Early Modern English Literature: Text & Transmission MA

Overview:

Study Early Modern English on a degree which is taught by King's and the British Library and provides a unique opportunity to study early modern literary works, including Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson, in the light of recent critical approaches and as print and manuscript material artefacts.

The part of the course taught at the British Library is specially designed to teach students how to search collections of early modern manuscripts and rare books held in major research libraries worldwide and how to identify the agents involved in their production, transmission and preservation in libraries and private collections.

The course offers an ideal foundation for careers in the arts, education, curatorship and broadcasting.

Description:

Our Early Modern English Literature MA is an innovative and exciting partnership between the Department of English at King’s and the British Library.

The course focuses on the transmission of key early modern literary texts, investigating both the circulation of literary texts in manuscript and print and the way they were received. The specific process through which a literary text reaches its readers or its audience is central to its interpretation.

You will learn to read early modern handwriting, to transcribe neglected literary manuscripts and rare printed texts, and to edit them for the modern reader. In focusing on transmission alongside more traditional literary approaches, the course explores the impact of the materiality of the text and of the material conditions of its (re)production on the way it is interpreted.

The Material Legacy of Early Modern Literary Texts module, which is taught at the British Library, is specifically designed to teach you how to search collections of early modern manuscripts and rare books held in major research libraries worldwide, and how to identify the factors and people involved in their production, transmission and preservation in libraries and private collections.

Career prospects:

Our graduates use their skills and knowledge to gain jobs in the arts, creative and cultural industries, curatorship and broadcasting amongst others or go on to futher study.