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English
Potential employers value people with trained minds and a creative approach to problem-solving. English is a discipline that stimulates these qualities.
This programme encourages independent and creative thought. A literary education expands the mind, sharpens cultural awareness and sensitivity, and provides insights into human behaviour and interaction. The close study of texts will provide you with the tools to think laterally and analytically, while a heightened awareness of language will enable you to communicate, in both spoken and written forms, in an articulate and precise way.
English is about language, history and culture. It is about art and aesthetics, meaning and value. At Waikato, papers are drawn from literatures written in English since medieval times, and from all major English-speaking cultures, especially from the United Kingdom, North America, India, Australia and New Zealand. Students who major in English, even students who take just a few papers in English, find that English is about artistic questions, aesthetic questions, questions about the stability of language, questions of cultural meaning and value.
Degrees
English can also be taken as a second major or supporting subject within most degrees.
School subjects required
There are no specific subjects you need to study at secondary school to study English at Waikato.
Other subjects that may interest you
History, International Languages and Culture, Linguistics, Political Science, Religious Studies, Screen and Media Studies, Writing Studies.
Career Opportunities
- Creative Writer
- Editor
- Freelance Writer
- Journalist
- Librarian
- Public Relations or Marketing Executive
Potential Employers
- Government Departments and Local Bodies
- Libraries
- Marketing
- Public Relations Consultancies
- Schools
Papers
ENGL104 Telling the Story
An introduction to how and why great stories are told in English literature, using the Old English epic Beowulf in translation, Arthurian legend, and works by Shakespeare, Coleridge, Austen and Conrad.
ENGL105 New Zealand Literature
This paper explores a century of writing on New Zealand, focusing on issues of identity and belonging, place and displacement, and the tensions between here and there.
ARTS101 Old Worlds - New Worlds
This paper is intended to provide students with a background for study within the Department of Humanities. It is a multidisciplinary paper that has been structured around the metaphor of journey and cultural encounter and will focus on a variety of texts, images and sounds.
ENGL112 From Page to Screen: Literature as Text and Film
A comparative examination of the techniques used to tell stories by novelists, dramatists and directors.
ENGL113 English. Confidence
This paper considers the structure and use of the English language in terms of the student’s own writing. The paper provides a bridge between theories of language and their practical application and can serve as a preparatory paper for language, linguistics and writing papers.
ENGL108 American Literature 1: America Now
An introduction to the literature of the USA with an emphasis on the twentieth century. The paper includes the study of the Harlem Renaissance, New England poetry, the American South, and the American tradition in drama.
200 and 300 level papers include medieval literature, Shakespeare’s theatre, American literature, history of the English language, renaissance theatre and literature, Victorian literature and romanticism.
