(BA) Bachelor of Arts
Literature and Art History
Current
University of Essex
University of Essex
Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Honours Degree
Full-time
BA QV23
20/03/2014
Details
Professional accreditation
None
Admission criteria
A-levels: ABB-BBB
IB: 32-30 points
BTEC Extended Diploma: DDM (in relevant subject)
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) code
English language requirements for applicants whose first language is not English: IELTS 6.0 overall. (Different requirements apply for second year entry.)
If you are an international student requiring a Tier 4 visa to study in the UK please see our immigration webpages for the latest Home Office guidance on English language qualifications.
Other English language qualifications may be acceptable so please contact us for further details. If we accept the English component of an international qualification then it will be included in the information given about the academic levels required. Please note that date restrictions may apply to some English language qualifications.
Course qualifiers
A course qualifier is a bracketed addition to your course title to denote a specialisation or pathway that you have achieved via the completion of specific modules during your course. The
specific module requirements for each qualifier title are noted below. Eligibility for any selected qualifier will be determined by the department and confirmed by the final year Board of
Examiners. If the required modules are not successfully completed, your course title will remain as described above without any bracketed addition. Selection of a course qualifier is
optional and student can register preferences or opt-out via Online Module Enrolment (eNROL).
None
Rules of assessment
Rules of assessment are the rules, principles and frameworks which the University uses to calculate your course progression and final results.
Additional notes
None
External examiners
Prof Michael John White
Reader
The University of York
External Examiners provide an independent overview of our courses, offering their expertise and help towards our continual improvement of course content, teaching, learning, and assessment.
External Examiners are normally academics from other higher education institutions, but may be from the industry, business or the profession as appropriate for the course.
They comment on how well courses align with national standards, and on how well the teaching, learning and assessment methods allow students to develop and demonstrate the relevant knowledge and skills needed to achieve their awards.
External Examiners who are responsible for awards are key members of Boards of Examiners. These boards make decisions about student progression within their course and about whether students can receive their final award.
Programme aims
To offer a varied, flexible and distinctive curriculum across the fields of literature and history of art.
To promote awareness of the interactions and differences between the literature and the visual arts in history.
To introduce students to a variety of interpretative methods appropriate to texts and visual artefacts.
To acquaint students with a range of contextual, conceptual and comparative frameworks.
To provide the knowledge and skills (critical inquiry and argument, imaginative understanding, written, spoken and visual communication and presentation) that will not only stand students in good stead for more specialised academic careers, but will also enhance their opportunities for employment in a wide range of other careers.
The outcomes listed below represent the minimum that might be expected of a graduate of the Departments of Literature and History of Art of the University of Essex.
It is the intention of the Departments that the vast majority of graduates will achieve significantly more.
Details of the different standards expected for the various classes of degree can be found in the Student Handbook produced annually by the Departments.
Learning outcomes and learning, teaching and assessment methods
On successful completion of the programme a graduate should demonstrate knowledge and skills as follows:
A: Knowledge and understanding
A1: A range of English literature (and European literature translated into English), from the Early Modern period to the present day, including knowledge of a variety of genres (poetry, fiction, and drama)
A2: A range of visual art from the Early Renaissance to the present day, including theoretical issues that have been central to the Western European tradition in visual art.
A3: The relationships of works of literature or visual art to the broader cultural context covered in 1 and 2.
A4: (in greater depth) the art and architecture of Early Renaissance Tuscany, and one or more periods, places, theoretical texts and forms of visual art.
A5: Some substantive areas of current research in the two fields of study including an awareness of the development of these areas of research
A6: The basic methods of critical analysis and argument appropriate to the fields of study
A7: Some of the concepts, values and debates that inform study and practice in the field.
Learning methods
A1-7 are acquired through lectures, classes, coursework, and a study visit to Florence in the second year.
Literature lectures offer surveys of the major periods covered in the scheme and address the major approaches and issues.
Literature classes, on the other hand, tend to focus in more detail on textual examples, and give emphasis to student discussion and presentation, preparing their argumentative skills for formal assessment.
In Year 3 literature options classes are structured to enable students to pursue more specialised areas of interest.
Art History lectures encourage students to develop knowledge and understanding of visual analysis and theoretical work in the context of a particular historical/geographical framework.
Knowledge and understanding are developed further on compulsory gallery visits in all three years and through seminar discussions and presentations with regular oral feedback from tutors.
Throughout, students are expected to extend and enhance the knowledge and understanding they acquire from classes and lectures by regularly consulting archival materials related to the course.
This independent research is then consolidated in essay work, and through feedback in written form.
Assessment methods
Assessment of students' knowledge and understanding takes place through a variety of assessment instruments including coursework essays, group presentations, individual presentations, virtual exhibitions, viva voce and unseen written examinations, including questions on visual material in photographic form.
Students are expected to analyse texts in the light of the contextual, conceptual and comparative frameworks offered to them during the scheme, whilst also formulating their own arguments and displaying critical competence.
B: Intellectual and cognitive skills
B1: Analyse a given body of material, breaking it down into component points or parts and highlighting the most significant among them.
B2: Synthesise evidence, arguments or ideas from different sources productively in a self-directed manner
B3: Reason critically and offer judgements based on argument
B4: Respond to unfamiliar artefacts, issues or ideas with an open mind
B5: Solve problems using knowledge and experience.
Learning methods
Intellectual and cognitive skills are initiated through lectures, where students are expected to develop skills, and further developed in seminars, as well as one-to-one tutorials where appropriate.
The seminar-based work encourages critical discussion arising from the analysis and interpretation of texts or visual artefacts with an emphasis on being able to reason cogently, argue coherently and present one’‘s own viewpoint persuasively.
For Literature courses, Level 6 students are guided towards the acquisition of a reflective understanding of the arguments they and others propose, the analyses they and others offer, and the critical positions they and others employ.
This is done through in situ feedback (formally and informally, as appropriate) in oral and written presentations, group based critical discussions and the analysis and interpretation of texts and critical positions.
Therefore, Level 5 further develops and hones skills 1-3, but it is also where cumulatively 4 comes into its own.
The theoretical work done in Art and Ideas at Level Five particularly emphasises skills 1-5 through the guidance given in seminar discussion and through feedback on essays.
The seminars are intended as practice sessions for cognitive skills.
Students translate the skills acquired there collectively into individually assessed essays.
In turn, the essays prepare students for the exam.
As the summative assessment for any given course, the exam tests their ability both to demonstrate and to sustain the same skills in controlled conditions.
Assessment methods
Assessment of B1-B5 is by written essays and unseen written examinations, including questions on visual material in photographic form.
C: Practical skills
C1: Visual Skills; including observation (recognition of materials and techniques but also other aspects of works of visual art such as formal organisation or narrative structure), description (using ordinary as well as specialised language) and analysis
C2: Research Skills: including use of appropriate methods to locate primary and secondary sources, and works of visual art.
C3: Critical Skills: including selection of relevant material, and appraisal of other people's arguments on the basis of familiarity with source materials and current literature
C4: Writing Skills: including use of proper academic conventions, creating logical and structured narratives, and effective use of language to convey particular and general responses of readers or viewers to works of visual art, and to articulate complex conceptual issues and create frameworks for understanding them
Learning methods
Skills 1 and 3 are introduced in lectures and developed through classes and through seminars.
Gallery visits form a crucial element in the development of 1, through dialogue among students and with staff in front of particular artefacts, often after preparation in class.
Guidance on skills 1, 2, 3 and 4 are given in teaching, in supervision of essays, and to a limited extent in Departmental Handbooks.
The strategy ensures that, having acquired a basic command of the range of skills, students exercise these skills in the more specialised courses.
A member of staff gives students choosing the Art History Dissertation module, students formal guidance on the development, research and writing of specialist studies, in the form of written instruction and in presentations.
Assessment methods
Assessment is by essays and written examinations.
In order to ensure a basic level of competence in the key skills C1 to C4 the coursework element of AR100/AR111 includes academic skills training.
The examinations for these courses include a specific test of visual analysis.
Provision is made for students to be assessed on a dissertation in Art History or Literature in the third year in lieu of a taught course, subject to their ability to define an acceptable topic in consultation with a chosen supervisor.
Essay questions are designed to test all skills.
Unseen written examination questions on visual material in photographic from test skills 1, 3 and 4.
D: Key skills
D1: The ability to communicate information, arguments and ideas cogently and effectively in a range of different contexts using a range of different aids or resources; special ability to deploy visual material in a variety of media in the context of presentations or written work
D2: Students should be able to make use of IT for research purposes (including searchable databases such as library catalogues and internet sources), to present assessed work, and be able to use email.
D4: Management of projects and timetables. Students should be able to apply knowledge and understanding in order to make judgements and offer solutions in a range of contexts.
D5: Ability to 'read' an argument in seminar discussion; ability to respond effectively; ability to work in a variety of group contexts.
D6: Students should have the ability to: work to briefs and deadlines; take responsibility for their own work; reflect on their own learning and performance and make constructive use of feedback
Learning methods
The University’‘s Key Skills On-Line website (including self-assessment tools) will be listed in Department Handbooks.
The four key skills are implicit throughout the degree.
Communication is developed through seminar discussion, but also through attending lectures.
Visual media skills are developed through personal instruction to students using slide projectors or DVDs/VCRs in class, and through drawing attention to the media whereby visual images are presented to us, both in terms of informing students but also developing a critical appreciation of the relationship between image and context in any medium.
Students are expected to acquire IT skills based on some initial guidance.
Students will be given the opportunity to work constructively and productively in groups, and be able to participate effectively in seminars.
Students are encouraged to share responsibility for their own programme of studies.
Assessment methods
Essays and dissertations are assessed for qualities that incorporate skills D1, D2, D4 and D6.
D5 is assessed through a participation mark in Literature courses