MA in English Literatures - Keele University
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English

MA in English Literatures

(see also the Prospectus Entry)

The MA in English Literatures offers you the opportunity to study a range of literary texts written in English from different periods and different national traditions (e.g. British; American; Canadian; Postcolonial).   

 

1. Research Skills and Reflective Practice in the Humanities

These linked research training modules introduce students to the skills needed by researchers in the Humanities. The first module (Semester 1) includes sessions on Project Management, Research Skills and the Writing Process. The second module (Semester 2) introduces students to current theoretical debates in the Humanities. Topics might include: Situating Humanistic Knowledge; Creativity and Authorship; Texts and Reading in History; Postcolonialism; Gender and Sexuality; and Memory and Trauma. This module is taught across the Humanities, with students from a range of different Humanities disciplines. Assessment for the modules consists of an annotated bibliography, a project outline, and a study diary.

 

2. Criticism, Analysis, Theory

This module focuses on central theoretical and critical issues in contemporary literary and cultural analysis. It aims to enable students to draw distinctions between major paradigms in literary criticism and cultural and critical theory, and to give them confidence in applying such theory to a range of literary texts, including those related to their individual research proposals. Topics might include: The Rise of English; Historicisms; Book History; Literature, Ethics and Bodies; Interdisciplinarity; Visuality and Literature; and Adaptation and Appropriation. Assessment for the module consists of a 4,500-word essay and an oral presentation.

 

3. Canon, Anti-Canon, Context

This module enables advanced students of literature to explore, at a high level, key questions of literary value and function which are common to literatures of different genres, and from different periods and contexts. The module will ask questions such as: what is a 'literary' text, and in what ways is it different from non-literary texts? How might these texts relate to one another? How does it become 'canonical'? What prevents other texts from being recognised as 'canonical'? How do canonical and non-canonical texts construct and communicate different constructions of identity? How do these texts and identities come to be recovered, and perhaps evaluated differently in different social and intellectual contexts? Assessment for the module consists of a 4000-word essay and an oral presentation.

 

4. Option Module in English Literatures

Students can choose from a wide range of option modules, such as Postmodernism; Culture and Context in Victorian Literature; Advanced Studies in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries; Romantic Voices; Gender and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century American Writing; James Joyce’s Ulysses and The Canadian Metropolis.  (These options will vary year on year, but will always include a range of time-periods and approaches.)  

 

5. The Dissertation

The MA culminates in the production of a 15,000-word dissertation. The topic for the dissertation is developed by the student in consultation with a supervisor. English has expertise in many areas of literary studies (for a full list please see our MRes page). 

 

Apply for MA in English Literatures