The BA degree in English and American Studies is offered jointly by the Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures and the Department of the English Language and ELT Methodology.

Forms of Study

• Single-subject:
  Single-subject students are enrolled only in the English and American Studies BA programme.
• Joint-subject:
  Joint-subject students are enrolled in English and American Studies AND another subject within the Faculty of Arts. They must pass the entrance exams in both subjects. At the conclusion of their studies, they must choose a thesis topic in one of the subjects.

General Structure

The degree is structured around three main areas:

1. Literatures on the British Isles; British, Irish and Commonwealth Cultural Studies
2. American and Canadian Literature and Cultural Studies
3. English Language and Linguistics run by the Department of the English Language and ELT Methodology.

Literatures on the British Isles; British, Irish and Commonwealth Cultural Studies
The core of the BA programme is a three-semester lecture with seminars which provide an introduction to the development of the literature and relevant cultural background to the following principal topics: English Drama to the Restoration, the Rise of the Novel, the Period of Romanticism, the Victorian Novel, Modernism and Contemporary Literature. The course is complemented by one-semester lecture on medieval literature and culture on the British Isles and a seminar on the same topic for Single Subject students. The lecture Introduction in British and American Studies (one semester) discusses selected modern concepts of culture, multiculturalism, ethnicity, nation and cultural region, cultural diversity of the English-speaking countries and the relation between literature and communication technologies (writing, printing press and modern media). Another one-semester course (mandatory for single subject students, optional for double-subject students) is the introduction to the history of theoretical thought on literature and art from the antiquity to the modern age. Single Subject students must also attend a course on modern British history.

American and Canadian Literature and Cultural Studies
The core of the BA American Literature programme consists of a three-semester lecture and seminar devoted to American literature from the colonial period to the present. The central topics are Colonial Literature, American Romanticism and Transcendentalism, Main Trends in Later Nineteenth-century Poetry, Humour and Satire in Later Nineteenth-century Fiction, Realism, Naturalism and Other Developments in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century Fiction, Modernism, The Writing of the Expatriates, Southern Literature, The War Novel, The Development of Twentieth-century Drama, African American and Contemporary Literature, including Postmodern Tendencies and Literary Activities of Varied Ethnic Groups. Seminars focus on historical traditions and cultural trends, literary techniques, and artistic expression. Single Subject students must also attend a course on modern U.S. history.

English Language and Linguistics
The introductory course in the BA linguistics programme covers selected topics on English linguistics: varieties of English, genetic and structural classification of English, British vs. American English, inflectional and derivational morphology, syntax, lexical semantics, lexicography, phonetics/phonology, accentology and graphology. Subsequent courses in morphology and syntax focus on the grammatical categories of parts of speech, and on simple, compound, and complex sentences, again on a contrastive basis. All three courses are composed of a lecture and a seminar. The history of the English language (two semesters) rounds out this programme. This course is a survey of the development of English through three stages: the Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English periods. For full information please refer to the website of the Department of the English Language and ELT Methodology.

In addition, in the first year students must take mandatory courses in:

• English Skills in Cultural Communication (two-semester seminar)
• Introduction to Literary Studies (two-semester seminar for all plus two-semester lecture for Single Subject Students)

These courses function as prerequisites for courses in the second and third years of study. Without the appropriate credits for these courses students will be unable to continue with their studies at the Department.

Additionally, single-subject students must select 3 elective courses, worth in total 9 credits, and offered within the Department in the following modules:

1. Literatures on the British Isles
2. American and Canadian Literatures
3. Intercultural Studies
4. English Language and ELT

These courses are offered as optional to joint-subject students (subject to capacity).

Students who started the programme in 2021/2022 and later must select 4 elective courses, worth in total 12 credits.

Both single- and joint-subject students have the opportunity to take optional seminars offered within the Department as well as within the University. For these courses, single-subject students must receive at least 28 credits and joint-subject students at least 9 credits in the course of their BA study.

All BA students at the Faculty must fulfil credit requirements in Philosophy and a Foreign Language.

For detailed information on credit requirements and the recommended sequence in which to take courses students should consult the study plan:

• single-subject study plan (from 2016)
• double-subject study plan (from 2016)
• joint-subject study plan (from 2019)
  
• single-subject study plan (from 2021)

The BA Degree is concluded by:

• BA final exam
• BA thesis

Students writing a thesis in English and American Studies must also complete a seminar in preparation of the BA thesis. At the Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures, this course takes the form of individual consultations with the thesis supervisor.

Credit Requirements

In order to complete the degree, single-subject students must acquire 180 credits in total (out of which 18 are for optional courses).
In order to complete the degree, joint-subject students must acquire 180 credits in total, 79,5 in the English and American Studies programme (10 are reserved for optional courses).

Joint-subject students have to obtain 50 (90,120) credits in both their subjects together.

For more detail, see the Faculty Study Regulations.

Duration

The BA programme is normally three years (i.e. six semesters of instruction) in duration for full time students. However, many students take a fourth year to complete the final thesis. Please consult with your thesis supervisor should you need to prolong your studies for this reason.

Students may also apply to study abroad for a semester or two as part of the Erasmus+ programme. However, as courses and credits are not exactly equivalent, this may result in a prolongation of study at the Department in order to fulfil core requirements.