English Literary Studies (MA)

Entry requirements

2:1 degree in a related subject is normally required. We will also consider applications on an individual basis where you have a degree in other subjects, have a 2:2 or equivalent result or extensive relevant experience. You should clearly be able to demonstrate how your skills have prepared you for relevant discussions and assessments during postgraduate study.

If you have studied outside of the UK, we would advise you to check our list of international qualifications before submitting your application.

Additional Requirements

As part of your application you also need to provide a sample of your academic writing about literature.

Months of entry

October

Course content

Why Lancaster?

• Develop your own critical voice with support from widely published scholars and critics.
• Be inspired by our rich programme of literary events on campus, online, and in the city’s historic Castle Quarter
• Study on campus in the University Library’s bespoke Postgraduate Study Space, or in the Castle Quarter within the University’s Postgraduate Study Hub at The Storey, the city’s Victorian-build arts venue.
• Get involved with our four student-run literary journals: Cake, Lux, Flash, and Errant
• Present your work at the Department’s Master's Literary Studies Conference, usually held in the impressive surroundings of the Castle.
• Enjoy the benefits of our partnership with the archive-rich Wordsworth Grasmere, including internship opportunities

Offering options ranging from the medieval to the present day; this degree allows you to curate your study according to your own interests, thus charting your own course through literary studies and create your own programme.

Acts of reading

Literary studies at Lancaster means not only a deep and close engagement with literature itself but the opportunity, if you wish, to explore how literature opens onto many other worlds – politics, ecology, philosophy, psychology, theology, film, and fashion, etc. To support this, you can if you wish take one a module from outside of the Department -- in, say, History, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Politics, Sociology or Film Studies (subject to availability).

Literary study here also entails the conviction that reading is not passive but active, something which acts upon both the texts that we read and the world in which we live. Neither those texts nor the world are left the same as they were before. This means that as well as encouraging and nurturing all kinds of established forms of literary scholarship, such as archival work, historicism, close reading, and literary theory, we also welcome experimental or creative forms of literary criticism.

Supportive community

You will be taught in weekly small-group seminars, and have regular one-to-one tutorials with a supervisor when working on your Dissertation, a long-form project exploring a topic of your own choosing – this could be a traditional scholarly work, or creative-critical, or indeed a study of how literature works in the world(s) outside the university.

We also encourage you to meet in person with all your tutors to discuss your work. And you will have an academic advisor who you meet to review your progress.

Many of our special literary events, such as talks from visiting scholars and authors, take place in the Castle Quarter, with the Department’s October Lecture and May Gathering being usually held at Lancaster’s ancient Priory. In addition, we have a unique partnership with the archive-rich Wordsworth Museum at Grasmere, which includes internships, an annual study retreat day, and free entry at any time of the year.

Department Bursaries and Prizes

Thanks to a generous endowment, the Department is able to offer

The Bailrigg Awards – these are awards of up to £150 and are open to any student in the Department who is suffering financial hardship endowment.

Three end-of-programme prizes for students on this MA .

Careers

This programme will enable you to develop a host of high-level professional skills from within literary study such as researching, persuading, and presenting. Your skills will be valued by a range of sectors -- from marketing to law, social work to professional services, and business to the media.

Our extensive events programme will provide many opportunities to network and create the connections needed to progress beyond Master's.

Some of our graduates continue their studies at PhD level, and then progress to an academic career. Many others go on to careers outside the academy in fields such as:

• Publishing
• Journalism
• Copywriting
• Television and the media
• Teaching
• Archives
• Museums
• Librarianship

Information for international students

We may ask you to provide a recognised English language qualification, dependent upon your nationality and where you have studied previously.

We normally require an IELTS (Academic) Test with an overall score of at least 7.0, and a minimum of 6.5 in each element of the test. We also consider other English language qualifications.

If your score is below our requirements, you may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language programmes.

Contact: Admissions Team +44 (0) 1524 592032 or email pgadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk

Fees and funding

Learn more at our fees and funding page.