Film Studies and English Literature with a Placement Year

Film studies and English literature together form a powerful combination for anyone interested in how stories are made, how they work on audiences and readers, and what they reveal about the societies that produce them. Literary studies gives you the tools to read texts with precision and care, attending to language, form, genre, and the contexts in which writing is produced and received. Film studies extends that same critical attention to a different kind of text, asking how cinema uses image, sound, editing, and narrative to create meaning and feeling.

The two disciplines share a vocabulary of interpretation while also illuminating each other's distinctiveness.

At the University of East Anglia, this four-year full-time programme includes a placement year, which gives you the opportunity to gain professional experience in a context relevant to your studies. Placements might be in film production, publishing, journalism, education, arts organisations, or cultural institutions, and the year typically gives you both practical skills and a clearer sense of the professional directions the degree can open up. UEA has a strong tradition in both creative writing and literary studies, and this shapes the intellectual culture of the programme, with a commitment to close reading and serious engagement with creative work in all its forms.

You will study novels, poetry, drama, and other forms of writing alongside films from different national cinemas, periods, and genres. You will develop skills in critical analysis, essay writing, and research, and you may also have opportunities to engage with creative practice alongside the more traditional academic work.

Graduates of programmes in film studies and English literature work in publishing, journalism, broadcasting, education, the film and television industries, arts administration, and cultural policy. The combination of analytical rigour and creative sensitivity is valued in any field where communication, interpretation, and cultural awareness matter, and the placement year gives you a practical foundation that many graduates find significantly enhances their employability.