English Literature

Entry requirements

You should normally hold an upper second-class honours degree, or its equivalent, in English Literature or a related subject. If it is some time since you completed your undergraduate education, or you do not meet the standard requirement, it may be possible to consider your application based on evidence of other relevant personal and professional experience, the support of your referees, and examples of written work.

Months of entry

September

Course content

The MA in English Literature offers an exciting and challenging course of graduate study covering a range of periods and genres from the Renaissance to the Contemporary.

The course enables you to develop subject expertise at an advanced level, and carry out independent research projects in your own areas of interest.

There are currently three MA pathways to choose from:

Pathway in Early Modern Literature

This pathway allows you to focus your study on literary and cultural production from the 1500s to 1800s. It gives you the opportunity to take modules that examine in depth the historical, political and aesthetic contexts that influenced the making of the Renaissance period, but also the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries more generally.

The modules will consider specific thematic, generic and stylistic questions, allowing you to engage in depth with the plays and poems of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Topics will include the development of Renaissance print culture and theatre, the history of the body and the emotions in early modern literature, social class and popular literature, contemporary legacies of Renaissance culture, and a range of independent study options.

Pathway in 19th Century Literature and Culture

This pathway allows you to focus your study on the literary and cultural production of the 19th century. It gives you the opportunity to take modules that examine in depth the historical, political and aesthetic contexts that influenced the making of the Romantic and Victorian periods. This broad pathway enables analysis of a variety of forms of writing, and modules will be dedicated to specific thematic, generic and stylistic aspects of the century.

Topics covered will include the development of the romantic sensibility, the place of religion in the 19th century, the role of women in literature and culture, travel and empire, the limits and possibilities encompassed by the definitions of 'Romantic' and 'Victorian', and a range of independent study options.

Pathway in Modern and Contemporary Writing and Culture

This pathway allows you to focus your study on literary and cultural production since the 1900s. It gives you the opportunity to take modules that examine in depth the historical, political and aesthetic contexts that influenced the making of the 20th and 21st centuries. This broad pathway enables analysis of prose, poetic and dramatic forms of writing from the Anglophone world, and in translation.

Modules will be dedicated to specific thematic, generic and stylistic aspects of the period and topics covered will include the modernist avant-garde; postmodern experimentation; landscape and the search for place; literature and madness; New York stories; the Irish novel; and a range of independent study options.

All pathways within the MA in English Literature consist of four modules: a compulsory core module, two elective modules and a dissertation.

Modules may change; an indicative list is shown below:

• Key Concepts and Methods in Humanities Research (English).
• Class and Emotion in Shakespeare.
• Shakespeare and his Afterlife.
• Romanticisms.
• Victorian Texts: Visions and Revisions.
• Modern and Contemporary Fiction.
• 20th-Century Texts.
• Independent Study.
• Dissertation.

Information for international students

If English is not your first language you will need to provide certification of your English language proficiency. For this course you will need an IELTS score of at least 7, with at least 6.0 in each element. Please also see the university's standard English language requirements

Qualification and course duration

MA

PGDip

PGCert

Course contact details