Personal Statement - English Language and Literature

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

Wilde said “the self-conscious aim of Life is to find expression, and … Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realise that energy.” I am in agreement with Wilde and particularly believe that the human condition, although objectively dissected by social sciences, is better experienced through literature. I therefore hope that the study of English at degree level will deepen my conceptual grasp of the world, strengthen my contextual engagement with works across the centuries, and train me further in analytical methodology.

By virtue of my A2 ‘Love Through the Ages’ module, I confronted many philosophical and psychoanalytical questions about the nature of love and its manifestation in people. Through my explorations I became engrossed in Ford’s ‘‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’, which I enjoyed as an evocative observation of the human instinct under threat by principles of morality. In my view, Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ has become a modern parallel of the play, although the picturesque narrative of the novel’s protagonist may have a more distorting effect on our judgement of the subject matter. My interest in such ‘dysfunctional’ desire developed through reading literature in translation: Réage’s ‘The Story of O’ and Masoch’s ‘Venus in Furs’ have inspired a fascination for literary representations of paraphilia in relation to gender roles and power disparity. Above all, it strikes me how female submission has been widely accepted as a historical tenet and features as a presupposition in Restoration dramas such as Wycherley’s ‘The Country Wife’, produced during a time in which “liberalised sexuality for women” was at odds with their prevailing socio-economic vulnerability. The play appears to reinforce the gender status quo through its use of stock characters and misogynistic aphorisms.

Like T.S. Eliot, I find the metaphysical poets’ ability to “amalgamat[e] disparate experience” absorbing. In the same way that Marvell can conjure a pair of parallel lines to depict a perennial, fruitless love affair – in perfect synchronicity, mathematically flawless, yet by definition never to be consummated – Donne’s conceits manage to avoid metaphorical clichés and invoke the idea of synaesthesia by illustrating a fusion of obscure, abstract and sensual imagery. A concurrent penchant for the existentialist movement has recently led me to Absurdist fiction and I now anticipate reading Beckett’s works beyond ‘Waiting for Godot’.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

The diversity of my studies beyond English Literature has provided me with a holistic view of the methods of knowledge inquiry and acquisition. I believe literature as an art form to be a unique piece of this overall ‘puzzle’, for example in contrast to the rationality of Maths and empiricism of Physics. Economics offers more than a scientific veneer to the human concerns it shares with literature; through practising criticism of theories I have honed my skills of analysis and evaluation which I wish to expand at university. Nonetheless, translating excerpts of the ‘Aeneid’ at GCSE has shown me the effect of language on meaning and the consequential discrepancies between interpretations. In addition, observing performances of plays such as ‘King Lear’ and ‘Arcadia’ has made me realise that the transformation of text into speech and vice versa is certainly a phenomenon worth pursuing at an academic level.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

I have a passion for current affairs and a growing interest in global development has compelled me to volunteer in Uganda as an English teacher next year. Part-time employment until 2011 will raise funds towards recreational travel – where I expect to indulge my love of photography - and I have also planned an internship with a Chinese television broadcaster. I have faith that my gap year will widen the range of my human experiences in a way that will truly be an asset to my studies at degree level. I relish the opportunity to begin.

Universities applied to:

• Oxford (English Literature & Language)
• UCL (English Literature & Language)
• Leeds (English Literature & Language)
• Bristol (English Literature & Language)
• Edinburgh (English Literature)

Grades achieved:

• Physics (AS) - A
• Maths (A2) - A
• Economics (A2) - A*
• English Literature (A2) - A*

How personal statements have changed?

The current personal statement format, with three 'scaffolding' questions, was introduced by Ucas in September 2025. This personal statement was submitted before then, using the old essay-style format. It has been carefully edited into the three-question format, with all of the original wording kept.

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