[Chrizzle94]

Just wondering: how in-depth do undergrads on a languages degree go when studying novels, plays, poetry etc? What is it comparable to?

[qwertyuiop1993]

(Original post by Chrizzle94)
Just wondering: how in-depth do undergrads on a languages degree go when studying novels, plays, poetry etc? What is it comparable to?

Do you mean how in-depth we explore specific novels or how much literature is covered?

It depends a lot on which university you go to. I believe Oxford has the most compulsory literature by volume (for first year at least). I do French and for first year I did one commentary paper (covering six texts - two plays, two works of prose and two poets), one narrative fiction paper (covering 4 novels), one philosophy paper (4 philosophers), one literary theory paper (4 texts) and (not literature but still required similar style essays) one French film paper - (4 films).

As you can see it's a lot of reading/writing essays. For finals it's more flexible but you can choose to study all literature topics - covering whole periods of literature in depth from medieval to early modern and modern and specialising in specific texts.

I'd say studying for English lit. A level was about the same workload as one of these papers, but at uni it's condensed into covering a book a fortnight rather than faffing about on one book for ages. Even though you get a lot less time, the standard of engagement required is the same, if not higher than A level, which leads to frantic reading in your own free time. The marking is a lot harsher - having what it takes to get a high A* at A level is no guarantee of getting high marks at university level.

I can't say anything about other universities though.

[Chrizzle94]

(Original post by qwertyuiop1993)
Do you mean how in-depth we explore specific novels or how much literature is covered?

It depends a lot on which university you go to. I believe Oxford has the most compulsory literature by volume (for first year at least). I do French and for first year I did one commentary paper (covering six texts - two plays, two works of prose and two poets), one narrative fiction paper (covering 4 novels), one philosophy paper (4 philosophers), one literary theory paper (4 texts) and (not literature but still required similar style essays) one French film paper - (4 films).

As you can see it's a lot of reading/writing essays. For finals it's more flexible but you can choose to study all literature topics - covering whole periods of literature in depth from medieval to early modern and modern and specialising in specific texts.

I'd say studying for English lit. A level was about the same workload as one of these papers, but at uni it's condensed into covering a book a fortnight rather than faffing about on one book for ages. Even though you get a lot less time, the standard of engagement required is the same, if not higher than A level, which leads to frantic reading in your own free time. The marking is a lot harsher - having what it takes to get a high A* at A level is no guarantee of getting high marks at university level.

I can't say anything about other universities though.

I was asking about specific novels. I should probably have made that more clear.

Thank you for your response. It seems crazy to have to get through all that.

Edit: Actually, could I ask (though it might sound stupid): do you write your essays in French or English or is there a balance between both?

[qwertyuiop1993]

(Original post by Chrizzle94)
I was asking about specific novels. I should probably have made that more clear.

Thank you for your response. It seems crazy to have to get through all that.

Edit: Actually, could I ask (though it might sound stupid): do you write your essays in French or English or is there a balance between both?

Oh sorry - most of what I said was irrelevant!

As I said though, you are expected to get to a thorough knowledge of the text despite the fewer teaching hours compared to A level (So discussions will work very much like an A level discussion class but without the preceding classes which guide you through a text) My friend doing French and English at Warwick has reported that the French side of things is very much similar to the English side in terms of depth.

At Oxford all literature essays are written in English - they want a high level of engagement from the outset without wanting to be constantly correcting grammar. I think in later years some shorter essays are written in French though. (Similarly, my sis is at Edinburgh and she only started literature essays in French in second year)

Have you applied/are you planning on applying for modern languages?

[Chrizzle94]

No, no, it wasn't!

I've firmed Bristol for German and Spanish (ab initio).

Thank you for your help, that's really clarified a few things.

I can imagine things will be similar at Bristol as the course has a lot of literature too (obviously not as much as Oxford but still).