English – advice and reading
Megan Murray-Pepper, English tutor
Having always been a very keen reader, studying an English degree seemed like not only an obvious choice, but a chance to really engage with new literature and new ideas. My degree at Oxford was a traditional but eye-opening romp through literary history, encompassing authors both famous and inconspicuous – and gave me the chance to develop in original disciplines such as the relationship between literature and film. Having particularly enjoyed the sauce and violence of the Renaissance paper, I afterwards pursued an MA in Shakespearean Studies and have found myself unable to stay away from the study of English in various forms: while teaching I am currently starting a doctorate looking at literary tourism and the relationship between criticism and anthropology.
In choosing an English degree it is important to think about the literature you already enjoy, but also to keep your mind open to the huge range of possibilities. In each case there might be core courses that you have to study, but varying numbers of options to pursue regional, theoretical or stylistic avenues that excite you. I used to moan that I had to study Old English, but realised that I wouldn’t for the world have missed the opportunity to try out the old language and to realise its place in literary history.
Recommended Reading
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
Thoughts on writing, gender and society from one of the twentieth century’s greatest novelists.
Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction
An intelligent, fun and accessible introduction to literary theory. You do not have to agree with all -or even most -of Eagleton’s claims to get a lot out of this book.
George Orwell, ‘Why I Write’
One of Orwell’s best-known essays: part confession, part call to arms.
Edward Said, The World, the Text and the Critic
This collection of well-written essays discusses the relationship between literature, criticism and political struggle.
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
Arguably the most important single statement of literary modernism. You cannot understand the last eighty years of poetry if you have not read The Waste Land.
Wordsworth and Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads
The poems in this collection are so simple, so elegant, that it is easy to forget how revolutionary the collection was on publication. The preface is well worth attention as a Romantic manifesto.