading a Building HY23120 20
Recounting Racism: Oral History and Modern American Race Relations. HY25020 20
Seals in Their Context in Medieval England and Wales HY24420 20
Victorian Visions: Exploring Nineteenth-Century Exhibitions HY24620 20

Core

Module Name Module Code Credit Value

Options

Module Name Module Code Credit Value
African-American History, 1808 to the Present HY38820 20
Between Revolution and Reform: China since 1800 HY38520 20
Crime, Riot and Morality in Wales 1750-1850 WH33420 20
Culture, Society and the Victorians HY39320 20
Environmental History of the Neotropics (Latin America and the Caribbean) in the Capitalocene HY39120 20
Famine in Medieval England HY35520 20
From Poor Law to Welfare State: Poverty and Welfare in Modern Britain, 1815-1948 HY39220 20
Germany since 1945 HY39620 20
Magic in the Middle Ages: From Antiquity to the Eve of the Witch Craze HY35920 20
Media and Society in Twentieth Century Britain HY37520 20
Medieval England and Germany, c. 1050-1250 HY35620 20
Roads to Modernity: Germany and Japan in the Age of Empires, 1860s-1930s HY38920 20
Science, Religion and Magic HY38620 20
Southeast Asia at the crossroads (c. 1400 to the present) HY39920 20
The Atlantic World, 1492-1825 HY39720 20
The British Isles in the Long Eighteenth Century HY30120 20
The European Reformation HY36520 20
The Making of Europe: Christendom and beyond, c. 1000-1300 HY35720 20
The Nazi Dictatorship: Regime and Society in Germany 1933-1945 HY39420 20
The Tudors: A European Dynasty? HY30920 20
Wales and the Kings of Britain: Conflict, Power and Identities in the British Isles 1039-1417 WH30120 20
Wales under the Tudors WH33520 20
War, Politics and People: England in Context in the Fourteenth Century HY36720 20
Ali Smith and 21st Century fiction(s) EN33620 20
Big Ideas: Writing Popular Science WR32720 20
Crisis Writing WR31820 20
Effective Academic and Professional Communication 2 IC37820 20
Haunting Texts EN30820 20
Humour and Conflict in Contemporary Writing WR32820 20
Literatures of Surveillance WL35320 20
Poetry for today WR31220 20
Reading Theory / Reading Text EN30120 20
Remix: Chaucer In The Then and Now WL30620 20
Romantic Eroticism EN30520 20
TESOL Materials Development and Application of Technologies IC33420 20
The Mark of the Beast: Animals in Literature from the 1780s to the 1920s EN31320 20
The Writing Project WR30040 40
Victorian Childhoods EN30320 20
Writing Crime Fiction WR32420 20
Writing Horror WR31920 20
Writing Music WR32620 20
Writing and Place WR32120 20
Writing in the Margins: Twentieth-Century Welsh Poetry in English EN30420 20

* Also available partially or entirely through the medium of Welsh

Careers

What career prospects are there for me?

Many of our graduates are successful writers in the fields of:

  • Fiction
  • Non-fiction
  • Poetry
  • Screen-writing
  • Radio
  • Theatre

Some of our graduates have discovered other successful career options:

  • Publishing
  • Editing
  • Journalism
  • Marketing and Communications
  • Teaching

What career enhancing opportunities are there for me as a student?

Aberystwyth Arts Centre will be woven integrally into your learning opportunities, permitting staff and students to come together with the shared aim of engaging, working and learning in a thriving and dynamic creative culture. Here you may showcase your work, engage and network with others, and develop lifelong skills valuable to employers in the creative industries and beyond.

Our degree will enable you to develop:

  •  the ability to express ideas and communicate information effectively in a broad range of contexts;
  • outstanding skills in creating, forming and manipulating the written word;
  • evidence of your ability to be an effective problem solver;
  • excellent creative thinking, informed by critical rigour;
  •  a proven ability to work both independently and as part of a team;
  • excellent time-management and organisational skills, including the ability to meet deadlines;
  • self-motivation and self-reliance and have the ability to develop appropriate and effective strategies;
  • valuable research skills that are trans-disciplinary and adaptable to any research context.

What work experience opportunities exist whilst studying? 

Click here to find out about the various opportunities that our Aberystwyth University Careers team offer. 

Enhance your employability prospects with GO Wales and YES (Year in Employment Scheme) managed by our Careers department. 

Teaching & Learning

What will I learn?

The breakdown below will provide you with an illustration of what you may study during the three year degree scheme.

This degree is based on our strongly held belief that in order to become a really great writer you need to be a good reader, whilst offering you the flexibility to develop as a writer across a range of creative modes. During your first year you will develop foundational skills in the interpretation and analysis of literary texts, alongside your study of basic writing skills. Throughout the course you will use your knowledge of literature and textual production in your own creative work, exploring the relationship between creative and critical practice.

 In the first year you will discover:

  • A range of techniques for reading and writing fiction and poetry;
  • Modes of descriptive writing;
  • new historical skills and concepts, and a comprehensive introduction to university-level study skills, through our Year 1 core module; Introduction to History;
  • The importance of plot;
  • The use of dialogue;
  • Some key figures from literary history (from Shakespeare to the Brontës);
  • Lesser known texts, and writers who are new-to-you;
  • A variety of “ways of reading” and some theoretical approaches to textual analysis;
  • “The critical commentary” and research skills for writers.

In the second year you will explore:

  • The theoretical approaches to, and the practice of, literary criticism;
  • Your own writing style, informed by your reading and research;
  • The ways in which the meaning, methods and writing of history have changed over time, through our Year 2 core module Making History; 
  • A number of specialist subjects in which you undertake an in-depth research, using original sources and engaging with cutting edge scholarship;
  • A number of specialist topics chosen by you (these might focus on a specific genre (such as crime fiction), historical period (such as the Victorian era), or theme (such as “transpositions”).

Students following this degree programme have the flexibility to take option modules from the departments of Film, Theatre and Television Studies, and Welsh and Celtic studies, both of which offer a number of creative writing modules in areas such as scriptwriting, writing for radio, writing for television and much more.

In the third year you will master:

  • Theory for writers and the application of theoretical perspectives the production and critical evaluation of your own creative work;
  • Extended writing and independent research in your final year writing project (chosen and defined by you with the support of a published author);
  • Your own specialisms drawn from a diverse range of option modules taught by writers in those fields. Our option modules include topics such as Elizabethan drama, the ghost story, queer fiction, writing for children, science fiction and fantasy, and much more.

In your final year you will have the opportunity to take part in a writing retreat at a country house in mid Wales - an amazing opportunity to spend time with fellow students and staff, developing your final year projects and dissertations, in a splendid rural setting.

How will I be taught?

Our course is delivered through a range of traditional and non-traditional settings with particular emphasis on workshops and discursive seminars. Lectures are not the norm but are used when it is essential to convey specific, knowledge-centred, material. One-to-one tutorials will also be a regular feature in your timetable, particularly towards the end of your programme of study.

We assess our students through portfolio submissions, essays and, on some modules, traditional examinations and presentations.

Typical Entry Requirements

UCAS Tariff 120 - 104

A Levels BBB-BCC

GCSE requirements (minimum grade C/4):
English or Welsh

BTEC National Diploma:
DDM-DMM with a specified subject

International Baccalaureate:
30-28 with 5 points in an English related subject at Higher Level

European Baccalaureate:
75%-65% overall with 7 in an English related subject

English Language Requirements:
See our Undergraduate English Language Requirements for this course. Pre-sessional English Programmes are also available for students who do not meet our English Language Requirements.

Country Specific Entry Requirements:
International students whose qualification is not listed on this page, can check our Country Specific Entry Requirements for further information.

The University welcomes undergraduate applications from students studying the Access to Higher Education Diploma or T-level qualifications, provided that relevant subject content and learning outcomes are met. We are not able to accept Access to Higher Education Diplomas or T-levels as a general qualification for every undergraduate degree course.
Our inclusive admissions policy values breadth as well as depth of study. Applicants are selected on their own individual merits and offers can vary. If you would like to check the eligibility of your qualifications before submitting an application, please contact the Undergraduate Admissions Office for advice and guidance.

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