BA History & English | Final Honour School (Second Years) - Course Handbook

2024-26

Welcome!

This handbook applies to students starting the Final Honour School in History and English in Michaelmas Term 2024, for examination in Trinity Term 2026.

Welcome to the Final Honour School of History and English. You have probably completed Prelims in History or one of its joint schools, and therefore know your way around Oxford and the academic requirements of the History school. The next two years will enable you to use the skills acquired in the first year to study in much greater depth and breadth, both drilling down much more fully into societies and their surviving sources, and ranging more widely around the world to make bigger connections between the various parts of your accumulating knowledge.

You will become theoretically more sophisticated, and methodologically more competent, which will culminate in writing your own piece of research, and also enable many of you to take on further study in History or perhaps another academic discipline. You will also continue to develop the more general abilities and transferable skills which will equip you to tackle the very wide range of careers open to History graduates.

It is perhaps worth emphasizing here that the final year of the course is very intensive, with several pieces of submitted work including the Compulsory Interdisciplinary Dissertation, to be written, before revision and the final exams. It is therefore important not only to make some time for academic work in the long vacation between the second and third years, but also to ensure that your second-year work is in a good state before the final year, since there will be no time for it in the first two terms of that year.

What follows is the Faculty’s formal Handbook to guide you through the Final Honour School: as well as basic information about facilities and resources and official regulations about courses and examinations, it includes fuller guidance to help you choose amongst the various options, and advice on a range of matters which are new to the course at this stage, such as designing and writing your dissertation, professional referencing, and tackling special-subject sources through the specialized practice of writing ‘gobbets’. You will of course also receive plenty of information and guidance from your colleges too, and ideally Faculty and colleges will complement each other.

You probably won’t want to read the Handbook all at once, but do consider its contents so that you know what is available for reference in the course of the next two years; and there may be sections which catch your eye now as of particular interest or relevance to you. We hope that you will continue to make the most of the opportunity of reading History at Oxford, and to enjoy doing so.

Dr Ian Archer and Prof Lucy Wooding
(Directors of Undergraduate Studies, History)

Professor Paulina Kewes
(Director of Undergraduate Studies, English)

The information in this handbook may be different for students starting in other years. This is version 1.0 of the Final Honour School in History and English Handbook, published online in October 2024.

If there is a conflict between information in this handbook and the Examination Regulations then you should follow the Examination Regulations.

If you have any concerns please contact the History Faculty Undergraduate Office: undergraduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk.

The information in this handbook is accurate as at date of publication; however it may be necessary for changes to be made in certain circumstances, as explained at http://www.ox.ac.uk/coursechanges and http://www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/coursechanges.

If such changes are made the department will publish a new version of this handbook together with a list of the changes and students will be informed.

The Final Honour School of History and English is a two-year course run by the Faculty of History and the Faculty of English.

The course consists of seven papers. The formal Examination Regulations may be found at Appendix 1. The next sections briefly describe the seven units, and full descriptions of each paper are available on Canvas at the links below.

The knowledge and skills you will acquire over the whole course are outlined in Section 2 | Teaching and Learning, which build upon the basic skills you will have developed in the first year.

1| Course Content and Structure

The course consists of seven papers. The formal Examination Regulations may be found in Appendix 1 below.

From the beginning of the second year your engagement with the material you study – historical evidence, literary texts, critical theory and historiography – deepens considerably. Advice on how this might affect your work in either History or English can be found in the Final Honours School handbook for each subject, which you can view on Canvas. As far as the Joint School is concerned, the main change is that, in your second year, you will take an interdisciplinary ‘Bridge’ paper and submit an interdisciplinary dissertation in your third year, drawing on your work in both schools. As in the first year, you will need to use this handbook alongside those from the two parent schools, which you can find online at: https://ohh.web.ox.ac.uk/handbooks (History) and https://oess.web.ox.ac.uk/handbooks (English)

If you check details online, make sure you are looking at the right version of the handbook. They are numbered by the year you take Finals – which will be the academic year after you are given this booklet.

Note on Content

The course explores potentially challenging topics. Literature and the other materials we study sometimes portray extreme physical, emotional and psychological states; depict, question, and/or endorse racist, misogynist and prejudiced views or language; and can include graphic representations of inequality and violence (of all kinds). As a Faculty, we believe that one of the important roles of study in the humanities is to explore and challenge ideas that are shocking or uncomfortable, and to understand their origins, expression and influence. We also recognise that these texts will affect students differently depending on their particular backgrounds and experiences. If anything about the material troubles you, please contact your tutors or welfare supporters.

(i) Illegal combinations of Outline Papers

You may not take a British History paper in Finals of the same period that you took in the Preliminary examination. Here is a list of illegal combinations of outline papers between Prelims and Finals:

British Isles

BIP1 The British Isles, 300-1100 with BIF1 The Early Medieval British Isles, 300-1100
BIP2 The British Isles, 1000-1330 with BIF2 The British Isles in the Central Middle Ages, 1000-1330
BIP3 The British Isles, 1330-1550 with BIF3 The Late Medieval British Isles, 1330-1550
BIP4 The British Isles, 1500-1700 with BIF4 Reformations and Revolutions, 1500-1700
BIP5 The British Isles, 1688-1848 with BIF5 Liberty, Commerce and Power, 1685-1830
BIP6 The British Isles, 1830-1951 with BIF6 Power, Politics and the People, 1815-1924

 

European and World

EWP1 The Transformation of the Ancient World, 370-900

with EWF1 The World of Late Antiquity, 250-650

or EWF2 The Early Medieval World, 600-1000
EWP2 Communities, Connections and Confrontations, 1000-1300 with EWF3 The Central Middle Ages, 900-1300
EWP3 Renaissance, Recovery, and Reform, 1400-1650

with EWF5 The Late Medieval World, 1300-1525

or EWF6 Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700
EWP4 Society, Nation, and Empire, 1815-1914 and EWF10 The European Century, 1820-1925

 

(ii) Capping of certain Further and Special Subjects: in order to ensure that there is adequate teaching provision, certain popular Further and Special Subjects have to be ‘capped’ at a pre- determined number of takers for the year. The definitive lists of available Further and Special Subjects and their capacity will be sent to students before they make their choices; there is then a randomized ballot to determine the distribution of students in cases where applications exceed places. Further Subjects applications are currently processed at the beginning of the second year in Michaelmas Term (with the exception of some joint school students who may choose them in their final year). History and English students may study a Further Subject in their final year. If they choose to do this they will be exempt from the ballot. Special Subjects applications are currently processed at the start of Trinity Term of the final year (again the year may vary for some joint school students).

(iii) Overlap: While you are encouraged to cross-fertilize between different papers so as to enhance your historical thinking, there are some slight limits on the use you can make of material derived from one paper in answering questions in others. Your dissertation cannot be primarily based on the same sources as your Further or Special Subject. You should not repeat the same material, the same arguments supported by the same examples, in different exam papers.

Please be aware of these limits on your choices from the outset. It is your responsibility, and not your tutors’, to ensure that your choices fall within the regulations.

In general, please remember that the arrangement of your teaching, and particularly of tutorials, is a complex business, over which tutors take a great deal of time and trouble.

When your tutor asks you to make a choice, do so promptly, and at all events by the date specified: otherwise it may not be possible to arrange teaching in the subject you want.

The programme aims to enable its students to:

  • acquire a knowledge and understanding, characterised by historical range, depth and conceptual sophistication, of the ways in which literature and language reflect social and cultural contexts and the process of cultural change;
  • think critically about the relationship between historical and literary texts, with particular attention to the nature of evidence, styles of argument and changing critical methodologies of the two disciplines;
  • develop the skill of independent thinking, drawing on technical and critical skills in historical and literary investigation and exposition, and an increased sensitivity to the human issues at the heart of the analysis of literature and of the past;
  • engage and enhance their critical skills, imagination and creativity as an intrinsic part of an intense learning experience;
  • acquire skills which are transferable to a wide range of employment contexts and life experiences.

In your second and third years of the History and English course, you will take a total of seven papers. Overall no more than five of your papers may be examined by submission. You should bear this in mind when making your choices as the Bridge Paper, some papers in English, and Paper (b) of the History Special Subjects are examined only by extended essay.

Expand All

This paper will be taught centrally by weekly seminars in Hilary Term of the second year of the course.

The Bridge Papers for 2024-25 are:

  • Representing the City, 1558-1640
  • Women’s Life Writing: Gender and Social Change, c.1870-1930
  • ‘A Flame of Fire’: (Reading, Reform and Salvation in late medieval England)

See Appendix 2 of this handbook for more details about Bridge Paper.

Written Work for the Bridge Paper

A minimum of two pieces of written work per student is required in the course of the term, at least one of which will be marked and returned by the end of third Week.

Each Bridge Paper is reviewed at the end of the term, by means of questionnaires distributed to all students by the course tutor.

Examining the Bridge Paper

Bridge Papers are examined by an extended essay of 5,000 to 6,000 words which is submitted in Trinity Term of your second year. You must write to request the approval for your proposed essay title from the Chair of Examiners of History and English no later than Friday of eighth Week of Hilary Term (in the second year). The essay must be on an interdisciplinary topic relevant to the Bridge Paper concerned. (Please note that you may not write within exactly the same terms of reference on a topic which you have written on directly in the course of your essay work for the paper concerned.)

Following the class, you will be allowed a total of two meetings, each no longer than 30 minutes, with one of the bridge paper tutors, to discuss bibliography and the planning of the essay. Tutors may not read any draft of your essay.

The essay must be submitted electronically by 12 noon on Friday, 1st Week of Trinity Term (in the second year) via Inspera. Detailed instructions will be sent to all students from the History Faculty undergraduate office.

A period of British History OR European and World History not taken in the First Public Examination.

Details of the papers available may be found on the Canvas site for the School of History at

 

Any two subjects from Course I or Course II of the Honours School of English Language and Literature (you must choose your English papers from either Course I or Course II, rather than one from each). Period papers are generally assessed by 3-hour written exams; other papers are examined by portfolio or extended essay.

Details of all English papers may be found in the English FHS handbook on Canvas: https://canvas.ox.ac.uk

Two additional subjects in History, or History and English, consisting of either

(a) Special Subject (which comprises a three hour paper and an extended essay, constituting two papers), or

(b) two of the following:

(i) One European & World History paper from the Honour School of History

(ii) One Further Subject from the Honour School of History

(iii) One additional subject chosen from papers 1 to 6 of Course I or Course II of the Honours School of English Language and Literature. Candidates must offer all Course I or all Course II English subjects, with the exception of paper 6 Special Options, for which any subject is permitted.

All details about Special Subjects in History for the year concerned can be found in the Handbook for the Final Honours School of History and on Canvas at: https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/courses/22237/modules/items/289698

All details about Further Subjects in History for the year concerned can be found in the Handbook for the Final Honours School of History and on Canvas at: https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/courses/22237/modules/items/289701

All details about European & World History Periods for the year concerned can be found in the Handbook for the Final Honours School of History and Canvas at: https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/courses/22237/modules/items/289700

Students will submit an interdisciplinary dissertation of no more than 12,000 words in length (including footnotes, but excluding bibliography), that will be examined under the regulations of the History Faculty.

Your dissertation topic should be agreed with a supervisor from each school, and will be jointly supervised. The subject of the dissertation may, but need not, overlap with any subject or period on which you have already offered papers. However, you must avoid repetition in your other papers, of materials used in the dissertation.

The dissertation should build upon skills acquired in the course of first- and second-year work: specifically the joint school version of Prelims Paper 1 (Introduction to English Language and Literature) and the bridge paper. It should demonstrate competence in research, and in both literary and historical analysis. The word length is higher than for the English single honours dissertation to enable students to present archival and other comparable historical findings, and to permit, where appropriate, the presentation of statistical or other tables.

You should begin thinking about what topic you might choose in Trinity Term of your second year: tutors will arrange an initial consultation with you during this term, at which you will need to plan your initial reading for the summer vacation. If you choose a topic which none of your college tutors is a specialist in, he or she will find a dissertation supervisor from another college to teach you. Both the History and English Faculties will run information sessions during this term, to give you some suggestions for how to structure your research, and outline the tools which will help you do so.

You will then continue your research through Michaelmas Term of your third year, and will submit an abstract of no more than 200 words to the Chair of Examiners in History and English by Friday, Week 6 of that term. This should be submitted via the History Faculty. You will be informed as to whether your abstract has been approved by the end of Week 7, Michaelmas Term.

Overall, you will receive a maximum of five hours tuition for this paper, including any email or phone contact; these hours will be generally split equally between schools. At least the first supervision session will be jointly given by both supervisors. The exact timing of these sessions will be decided by you and your tutors, depending on how much help you need at each stage of your research, and how far through your research you are at any particular point, but all supervision must have finished by Week 7 of Hilary Term. Supervisors are allowed to give you reading suggestions, to read dissertation plans and sections of your work, and to comment on one draft. General queries on format and presentation can be addressed to your college tutors or to the undergraduate office.

The dissertation must be submitted by noon on Friday, Week 8 of Hilary Term in the third year.

The bulk of the literature studied on this course will be in English. For your dissertation, you may write about literatures in other languages in the following cases:

  • In the case of medieval literature (up to 1550), you may write on the literatures of the British Isles and Ireland in that period (such as Old Norse, medieval French, Welsh, Irish, and Latin).
  • An exception will also be made for projects that (a) take the nature, implications, politics, or poetics of translation and language-use as a central theme, and reflect on movements into and out of English, and/or (b) explore issues of empire, colonisation, resistance, nationhood, and race beyond the Anglophone context, as long as suitable supervisors and assessors are available. (For example, this might include discussions of Spanish, Dutch, Ottoman, or other empires, the literary engagements with which are likely to be in different languages.) Students are asked to consult the HEng convenors in good time.
  • If your dissertation requires extensive quotation from texts in languages other than English, translations into modern English must be provided. Students are advised to leave quotations in the original language, but to provide translations in English in the footnotes. Only the original quotation and not the translation will count towards the word limit (you will have to deduct the number of words in the translated quotes manually).

Areas of interaction between language, literature and history may include

  • The representation of a historical event or figure in novels, drama, cinema or poetry
  • The impact of historical events on literature
  • Literature as a historical source or vehicle of social criticism
  • Diaries and memoirs as a historical source
  • The production, transmission and reception of literary works, whether ‘high’, ‘popular’ or ‘mass’
  • The history of reading or the history of the book
  • History writing as a form of narrative
  • The shaping of language by historical factors and the shaping of historical identities (political, national, gender, ethnic, religious) by the discourses of historical actors and groups
  • The evolution of literary forms such as biography or letter-writing
  • Persuasive arts: theatre, cinema and song
  • Literature as an event, scandal, cause célèbre, the censorship and repression of writers and works

The Declaration of Authorship will be automatically included in the digital submission.

See APPENDIX 3 for Criteria and Mark Descriptors for Bridge Essays and Interdisciplinary Dissertations.

Referencing Style

Candidates should note that there is no referencing style guide distinctive to HENG.  Footnotes and bibliography can follow the conventions laid out in in either the English or History Faculty's guides to referencing and citation.  It is important, though, that you choose one set of conventions to follow and do not mix and match.  If you have read the relevant guidance and still have questions, these should be addressed to your college tutors or to the History undergraduate office.

Guidance for choosing options in HENG

You are preparing for seven papers (NB. History Special Subject counts as two papers). When choosing your options (which you should discuss with your tutors on both sides of the course), you might find it useful consider the following issues:

Examination mode

Some of your papers are examined by submitted essays, whilst the others are by timed written exams. Overall you may not submit more than five submitted essays; this includes the dissertation. You should bear this in mind when making your choices as the bridge paper, some papers in English (e.g. Shakespeare, English Special Option, Paper 4 in Course II), and History Special Subject Paper (b) of the History Special Subjects are all examined by submitted essays.

Deadlines

When considering examination mode, you should also think about the extended essay deadlines for submission. The advice below concerns current deadlines for submission, but you must check them against the History and English FHS Exam Regulations for students taking finals in 2026.

The bridge paper extended essay must be submitted by Friday, week 1 of Trinity Term in Year 2, while the English Course II, Paper 4 portfolio is submitted Thursday, week 9 of Trinity Term in Year 2.

The deadline for the History Special Subject extended essay (paper b) is the Friday of week 0 of Hilary term in Year 3; the Shakespeare portfolio must be submitted in by Monday of week 2 of Hilary Term in Year 3. The joint History and English dissertation needs to be submitted at the end of Hilary term of Year 3 (Tuesday of week 9).

Work for deadlines can often be managed by planning ahead; in particular, if you are taking a History Special Subject and the Shakespeare portfolio you will need to be aware of the deadlines only ten days apart, as above. Students taking the History Further Subject should note that the workload in Hilary Term of Year 2 will be such that time must be allocated to preparation during the preceding vacation.

Course I and II: On the English side, you can choose papers from either Course I or Course II but remember that you must then choose ALL English papers from the same course (i.e Course I or Course II), except that you may choose Special Options (Paper 6) from either course.

NB: Students can pick one strand of choices either from Course 1 or Course 2 in their 2nd year, and in 3rd year can choose from any of the three strands listed below.

This list does not exhaust the range of possible combinations available to HENG students.  However, it does include only advisable combinations which spread workload relatively evenly. 

Please note that the History Further Subject is represented in square brackets to indicate that it can be taken in HT of either 2nd or 3rd year.

EITHER Course 1:

MT2 HT2 TT2

British History (Exam)

OR

European and World History (Exam)

Bridge Paper (Subm)

 

[Further Subject (Exam)]

Literature, 1760-1830 (Exam)

 

Shakespeare (1/2) (Subm)

Literature, 1350-1550 (Exam)

OR

Literature, 1550-1660 (Exam)

OR

Literature, 1660-1760 (Exam)

Bridge Paper (Subm)

 

[Further Subject (Exam)]

British History (Exam)

OR

European and World History (Exam)

Shakespeare (1/2) (Subm)

 

OR Course 2:

MT2

HT2

TT2

Literature, 650-1100 (Exam)

Bridge Paper (Subm)

 

[Further Subject (Exam)]

British History (Exam)

OR

European and World History (Exam)

 

Shakespeare (1/2) (Subm)

Literature, 1066-1350 (1/2)

OR

Literature, 1350-1550 (1/2)

(both Exams)

Bridge Paper (Subm)

 

Literature, 1066-1350 (1/2)

OR

Literature, 1350-1550 (1/2) (Exams)

British History (Exam)

OR

European and World History (Exam)

 

Shakespeare (1/2) (Subm)

British History (Exam)

OR

European and World History (Exam)

 

Bridge Paper (Subm)

 

Medieval English and Related Literatures (Exam)

Shakespeare (Subm)

European and World History (Exam)

Bridge Paper (Subm)

 

[Further Subject (Exam)]

History of the English Language to 1800 (Subm)

 

Year 3:

MT3

HT3

History Special Subject (Subm and Exam)

 

Shakespeare (1/2) (Subm)

Dissertation (Subm)

English Special Option (Subm)

Shakespeare (1/2) (Subm)

Dissertation (1/2) (Subm)

Further Subject (Exam)

 

Dissertation (1/2) (Subm)

English Special Option

 

Shakespeare (1/2) (Subm)

Dissertation (Subm)

 

[Further Subject taken in 2nd year]

European and World History (Exam)

 

Shakespeare (1/2) (Subm)

 

Dissertation (1/2) (Subm)

Literature, 1330-1550

OR

Literature 1660-1760

[OR Further Subject]

(All Exams)

Dissertation (1/2) (Subm)

History Papers, Year 2

Paper Term Dept/Faculty College Comments
Lectures Classes Tutorials Classes
[1.] History of the British Isles 1- 7, and Theme Papers A and B MT 16   8*   16 lectures in MT and 8 tutorials in either* MT or TT, can be flexible for Joint School students. In TT, there will be 4 lectures for BIF 1-6, 8 for BIF 7 and 8 for Theme Paper B
HT        
TT     8*  
[2.] European and World History 9 and 11, Theme Papers A and C MT 16   8*   8-16 lectures in MT and 8 tutorials in either* MT or TT for these papers, can be flexible for Joint School students.
HT        
TT     8*  
[3.] European and World History 4-7, 8 and 10, 12 MT     8*   16 lectures in HT and 8 tutorials in either* MT or TT for these papers, can be flexible for Joint School students.
HT 16      
TT     8*  
[4.] European and World History 1-8, 13 and 14, Theme Papers B and D MT     8*   8-16 lectures in TT and 8 tutorials in either* MT or TT for these papers, can be flexible for Joint School students.
HT        
TT 16   8*  
[5.] Further Subjects MT         Taught via 6 classes and 6 tutorials, which take place in HT. (Some tutors have asked to deliver their subject in 7 classes and 5 tutorials.)
HT   6 6  
TT        
[6.] Compulsory Interdisciplinary Thesis MT         Introductory lectures and workshops in HT and TT of year 2; at least one session with college tutor or external supervisor in TT.
HT 2      
TT 2   1  

History Papers, Year 3

Paper Term Dept/Faculty College

Comments

Figures in this table are in hours unless otherwise stated.
Lectures Classes Tutorials Classes
[1.] Special Subjects 1-31 MT   8 4-6   Submission of Special Subject Extended Essay at start of HT.
HT        
TT        
[2.] Compulsory Interdisciplinary Thesis MT     4   Maximum of 4 hours advice from supervisor/s during MT and HT. Timing is flexible. Submission at end of HT.
HT      
TT        
[4.] Revision MT         One revision class may be offered at some time in TT for the Further Subject, and one revision class or tutorial for the EWF paper.
HT        
TT   1 1  

 

     

   

English Faculty  

   

College  

   

 

 

 

Paper

Classes

Tutorials

Classes

This is a guide to the typical pattern of tutorials and classes offered by colleges. The actual number of classes or tutorials may vary between colleges.

All papers are supplemented by optional Faculty lectures.

Paper 1 (Shakespeare)

 

4

4

 

Paper 2 (1350-1550)

 

6

4

 

Paper 3 (1550-1660)

 

4

4

 

Paper 4 (1660-1760)

 

4

4

 

Paper 5 (1760-1830)

 

4

4

 

Paper 6 (Special Options)

5

 

 

Five Faculty seminars in the first term of the final year, supplemented by two individual meetings with course convenors to give feedback on written work

Paper 7 (Dissertation)

 

 

 

4 hours of college-based supervision, including email and phone contact, typically in the second term of the final year

Appendices

 

Honour School in History and English, 2024-25

A 

  • 1. The Honour School of History and English shall be under the joint supervision of the Boards of the Faculties of History and English Language and Literature and shall consist of such subjects as they shall jointly by regulation prescribe. The boards shall establish a joint committee consisting of three representatives of each faculty, of whom at least one of each side shall be a member of the respective faculty board, to advise them as necessary in respect of the Honour School and of the Preliminary Examination in History and English.
  • 2. No candidate shall be admitted to the examination in this school unless he or she has either passed or been exempted from the First Public Examination.
  • 3. The Chairs of Examiners for the Honour School of History and for the Honour School of English Language and Literature shall consult together and designate such of their number as may be required for the examination for the Honour School of History and English, whereupon the number of examiners shall be deemed to be complete.

B

Each candidate shall offer seven subjects as set out below. The subjects will be examined by written examinations of three hours’ duration, unless otherwise specified.

1. Submitted work

  • (a) Candidates should note that no more than five out of the total of seven Final Honour School papers can be examined by submission. Candidates should also note that some English and History papers are examined only by submission and should bear this restriction in mind when making their choices.
  • (b) For submission of English Language and Literature papers: A copy of each extended essay or portfolio must be uploaded to the University approved online assessment platform, according to the deadlines specified in the regulations for each subject. It is additionally strongly recommended that the candidate keep a copy of his or her submission. A certificate signed by the candidate to the effect that each extended essay or portfolio is the candidate's own work, and that the candidate has read the History Faculty and English Language and Literature Faculty guidelines on plagiarism, must be included with each submission (see (d) below). Certificates will be circulated to candidates for completion by the History Faculty Office and the English Faculty Office.
  • (c) For submission of History papers: Candidates must submit electronically using the University approved online assessment platform according to the deadlines specified in the regulations for the Honour School of History. Procedures governing this process will be published by the Board. 
  • (d) For submission of the interdisciplinary bridge paper and the interdisciplinary dissertation: Candidates must submit electronically using the University approved online assessment platform according to the deadlines given below. Procedures governing this process will be published by the Board.
  • (e) Every submission must be the work of the candidate alone, and he or she may not discuss with any tutor either his or her choice of content or the method of handling it after the last date indicated in the regulations for each subject.
  • (f) Essays previously submitted for the Honour School of History and English may be re-submitted. No essay will be accepted if it has already been submitted, wholly or substantially, for a final honour school or other degree of this University, or degree of any other institution.
  • (g) Essays may be penalised that are deemed to be either too short or of excessive length in relation to the word limits specified in the regulations for each subject.

2. History and English papers

  • (i) One compulsory interdisciplinary bridge paper, which shall be examined by an extended essay of between 5,000 and 6,000 words, including footnotes and notes but excluding bibliography. The list of topics for this paper shall be published to candidates by the beginning of the first week of the Michaelmas Term in the year preceding the final examination, and shall be available thereafter from the English Faculty Office and the History Faculty Office.

Candidates must obtain written approval from the Chair of Examiners for the Honour School of History and English for the proposed essay title, not later than Friday of the eighth week of the Hilary Term in the first year of the Final Honour School.

Candidates must submit their bridge paper essay electronically by no later than noon on Friday of first week of Trinity term of the final year of the Final Honour School using the University approved online assessment platform. Procedures governing this process will be published by the Board.

  • (ii) One Outline or Theme paper in the History of the British Isles or one Outline or Theme paper in European/World History. No candidate may offer a period similar to one offered when passing the Preliminary Examination. Illegal combinations will be specified by the Board.

(iii) and (iv) Two subjects chosen from subjects 1 to 6 of Course I or two subjects chosen from subjects 1 to 3 and 5 to 6 of Course II of the Honour School of English Language and Literature (as specified in the regulations for the Honour School of English Language and Literature).

(v) and (vi) Two additional subjects, consisting of either:

    • (a) Special Subject from the Honour School of History (which comprises a three hour paper and an extended essay, constituting two papers), or

(b) Two of the following:

      • 1. One paper in European & World History from the Honour School of History;

2. One Further Subject from the Honour School of History;

3. One additional subject chosen from papers 1 to 6 of Course I or Course II of the Honour School of English Language and Literature, except paper 4 of Course II. Candidates must offer all Course I or all Course II English subjects, with the exception of paper 6 Special Options, for which any subject is permitted.

  • See the regulations for History and for English Language and Literature. The individual detailed specifications and prescribed texts for the Further and Special Subjects as specified for the Honour School of History will be given in the Handbook for the Honour School of History. This will be published by the History Board by Monday of Week 1 of the first Michaelmas Full Term of candidates' work for the Honour School.

The lists of Further and Special Subjects and of Outline and Theme papers in the History of the British Isles and European & World History available for the following year will be published by the History Faculty Board in fourth week of the Hilary Term prior to candidates beginning their studies for the Honour School.

  • (vii) One compulsory interdisciplinary dissertation, which shall be examined by an extended essay of not more than 12,000 words, including notes and source material but excluding bibliography.

Candidates must submit to the Chair of Examiners for the Joint School of History and English, care of the History Faculty Office, not later than 5pm on Friday of the sixth week of the Michaelmas Term preceding the examination, a title and abstract of not more than 200 words detailing the proposed dissertation topic.

The candidate must submit the dissertation to the Chair of Examiners for the Joint School of History and English, via the University approved online assessment platform by noon on Tuesday of Week 9 of the Hilary Term preceding the examination. A certificate, signed by the candidate to the effect that each essay is the candidate’s own work, and that the candidate has read the History Faculty and English Language and Literature Faculty guidelines on plagiarism, must be included with the submission (see the introductory regulations for ‘submitted work’ for the Honour School of History and English).

Please note that the teaching capacity for the History and English Bridge Papers to be taught in Hilary Term 2025 will have a minimum viable number of two students. Each student should therefore submit a first and second choice subject to the History Faculty undergraduate office in week 2 of Michaelmas Term.

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The course will seek to examine the issue of identity in the early modern metropolis: how Londoners understood their city, and their relationship to it, as well as to each other. It will do so by looking at identities as expressed in a great variety of genres: plays, civic pageants, pamphlets, sermons, diaries, historical chronicles, maps, and visual representations.

1 London’s Spaces Past and Present In the first session, you will look at the topography of the city, and use it as means of exploring Londoners’ sense of identity. How far did Londoners identify with their city, and its constituent communities? What were the implications of rapid urban growth for metropolitan identity? What did Londoners understand of their past, and how did the sense of the past shape their approach to current issues?
2 The Royal Chamber The second session will look at the implications of London’s capital city status. Using royal entries and the texts of lord mayor’s shows, it will explore the ambiguities and tensions in the relationship between city and court, and the ways in which those tensions could be articulated within the constraints of genres dedicated to the celebration of a basically harmonious relationship.
3 Manufacture, Trade, and Consumption: The Dilemmas of Wealth The third session will look at the ways in which economic change was presented and understood in the city. It will stress ambivalent responses: the tension between celebration of commerce and the possibilities for social mobility and charitable endeavour that it entailed on the one hand, and the anxieties generated by the culture of acquisitiveness and rampant consumerism.
4 Status Anxieties: Merchants, Gentlemen and Craftsmen The fourth session will take further some of these themes by looking at the status anxieties induced by a city undergoing rapid growth and social change, particularly stressing the tensions between court and city, gentry and merchants articulated within the city comedies, though it will seek to demonstrate the complex relationship between the literary representations and the fluidity of social realities.
5 Sex in the City Gender relations were a key site for the articulation of the anxieties induced by rapid urban change. The fifth session will show how the peculiar position of women in the city made them appear potentially threatening and how these concerns focussed on the commodification of sex, and female participation in the culture of consumption.
6

Godly London?

 In the sixth session, you will assess the place of the religious loyalties of Londoners in the articulation of identity. The roles both of Biblical archetypes for the city and of providentialist discourses in discussions of contemporary London will be examined. How far did such discourses resonate with ordinary Londoners?
7 Outcast London The seventh session will address the more poorly integrated. How did Londoners understand the marginal members of their community: vagrants, the poor, and criminals? What was the relationship between literary representations and social reality, and how are the dissonances to be explained?
8 Strangers and Citizens In the final session, you will have a chance to address the problem of the reception of the alien. How did early modern English men and women respond to ‘asylum seekers’? What was the relationship between the stereotypical alien and the experiences of ordinary Londoners?

 

This course seeks to bring together the rich and diverse historical debate about the religion of late medieval England with close reading of some of the wealth of literary texts which were written, circulated and printed in this period, c.1380-c.1530. It will explore the writings of Lollards and their opponents, proponents of orthodox reform, the lives of saints, meditations on the life of Christ, and the works which emerged from both the monasteries and the towns and cities of late medieval England. It will address historical debates about the vitality or vulnerability of the late medieval church, the significance of the arrival of printing in England, and the lived experience of religion. It will look at how the vigour and versatility of late medieval belief and practice found expression in script and print, poetry and prose, and discuss themes of reform, interiority, gender, memory and emotion.

Abbreviations:

  • EETS: Early English Text Society;
  • EEBO: Early English Books Online;
  • MMTE; The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England, 8 vols.. 1980-2013 - available in various quantities in Bodleian, History and English Faculties, and college libraries;
  • TEAMS; Teaching Association for Medieval Studies, Middle English Texts Series, available online
1

Inventing Heresy

This class will look at the emergence of Lollard literature, the influences which shaped it, and its significance within late medieval England. It will ask how the concept of heresy was constructed at the time, and how it should be approached by historians and literary scholars.
2

Orthodox reform

This class will explore the reforming literature which remained within the bounds of orthodoxy whilst seeking to revitalize religious belief and devotion. It will discuss the range of approaches taken by religious writers, including their defence of images in the face of Lollard criticism.
3

Encountering Christ

This class will look at the centrality of the life of Christ within late medieval literature, and discuss the significance of Christocentric piety for movements of reform and reformation. It will explore the significance of bodily and emotional imagery, the influence of gendered perspectives, and the relationship between elite and lay understanding of religion.
4

Lives of Saints

This class will be devoted to hagiography, considering its literary expression and its pastoral and polemic significance side by side. It will examine the implications of the cult of the saints for understanding the devotional life of the laity, and ask how these texts reflected broader cultural concerns of the time.
5

Carthusians and Brigittines

This class will look at the literary legacy of two leading monastic orders in the late medieval church. It will explore the extent to which monastic ideals were disseminated through literature, and explore the implications of these texts for religious reform.
6

Urban Piety

 This class focuses on the religious experiences of both clergy and laity within late medieval towns and cities. It will discuss what was distinctive about the religious and literary culture of the pre- Reformation urban environment, and explore the implications of this for understanding the pace of religious change.

This paper explores the varieties and complexities of British women’s life-writing during a period of rapid change in female experiences and opportunities. It examines life-writing in many forms, including diaries, memoirs, letters, autofiction and essays to trace the multifarious ways in which women defined themselves and presented their lives through their writing. This was a period in which life-writing developed in diverse directions, including its use as a tool of political contestation and generic shifts in response to modernism.

The paper encompasses a rich variety of themes. Working women’s memoirs and letters recount devastating experiences of poverty; whilst the autobiographies of activists such as suffragette Annie Kenney and the sociologist Beatrice Webb demonstrate how a new generation of women wished to present their responses to social problems. Women’s shifting opportunities in the fields of work, politics and personal relationships led many cultural commentators to identify a new phenomenon, that of the ‘New Woman’. Literary productions emerging from these discussions, such as E.H. Dixon’s The Story of a Modern Woman (1897), will be analysed alongside the letters and diaries of young, politically-active career women such Eva Slawson and Ruth Slate. These sources testify to the enduring centrality of family concerns and the consequent implications for female subjectivity. The intimacy of Slawson and Slate’s own relationship raises important questions concerning the articulation of same-sex love in this period. The inclusion of Radclyffe Hall’s notorious, semi-autobiographical novel, The Well of Loneliness (1928) provides the opportunity to analyse further queer identities and critiques of heteronormativity.

The First World War brought civilian women closer to the front than any previous conflict and affected almost every British household. Few families did not mourn a loved one by 1918. Yet the gender gap was divisive; while women could nurse men, they could not themselves fight, and the psychological distance between home and the front line was, for many, unbroachable. Women wrote extensively about their profoundly affecting experiences of the war. Often, the new roles in which they found themselves necessitated a complex re-thinking of gender boundaries, and this plays out in intriguing and quotidian ways in their literature. Vera Brittain wrote her popular memoir Testament of Youth (1933) to speak on behalf of her generation, and as an act of commemoration for those she lost. This paper sets Brittain’s memoir alongside less well-known nurses’ testimonies. Whereas Florence Farmborough’s diaries suggested she relished some aspects of her wartime adventures in many respects, Mary Borden’s impressionistic The Forbidden Zone (1929) experimented with poetry, short story and other forms to convey her sense of the fragmentation of culture and identity that she felt the war had wrought. The term will conclude with a session devoted to Virginia Woolf, perhaps the most influential female figure in the field of life-writing. We will examine her extraordinary novel, Orlando: a biography (1928), whose protagonist changes sex from male to female; and will also sample Woolf’s published biographies, both fictional and factual. Woolf’s writing on gender, war and the position of women provides further opportunities to explore how women’s lives were remembered, imagined and recorded.

1 Working-class Women and Working Lives
2 The New Woman
3 Vera Brittain
4 Radclyffe Hall
5 Nurses’ Testimonies
6 Virginia Woolf and Life-writing

Each student will be set core secondary reading, and then each will be asked to prepare a mini- presentation on one of the following. This will lead to a workshop-style seminar in which students compare strategies, themes and perspectives to emerge from considering these various aspects of life-writing together.

  1. The Letters of Virginia Woolf, Nicolson, N. and Trautmann, J. (eds) (1975-1980)
  2. The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Bell, A.O. and McNeillie, A. (eds) (1979-1985)
  3. ‘A Sketch of the Past’ and ‘Reminiscences’ in Moments of Being, University of Sussex Press (1986), rev. by Lee H. Pimlico, 2002
  4. Orlando (1928)
  5. A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas H. Lee (ed.) (2001)
  6. Travels with Virginia Woolf ed. Morris (1997)
  7. Flush: a Biography (1933)
  8. ‘I am Christina Rossetti’ (1930), ‘Walter Sickert’ (1934), ‘The New Biography’ (1927) and ‘The Art of Biography’ (1939). These essays can be found either in Virginia Woolf, Collected Essays, L. Woolf (ed.), Chatto & Windus, 1996-7, 4 Vols, or in The Essays of Virginia Woolf, ed. A. McNeillie, Hogarth Press, 4 Vols, 1994 -.

Further details of set texts and bibliographies for all three bridge papers can be found on Canvas here:

https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/courses/22237

Written Work for the Bridge Paper

A minimum of two pieces of written work per student is required in the course of the term, at least one of which will be marked and returned by the end of third Week.

Each Bridge Paper is reviewed at the end of the term, by means of questionnaires distributed to all students by the course tutor.

Examining the Bridge Paper

Bridge Papers are examined by an extended essay of 5,000 to 6,000 words which is submitted at the start of Trinity Term of your second year. You must write to request the approval for your proposed essay title from the Chair of Examiners of History and English no later than Friday of eighth Week of Hilary Term (in the second year). The essay must be on an interdisciplinary topic relevant to the Bridge Paper concerned. (Please note that you may not write within exactly the same terms of reference on a topic which you have written on directly in the course of your essay work for the paper concerned.)

Following the class, you will be allowed a total of two meetings, each no longer than 30 minutes, with one of the bridge paper tutors, to discuss bibliography and the planning of the essay. Tutors may not read any draft of your essay.

The essay must be submitted electronically by 12 noon on Friday, 1st Week of Trinity Term (in the second year) via Inspera.

Engagement
  • identification and clear delineation of an interdisciplinary subject, appropriate to the word length of the essay/dissertation;
  • awareness of historiography, literary history and critical traditions where relevant;
  • depth and sophistication of comprehension of and engagement with issues;
  • grasp and handling of critical materials.
Argument
  • coherence, control, independence and relevance of argument;
  • clarity and sophistication of development of argument;
  • conceptual and analytical precision;
  • originality of argument;
  • quality of critical analysis of text in the service of argument.
Evidence
  • use of primary texts;
  • sophistication of methods of research;
  • relevance of information deployed;
  • depth, precision, detail and accuracy of evidence cited;
  • relevant knowledge of primary texts.
Organisation & Presentation
  • clarity and coherence of structure;
  • clarity and fluency of prose;
  • correctness of grammar, spelling, and punctuation;
  • correctness of apparatus and form of footnotes and bibliography.

 

 The above criteria will inform the following mark bands:

I

86-100

 The essay will be outstanding for its originality and sophistication, featuring a highly sophisticated and critical understanding of the implications of the chosen topic, and of its context in the secondary literature.

80-85

 The essay will excel across the range of the criteria, and will be both distinctive and thought-provoking in its argument and/or use of evidence. The essay will be well-written, focused and cogent, answering its own question(s), which will be important ones, and analysing relevant texts and sources incisively and precisely. It will demonstrate a confident grasp of both the challenges and opportunities presented by interdisciplinary work, and will deal both penetratingly and accurately with the disciplinary assumptions of both History and English, and also with relevant critical theories and historiographical debates. The choice of topic, the argument and the selection of evidence will be superbly well-tailored to the demands of the prescribed word length.
75-79 The essay will be excellent in its combination of quality of problem-identification and research-design, range and sophistication of engagement with historiographical and literary critical or language context, coherence, clarity and relevance of argument, and quality of primary evidence adduced. The essay will be well-written, focused and cogent, answering its own question(s), which will be worthwhile ones, and analysing relevant texts and sources incisively and precisely. It will demonstrate a firm grasp of both the challenges and opportunities presented by interdisciplinary work, and will deal accurately with the disciplinary assumptions of both History and English, and also with relevant critical theories and historiographical debates. Some first-class answers may be distinguished by the sophistication or originality of the argument, approach or interpretation; others may contain a particular wealth of relevant evidence; some of the best work in this range may combine these characteristics. In all cases, the choice of topic, the argument and the selection of evidence will be well-tailored to the demands of the prescribed word length.

70-

74

 First Class marks should be awarded to essays that are consistently impressive across all criteria of conceptualisation, argument, evidence, and interdisciplinarity. Such work may combine truly outstanding performance on some criteria with high competence that would otherwise merit upper-2:1 marks on other criteria.
II.1 65-69 An essay in the upper-2:1 range will be highly competent across all criteria, and very clearly so where marks just below 70 are awarded. It will address a suitable interdisciplinary question, and answer it by analysing a respectable range of relevant texts and sources. It will show appropriate awareness and understanding of the relevant secondary literature in both History and English, together with an adequate sense of the implications of interdisciplinary approaches. A given essay may do better justice to either the historical or the literary aspects of its topic, but it will merit a mark in this range if both aspects are present and at least one of them is handled to a high standard. An essay that raises some organisational or evidential problems, but is distinguished by sophisticated or original engagement with an interdisciplinary problem, may also merit a mark in this range.
  60-64 An essay which the examiners consider to be of average quality across most criteria should be placed in this band. It will be consistently competent and should manifest the essential features described above, in that they must offer an argument in response to a clearly-identified problem based on evidence acquired in research; but they will do so with less range, depth, precision and perhaps clarity. Again, qualities of a higher order may compensate for some weaknesses.
II.2 50-59 An essay toward the top of the 2:2 band will be of reasonable quality, showing some solid competence in meeting the criteria, though also some deficiencies. It will address an interdisciplinary question; it will comment on at least some primary sources/texts; and it will show some awareness of the secondary literature in both History and English. It is likely to be flawed in two or more of the following ways, however: imprecise answer to the question; inconsistent presentation and referencing; unclear writing; unduly unbalanced emphasis on either the historical or the literary aspects of the question; narrow range of sources; limited awareness/understanding of the historiographical/critical context; poorly-chosen question; failure to integrate parts of the material into an effective analysis/argument; errors of fact.
III 40-49 A third-class essay will, as a minimum, address an interdisciplinary question, using at least some source material and showing some understanding of the literary and/or historical context. It will tend to have a larger number of the flaws listed in the box above, and/or will manifest them to a worse degree. A very short essay which nevertheless has promise may fall into this band.
Pass 30-39 Provided that the essay addresses a recognisably interdisciplinary question and engages with at least one source, it will typically be worthy of a pass mark. Essays in this category will typically feature many of the flaws in the II.2 box, but to a more serious degree. They will be marred by high levels of factual error and irrelevance, generalization and lack of information, and poor organization and presentation; and they may be very brief.
Fail <30 An essay that does not address an interdisciplinary question and/or does not base any of its content on the analysis of a source, will be deemed to fail. Other reasons for failure may include plagiarism, gross inaccuracy, gross failure of expression, or grossly short weight.

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History

Directors of Undergraduate Studies: Dr Ian Archer and Dr Lucy Wooding

Undergraduate Officer: Andrea Hopkins

Assistant Undergraduate Officer:  Alex Vickers

Examination Officer: Isabelle Moriceau

Teaching Officer: Callum Kelly

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English

Director of Undergraduate Studies: Professor Adam Smyth

Academic Administrator: Andy Davice

Chair of the History and English Joint School: To Be Confirmed

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