English Literature MA

Pursue your love of literature at an advanced level, study modules on topics from the Renaissance to the modern day, and gain research skills that will help you stand out to employers or progress to a PhD. Our Master’s course is ideal if you want to advance your teaching career or begin the move into academia.

With an overall focus on literature, politics and social change, our MA English Literature will equip you to engage with the interface between literature and society. By reading and contextualising a wide range of texts within their critical, cultural and historical contexts, you will be encouraged to evaluate the ideas of others and develop your own critical perspectives and areas of specialised knowledge.

The course focuses on three periods of literary history: the Renaissance, the ‘long’ nineteenth century and the 20th/21st century. Each of the three period-based modules is structured around ideas of politics and social change. The fourth module is a research methods module, which will equip you with the skills needed to complete your dissertations.

You can tailor the course to meet your own interests, with optional modules from novel writing to publishing. You will study in a lively and intellectual department with a long tradition of teaching excellence and an international reputation for research.