The study of English literature allows you to travel without leaving home, to witness historical moments that took place before you were born, and to study the human condition up close, in all its pain and glory. Great literature can give you as much of an insight into the complexities of human nature as any psychology textbook can. It can help you see complicated situations from multiple angles. It can be thought-provoking, moving, shocking, funny – often all at the same time.
We hope that studying English will be a pleasurable and challenging earning experience and that you will acquire intellectual flexibility, an ability to approach problems with an open mind, and a capacity to express yourself coherently and clearly.
Maynooth University Department of English
Toggle 
Information for Incoming First Year English Students
Our First Year modules are specifically designed to guide you from school or access to university-level study.
Our suite of first year modules introduces you to the study of literature at university level. We will guide you through the skills you need to acquire to study successfully at university and we’ll introduce you to exciting novels, poems and plays. You’ll learn how to write essays which express your own views.
WHAT YOU STUDY IN FIRST YEAR ENGLISH
All students of English in First Year take EN101 & EN102. If you’re doing 30 credits of English in First Year you’ll also take EN106 & EN107. These modules will introduce you to the study of English at university level and prepare you for second year.
EN101 Prose and Fiction is our first semester English module on which you’ll read and study a variety of prose texts. You’ll see the power of writing to surprise, engage, move, anger and persuade. You’ll read speeches by orators such as Barack Obama, essays by thinkers such as George Orwell and Mary Wollstonecraft, short stories by writers such as James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield, and Jane Austen’s brilliant novel Pride and Prejudice. In your tutorials on this module you’ll get detailed help in writing essays and in developing your study skills.
In the second semester you’ll take EN102 Poetry and Drama which will give you an in-depth knowledge of poetry and drama, opening up these literary forms in ways you’ll have never come across before. Here too you’ll get detailed tutorial guidance from our lecturers.
Take 30 credits of First Year English and you’ll consider The Undead on EN106, a module that looks at the interaction of history and literature, and how history erupts into literary texts. You’ll encounters ghosts, skeletons and hauntings — things that linger in literature and refuse to die.
In the second semester of your 30 credits of English EN107, our Literary Criticism module, introduces you to new methods of reading, thinking about what literature is and what role it plays in the world. You’ll read works by writers such a Sylvia Plath, Arundhati Roy and E.M. Forster and see them anew through fresh interpretations.
These modules prepare you to decide on your options for second and third year English.
If you want to get a head start on your reading for studying English at Maynooth University, we would suggest that you start out with some of the following.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
August Strindberg, Miss Julie
PLEASE NOTE: The links above allow you to download and print the text or read as an e-book on your smartphone or laptop.
First Year Modules and Reading
.