English Literature Masters - MA

Applicants should usually have a first or upper second-class honours degree, in a relevant subject. Students that meet the criteria will be invited for interviews.

 at least an IELTS 6.5 standard or equivalent.

Textual Technologies

explore ideas about the ways in which literary texts have developed in tandem with technologies related to text in a broad sense.

investigate the ways in which digital and other technologies have impacted on literary forms and modes of production and reception, as well as on what we understand as 'text', 'literature' and 'narrative'.

analyse a range of texts and develop critical and interpretative skills. This range may include print books, digitised narratives, and other text and narrative forms (such as mass and social media)

Contesting Identities: Gender and Sexuality in Literature

examine the shifting paradigms of gender and sexual identities from the late 19th century to the present, with reference to social, cultural and political changes, through a range of texts.

become conversant with theoretical frameworks relevant to gender and sexuality.

engage with debates, theories and politics relevant to the topics of gender and sexual identities.

"Juvenile Trash": Rethinking Genre Fiction

In this module you will evaluate the aesthetics and politics of genre fiction.  You will critically analyse, and/or write within, a selection of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, crime fiction, historical fiction, romance, and children's literature.  You will engage with recent scholarship on these genres also.

Space, Environment and Modernity

examine how literature reflects and shapes the way we see the landscape and the environment; Consider literature's responsibility for the production of concepts of the countryside and the city from the early nineteenth century to the contemporary

engage with pre- and post-1900 literary works that cover a broad historical range of spaces and landscapes;

examine the interrelation of aesthetic, cultural and social practices in representations of the landscape and the environment;

analyse intellectual, cultural, historical and sociological pressures underlying the various responses to the landscape and the environment.

Dissertation

The Dissertation module provides students with the opportunity to undertake a sustained, rigorous and independent investigation of a specialised topic in their chosen discipline area within the contexts of English Literature.