MA English Literature

Programme overview

The MA in English Literature aims to deepen your passion for literature while developing the rigorous specialist skills essential to postgraduate-level research. With the help and support of a distinguished English department, we aim to provide a stimulating and challenging intellectual experience in a friendly, supportive environment.

The programme offers four pathways, which build on the core research strengths of the department:

Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature
Romantic and Victorian Literature
20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Literature and the Environment

If you wish to focus on a particular period you may follow a single pathway. Alternatively, if you want to broaden your engagement with English literature, you may choose no pathway, and combine optional units to suit your interests.

All students are taught the specialist skills required for postgraduate-level research and the practical skills that academic life demands. Everyone is expected to enter fully into the wider academic community of the department and the University.

Careers

Students who complete the MA programme in English Literature have been successful in obtaining employment in the media, journalism, publishing, the theatre, arts administration and teaching, as well as in industry, commerce, law, computing and social work. Many English MA graduates continue their studies by moving on to MPhil/PhD programmes.