The study of English Language and Literature at Oxford is exceptionally well-established and broad-ranging in content; you will have the opportunity to study writing in English from its origins in Anglo-Saxon England to contemporary literature periods. As well as British literature, you can study works written in English from across the globe.
Subject Intake: Seven single honours, and two or three in Joint Schools
Course Duration: Three Years (BA), Four Years (BA) English and Modern Languages
Teaching is organised by Merton’s Tutors in English (Professor Michael Whitworth and Dr Ted Tregear). The College also employs a Fitzjames Early Career Researcher to provide teaching in medieval English language and literature (Dr Lucy Brookes) and a Lecturer in English (Dr Laura Ludtke). Specialist options are catered for by experts from across the University’s English Faculty, so that students are not constrained to the areas of expertise of Merton's Tutors.
The Merton Professor of English Literature and the Merton Professor of English Language & Literature are Fellows of the College (JRR Tolkien held the latter of these chairs from 1945 to 1959).
The first year of the English course at Oxford provides a foundation in core tools, approaches and topics. In years two and three, there is a diverse selection of optional papers that allow students to pursue their own specialist interests.
The approach to literary studies at Merton is based on the close reading of literary texts, informed by an understanding of historical, aesthetic, and intellectual contexts, but there is ample opportunity for theoretical diversity. Considerable emphasis is placed upon the intellectual background to literature, and tutorials are regularly supplemented by seminars in this area.
Most students take the English Language and Literature Course I but applicants with an interest in Course II (Medieval Literature and Language) are also very welcome.
Merton’s libraries are well-stocked for English. Our special collections include one of the best collections of material in the world by TS Eliot, a former student of the College.
Merton’s student-run English Society holds a variety of events, social activities and talks throughout the year, which are ever popular.
The English Faculty is around 10 minutes' walk from the main college site. Merton accommodation in Holywell Street is even closer (and our Manor Road houses are directly opposite).
We have a college Poetry Society which meets regularly and publishes a termly pamphlet of poems, a speaker society (the Bodley Club), and a politics/current affairs/debating society (the Neave Society).
Recent graduates have gone on to a wide variety of careers, including law, teaching, journalism, postgraduate study, and television script-writing. Merton English alumni include the former Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, and Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
-1.jpg%3Fv%3D2026-01-05T07%3A22%3A30.352Z&w=384&q=75 "Dr Lucy Brookes")