The joint School in Modern History and English was established in 1989 with the intention of encouraging students to develop their knowledge and critical skills in two closely interrelated fields. The intersection between language, culture, and history has been a focus of lively interest within both disciplines in recent decades. Interdisciplinary study has become a thriving area in its own right as scholars have moved away from what would once have been thought of as ‘purely’ historical or literary criticism to a more comparative way of thinking about the written records of the past (including, of course, the very recent past). In essence, this is a course in intellectual history. It asks students to think critically about how we define ‘history’ and ‘literature’, about how the two disciplines interrelate and, to a high degree, overlap. Close attention is given to changing critical methodologies, to the nature of evidence, and to styles of argument. It is assumed that historical documents are just as much texts as are poems, plays or novels, and thus are subject to interpretation as works of narrative, and rhetoric, and, fundamentally, of language. Equally, it is assumed that poems, plays and novels represent historically grounded ways of interpreting a culture.

The course structure is intended to enable you to relate literary and historical ideas in the investigation of all your chosen topics. Whether your interest is in early or middle English, the Renaissance or the later periods, intellectually fruitful combinations are possible. Whichever optional elements you select during your course, the joint degree includes two core interdisciplinary papers in your second year, taught jointly by specialists in the two subjects.

First Year (The Preliminary Examination)

Students study four papers, on which they are examined at the end of the first year.
1.	History of the British Isles. A choice of seven options is available: I c.300–1087 II 1042–1330 III 1330–1550 IV 1500–1700 V 1685–1830 VI 1815–1924 VII Since 1900 Students can look at social, economic, and cultural as well as political themes, and a degree of specialization within these broad periods is readily permitted.
2.	EITHER a paper on historical methods, for which a variety of options is available. These include ‘Approaches to History’ which involves an examination of interdisciplinary ways of studying history; and ‘Historiography: Tacitus to Weber’ which looks at great historians and their works. OR an Optional Subject in History involving the use of primary sources (see Modern History: Course Structure).
3.	Text, context, intertext: an introduction to literary studies. This new course offers the opportunity to address issues such as genre, metre, rhetoric, narrative, realism, intertextuality and interpretation, and to look at a variety of alternative critical approaches to literary texts.
4.	EITHER one of the following: (a) Victorian Literature (1832–1900) (b) Modern Literature (1900 to the present day) OR one of the following: (a) Introduction to Medieval Studies: Old English Literature (b) Introduction to Medieval Studies: Middle English Literature.

The Second and Third Years

The following options are available.
1.	Two interdisciplinary papers chosen from a list of at least three (for instance, options might include Literature and the Public in England, c.1350–1430, Representing the City, 1558–1640, and Postcolonial Historiography: Writing the (Indian) Nation).  Both interdisciplinary papers are examined by means of an extended essay.
2.	A period of British History not studied in the first year.
3.	Two subjects from the broad range of papers available in years 2 and 3 of the English Language and Literature course.
4.	EITHER two papers from the broad range of papers available in years 2 and 3 of the Modern History course, to include either a Special Subject (a paper and an extended essay, and gives an opportunity for studying a particular topic in considerable depth), or a Further Subject paper, plus a period of British or General History not already covered. Details of all these possibilities are given in Modern History: Course Structure. OR one additional subject from the English course plus one additional subject from the Modern History course (either a Further Subject, a General History period or an additional British History period).

Students have the opportunity of offering up to three extended essays and a thesis; full details are given in the University’s Examination Regulations .

The degree course is therefore extremely flexible and there are many different ways in which you can combine options to satisfy your interests. In the first year, for example, you can choose your options so as to focus your work for certain terms on a particular historical period, or you may opt to give yourself as much variety as possible. Most obviously, it would make sense to dovetail work on twentieth-century literature, or Victorian literature, or Old English literature, with study of the equivalent period in the History of the British Isles. For Finals you may again opt for compatibility or diversity of papers; you may also choose to weight the course slightly more towards Modern History or English through your choices of papers 6 and 7. On both the History and English sides of the course the range of special options is considerable, and there is a great deal of scope for exciting and innovative interdisciplinary work.

For further information see the Faculty of English Language and Literature and the Oxford Admissions Website.