2024/25 Taught Postgraduate Programme Catalogue

MA English Literature

Total credits: 180

Entry requirements:

Entry Requirements are available on the Course Search entry

School/Unit responsible for the parenting of students and programme:

SCHOOL OF ENGLISH

Examination board through which the programme will be considered:

Programme specification:

On the MA English Literature, our students engage in the postgraduate study of Anglophone literature and its contexts and cultures at the highest level. One of the longest-established MA programmes in English Literature in the UK, this programme offers a truly massive range of modules from which our students develop their specialist knowledge and advanced research skills in English literary studies. Through completion of the taught modules, students gain experience and skills, including critical thinking, project management, and proficiency in communicating with diverse audiences, relevant to many professional fields as well as for further academic study.
Taught following a modular structure, the available MA modules span literary topics from Arthurian Legend to Victorian New Media, early modern political figureheads to contemporary representations of US citizenship and belonging. Our modules are research-informed and developed around our staff’s interests and expertise. Areas in which the School has been traditionally renowned – most notably Postcolonial Studies, Victorian Literature, Medieval and Renaissance Literatures – are generously represented, alongside emerging domains such as medical humanities, ecocriticism and digital humanities. The MA English Literature also offers students access to exciting learning opportunities in literary, creative, digital and language-focussed research and practice, alongside the option to study modules affiliated with other Schools.

Students take a compulsory thematic module in semester 1, ‘Yorkshire Literary Landscapes: Writing Places and Identities’, which provides foundational concepts and experience in postgraduate literary studies, celebrating the unique context of literary studies in Leeds and the wider Yorkshire area. Student also select three modules from a wide variety of specialist options reflecting the historical, geographical and theoretical range of literature in English, aligned with staff members’ research expertise. These modules are grouped into three thematic areas: Periods (studying specific temporal eras of Anglophone literature); Zoomed-In (focussing in close detail on the works of a specific author, genre, movement or theoretical framework); and Zoomed-Out (engaging with broad and wide-ranging concepts and themes spanning a range of texts, authors and/or time periods), so as to enable students to identify the options more relevant to their interests, ambitions and academic needs. Students also undertake a capstone research project on a subject of their choice (within any area of English Literature), supported by specialist supervision to produce an extended piece of research that represents their advanced subject knowledge, research and communication skills.
Throughout the year, a wide range of intellectual and social activities are available to our MA students, including research talks, reading groups, excursions, and access to the exceptional holdings in the University’s Special Collections in the Brotherton Library. Each year, our students organise, attend and present at the School of English MA Student Research Conference. Students can also apply for School of English funding (via a competitive application) to support their research project. The opportunities afforded by these activities complement the more formal learning opportunities offered on the course, developing our students as professionals and as researchers.

The MA English Literature is a rich and distinctive programme, which provides opportunities to develop existing interests across many fields in English literary studies, as well as to explore new and emerging areas. It provides knowledge and training in skills that are recognised and respected by employers in diverse industries – our alumni have gone on to be, for example, educators, publishers, policy makers, and journalists – and the programme also affords an excellent platform for progressing to doctoral level research.

Year1 - View timetable

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]

Compulsory modules:

Students are required to study the following compulsory modules

Optional modules:

Candidates will be required to study 90 credits from the optional modules listed in the following three baskets. The baskets are organised thematically. This information should be used by students to identify their preferred options based on areas of interest and intentions for their academic and professional development.
Basket 1: PERIODS. These modules have a temporal focus, exploring the works and contexts of a particular time period in Anglophone literature
Basket 2: ZOOMED IN. These modules provide an in-depth interrogation of a particular author, text, movement or moment in English literature and culture. You will develop your understanding of that specific topic in detail through the examination of primary and secondary materials.
Basket 3: ZOOMED OUT. These modules provide a broad perspective on a literary topic, investigating texts and contexts across time, space, genre or through a wide theoretical lens. You will develop your understanding of a range of issues through engagement with primary and secondary materials.

Candidates can choose options from any modules listed in baskets 1, 2 or 3, selecting one option module for semester 1 and two option modules running in semester 2.

Basket 2: ZOOMED-IN

Basket 3: ZOOMED-OUT

Students may choose option modules from the following list of Medieval Studies modules if they wish (subject to availability):

Last updated: 28/08/2024 16:30:14

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