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Original poster

English Degree - liar or just 'clever'?

64 replies

Lavalump · 27/09/2019 08:14

I was talking to someone the other day and she said she knew a girl who had gotten her English Literature degree and yet claims she never read the books on the reading list.

Is this actually possible? Initially, I thought not but then maybe she read York Notes, watch films, read summaries and synopsis, old essays etc.

Or is she just lying?

OP posts:
Soontobe60 · 27/09/2019 08:15

Yep, lying.

Froomp · 27/09/2019 08:17

Not lying. I have an English Literature degree, got a good mark (2:1) and after having a high needs baby at the end of my 1st year didn’t always read the books.

TyneTeas · 27/09/2019 08:18

John Mulaney says he didn't read the books for his literature degree in one of his stand ups

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kittlesticks · 27/09/2019 08:21

Might not be lying but meh it sounds so joyless. I also think in a way you would need to work harder to compensate. We always got chucked out of our seminars if we hadn't read the book. It was pretty obvious who had and who hadn't. It's a bit like doing a archeology degree without digging a hole. Boring.

Bezalelle · 27/09/2019 08:23

I have an English degree from Oxford and I didn't read all of the texts. I always say that what my degree taught me was how to waffle convincingly.

Froomp · 27/09/2019 08:24

Bezalelle I would agree with that.

ZenNudist · 27/09/2019 08:25

One of my house mates used to read the clip notes quite a lot and still got a 2:1. But she did still read quite a lot of the actual books. To be fair she was also so quite bright and engaged in the subject.

I think to get a first you have to be quite original in your thought about books.

It might depend on the university and whether or not she was able to clip a lot of content of the internet which was impossible in my day

BadnessInTheFolds · 27/09/2019 08:28

Did she have to write her essays about books on the reading list?

It could be that there were set texts that give a feel for the period and to discuss in seminars / lectures, but she could choose her own texts that she had read for assignments as long as they fit the module title (e.g. the Victorian novel). I think it would be perfectly possible to do that. Or does she literally mean she never read an entire book for her course?

I suppose if there was free choice on essay subject she could also reuse books she'd read at A level or ones with lots of literary criticism about them, or only read the first and final chapter(s). I doubt she'd have got high marks but I could believe someone could cobble together, "some critics say X, some critics think Y" type arguments by doing that.

Seems a bit pointless though!

BalloonSlayer · 27/09/2019 08:32

When I was doing English as a mature student, one of our set books was Middlemarch. I heard one of the "young " ( ie correct age Grin ) students exclaim, "I'm not reading that! Have you seen the size of it?"

I thought at the time that if you were not prepared to have a crack at The Great English Novel you were probably not cut out for a degree in English.

I don't think you could get away with reading nothing though. I mean we never had to write an essay on Middlemarch but if you were writing an essay on themes of blah in Jane Eyre I think yeah you'd have to read Jane Eyre.

I think there's an element of the 14 year old boy pretending not to have done any revision for exams to appear cool going on here.

ZenNudist · 27/09/2019 08:36

BalloonSlayer I know I read Middlemarch but I dont remember anything about it. Except maybe something about a mill?

See also "Ulysses". Somebody Bloom. Thats it.

I remember bog all from my degree.

Chienloup · 27/09/2019 08:41

The highest mark I got during my degree was for a book I hadn't read in Italian Literature. Definitely possible. I read about half the books and got a 2:1, and this was before the days of the internet, and lots of my books were obscure French and Italian texts with no literature guides.

FatherFintanFay · 27/09/2019 08:43

I think it would be possible, but why on earth would you choose a literature degree if you weren't interested in literature? The clue is sort of in the name. But then, I did my degree on a subject that I was spoddily fascinated by and loved all the study and reading it involved. I can't imagine being stuck on a three year course about something I wasn't moved by, especially not now there are ludicrous tuition fees involved.

LIZS · 27/09/2019 08:48

A mix of reading , skim reading and critical articles here.

kittlesticks · 27/09/2019 08:48

Middlemarch is one of my absolute favourites. It's all about humanity in all its forms. Loved it.

PrestonNotHeston · 27/09/2019 08:53

Depends - you can get away with vague references in essays but on my course, the tutors would have realised pretty quickly in the face-to-face teaching that you were bluffing.

I totally agree with PP who wonder why you'd do a literature based course if you don't like reading - I LOVE reading, and learned how to speed read and still digest what was there - but my course covered English Literature from Anglo-Saxon to the present day and that's a lot of pages to turn. Sorry, Thomas Hardy

elQuintoConyo · 27/09/2019 08:59

Middlemarch introduced me to the mesmerising Rufus Sewell

I read pretty much all the books on my course list and books around the themes/times, not easy as I was in halls with media and sports students who fucked about a lot (playing cricket in the hall outside my room while I was writing an essay on Foucault, for example).

I wrote my dissertation on Virginia Woolf and, sadly, have not been able to read her again since 1997 Blush

Rivergreen · 27/09/2019 09:07

I went to Oxford with someone who said they never completed the reading list for their English lit degree and got a 2:1. They were very good at writing and just used the internet and looked up specific chapters / quotes from the internet suggestions. They were also a very good debater, which I think helped them set out a convincing argument.

And when I was there, English was known as the degree where everyone got a 2:1, unless you were phenomenal. Lots of my English friends comforted themselves during finals revision, with "at least we'll always get a 2:1" Grin It was considered harder to get a 2:2 than a first (and only about 5 people in the whole year group got a first!)

ClashCityRocker · 27/09/2019 09:08

Another one who thinks it's a crying shame but should be just about possible - especially nowadays, and if the literature on the course was quite mainstream.

Rivergreen · 27/09/2019 09:13

As to why you'd pick an English lit degree if you don't want to read? We'll in my case it was because they'd been told that with their skillset, they'd be able to do an English degree and easily get a 2:1. So they chose to get a good mark in a degree from Oxford rather than doing what the would have preferred (human sciences) and work harder. They saw getting an Oxford 2:1 as the important ticket to a good career and chose the easiest way to get it. Not what I would have done but...

I think they often went to human sciences lectures rather than English ones too! (Human sciences isn't necessary as scientific as it sounds, you can choose a lot of history and anthropology based modules if you prefer, or get very sciencey and go down the genetics route: it's a fascinating degree)

krustykittens · 27/09/2019 09:39

I read some books and the rest was critical analysis articles and essays. I also did a module on creative writing which allowed me to submit my own novel as a dissertation - piece of piss to write and I just mentioned any book that was relevant to it. I loved my degree and would have loved to have immersed myself in study but as a student living alone in London with no support I was drowning under the demands of a full time job in the evenings and trying to study during the day to make ends meet. I enjoyed my masters much more, 15 years later, when I was financially secure and had the time to enjoy my degree.

Whattodoabout · 27/09/2019 10:41

Completely possible. I have a first in English literature and language. I now teach it in a college and one of the best things I teach my students is the art of skim reading. I can read a novel in a day.

BlindAssassin1 · 27/09/2019 10:54

I think its possible; York Notes are pretty good and all you need is the gist and a few substantial quotes. I knew someone who I believe read all the texts and got a first but never ever touched any critical theory, which I found more shocking.
Its easy to read a good book, even if its a whopper, but harder to understand and get to grips with the sticky stuff of theory and deep analysis.

BogglesGoggles · 27/09/2019 10:56

Neither. Standards in universities are really low. I’ve passed several law modules without ever reading the course materials/attending lectures and just cramming revision books the night before the exam.

Funghi · 27/09/2019 11:06

Not lying. I watched plays and the movie adaptations of the books.

FurryDogMother · 27/09/2019 11:17

I read most of the books on my reading list, but answered an exam question on one I hadn't, based on a quick verbal summary of the book given to me in the queue for the exam by a fellow student. Passed the exam (it wasn't the only question on the paper!) and ended up with a 2:1 - so yeah, it's possible.

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