English

The English Tripos is divided into two parts. Part I, which runs over the first two years of the Tripos, is examined by five papers covering all periods of English Literature from the Middle Ages until the present day.  Students may, if they wish, submit a short dissertation (5000 words) in place of one of the period papers, and a portfolio of three essays in place of another period paper (excluding Medieval Literature). The other compulsory paper - Shakespeare - cannot be replaced by a portfolio or dissertation. There is also the new option of submitting an 'open dissertation' which may focus on any topic without period restriction. In addition to the compulsory papers, students will choose two more from a range of papers including options such as 'Literary Criticism', 'English Language for Literature', and 'European Languages and Literatures'.

Part II of the English Tripos forms the third year of the degree and is examined by four papers and a compulsory dissertation (7500 words), though students may substitute an optional dissertation in place of another of the exam papers. The only compulsory papers are Tragedy and Practical Criticism. Otherwise students may choose from a wide range of options including 'American Literature', 'Literature, Post-1970', 'Commonwealth and International Literatures in English', 'Literature and Visual Culture' and 'Shakespeare in Performance'. Dissertations need not be confined to a particular period.

Whilst the University runs various programmes for writers in residence who offer some teaching, creative writing does not feature as a formal requirement in Tripos exams.  Students may, however, submit a piece of independent creative writing to be considered as part of Tripos work if they wish.

Teaching Methods

English at Cambridge is taught by way of University-based lectures and seminars, together with College-based teaching in the form of supervisions and classes.  In supervisions students are taught in very small groups (usually in pairs) and will normally hand in essays beforehand which act as the starting point for discussion.  It is normal for some supervisions to take place in the student's own college, some in other colleges depending on whether the particular exam paper studied at any one time falls within their College supervisors' areas of teaching expertise.  Classes are sometimes arranged by supervisors in consultation with the Director of Studies to provide, for instance, an introduction to cultural and historical contexts or performance issues, or to conduct revision or group exercises in Practical Criticism.

Applications and Interviews

Applicants to Fitzwilliam to read English are asked to submit two school essays when they are invited for interview. In addition, they will be asked to sit a one-hour written Practical Criticism test when they come for interview. Candidates should also come prepared to discuss their reading both inside and outside the A-level syllabus. The interviewers will pay considerable attention to the candidate's willingness to engage with unfamiliar angles of interpretation. Intellectual curiosity, imagination, the capacity for incisive analysis, organisational ability and commitment to hard work are all qualities we value in our English students.

The standard conditional offer at A-level is A*AA, or a strong group of Highers and CSYS results. The College does not make S-level or STEP papers part of any conditional offer for English. A foreign language at A-level can be helpful but is not essential. Combined English Language and Literature A-level is acceptable provided that candidates assure us of their literary abilities and breadth of reading at interview. Theatre Studies is also acceptable.

Prospective applicants are urged to attend one of our Open Days in order to find out more about the course and the College (details available from the Admissions Office). Please do not hesitate to contact our Admissions Office if you have further questions. 

Further information about this subject can be found on the Faculty of English website

Fellows in English

Paul Chirico is Director of Studies for 2011-2012, a College Lecturer in English, and Fellow and Senior Tutor of Fitzwilliam College. He teaches primarily the literature of the eighteenth century and Romantic periods, with a particular research focus on the early nineteenth century poet John Clare. His book John Clare and the Imagination of the Reader was published in 2007 by Palgrave Macmillan, and he is preparing several further publications, focusing particularly on the dynamics of literary production, circulation and readership in the early to mid-19th century. He is founding chair of the John Clare Trust, which is working to establish a major educational, environmental and cultural centre at Clare's birthplace in the village of Helpston, near Peterborough.

Nuzhat Bukhari was educated at Warwick, Trinity College, Dublin, Oxford and Harvard. Her interests reside in English and American literature, the history of poetry in an international, comparative context, 19th- and 20th- century European philosophy, and European and American visual arts. She teaches many papers on the English Tripos - Practical Criticism and Critical Practice, English Literature 1830-Present, American Literature, Visual Culture and Tragedy - and supervises dissertations on a wide range of ambitious topics. She also loves a wide range of 20th-century music, both popular and Classical. She is presently working on a book on the many portraits of TS Eliot in 20th-century art.

Clive Wilmer teaches the period 1830 to present day and Practical Criticism. His special interests reside in the areas of Victorian poetry and aesthetics and Modernist poetry. He has edited Donald Davie's Modernist Essays: Yeats, Pound, Eliot (Carcanet Press, 2004), and Davie's With the Grain: Essays on Thomas Hardy and Modern British Poetry (Carcanet, 1998). He was the interviewer for the extensive BBC Radio 3 series Poet of the Month, which invited a notable range of poets, including Seamus Heaney and Czeslaw Milosz (the series is published with the title Poets Talking, by Carcanet). He is a distinguished poet and the author of six collections of poetry, the latest of which is The Mystery of Things (Carcanet, 2006). The editor of Penguin selections of John Ruskin and William Morris, he has written and lectured extensively on John Ruskin, William Morris and Ezra Pound. He has written the Introduction to Love is Enough: Pre-Raphaelite Paintings & Poems (Frances Lincoln, 1998). He is currently editing the posthumous Selected Poems of Thom Gunn for Faber and Faber. In 2005 he was awarded the medal Pro Cultura Hungarica by the Hungarian Ministry of Culture in recognition of his many translations of Hungarian poetry.