Postgraduate Courses in English Literature

Nobody chooses an undergraduate degree in English without first having a love of reading. For many who do so, that love of reading, and of studying literature at an advanced level, does not come to an end at graduation, but carries on into postgraduate study. Postgraduate courses in English Literature are definitely for those who love the subject and want to learn more. Masters’ courses tend to be designed as preparation for further postgraduate qualifications such as the PhD., but for many people the choice to take such a course begins simply as an opportunity to study in further detail the area of English Literature that has interested them the most. Read on to discover how a postgraduate course in English Literature can enhance your knoweldge, skills and interest.

At postgraduate level, you will normally be able to devote a whole year on a topic or period that might have been covered by only one term or semester during your BA. On more interdisciplinary programmes, you will be able not only to take your specialised knowledge of English to a higher level, but also to explore further its relationship with other academic disciplines such as Philosophy or History. Courses tend to be structured around a particular period or genre (for example, Renaissance or Victorian Literature; Modern Poetry, Children’s Literature) or specialist area of the subject (Critical Theory, Gender and Literature, Creative Writing, History of the Book); the MA in English Literary Studies at my own institution, Durham, allows you to construct a course according to your own interests by choosing from the range of different modules that are on offer. MA degrees must contain a compulsory module in Research Methods, designed to teach the advanced level of study skills necessary for postgraduate study in critical writing, bibliography, research (including the use of archives), and IT.

If you have already taken optional papers that rely more on seminar teaching and independent research rather than lectures, you will already be familiar with the main method of teaching in postgraduate courses. Assessment is usually by long summative essays; few MA courses set exams. At the heart of nearly every MA programme in English is the dissertation, which gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in your chosen topic. As a lecturer, I always find it a real pleasure to find towards the end of the process that I am ‘supervising’ rather than ‘teaching’ a student who has mastered their chosen subject area, and is producing genuinely original, independent work. An MA dissertation can be either the culmination of four or more years’ engagement with a particular text or author, or the beginning of a PhD. thesis and a professional career in English Literature.

Most Departments require a good Second-class degree in English or a related subject: given the specialised nature of study at this level, at least some modules in English are generally required. A few Departments may call you for interview; it is more likely that you will be required to submit some sample work with your application. A large number of institutions allow MA courses to be taken part-time in order to allow students who are not able to secure full-time funding to work during their degree.

Graduates with an MA in English will be highly skilled in research competencies, possessing a range of both subject-specific and transferable skills of analysis, argument, and research. Studying a postgraduate course in English Literature provides evidence of sensitivity to language, the capacity for independent thought, strong personal motivation and the ability to synthesise both complex and wide-ranging kinds of information. More than this, however, an English Literature MA is a chance to continue studying a subject that you love, and to spend more time with the kinds of texts that interest you the most.

Contributed by:

Dr Simon J. James,
Co-Director,
MA in English Literary Studies,
Durham University
http://www.dur.ac.uk/english.studies/postgrad/