(Full time / Part time) 2019 start
English Literature MA
Overview
Discover the incredible diversity of English literature throughout history and around the globe with this broad and varied Masters course. This course allows you to explore the enormous breadth of English literature across different genres, time periods, and cultures.
By choosing from a wide range of modules, you’ll be able to specialise in a particular field or draw unexpected connections between disparate areas such as Arthurian legend or the Victorian media revolution, Black British writing or the Brontës, psychoanalysis or postcolonialism.
This flexibility gives you access to teaching staff with expertise in diverse areas, allowing you to gain a multifaceted perspective on your subject.
You’ll have further freedom to pursue your personal interests through an independent research project on a topic of your choice. Throughout the course, you’ll be encouraged to consider overarching issues relating to the study of English literature in all its forms.
Specialist resources
Leeds University Library is one of the UK's major academic research libraries. It has extensive holdings to support your studies, including English Literature Collections that have been designated of national and international importance.
The Special Collections offer a huge range of rare books, manuscripts and art, covering topics as varied as poetry, feminism, vernacular culture, and the history of science.
Course content
You’ll study compulsory modules designed to give you a solid base of theoretical knowledge and high level research skills.
You’ll also choose from a range of optional modules, giving you the ability to tailor your studies to suit your interests and career ambitions.
As you progress through your studies, you’ll apply what you’ve learned in an independent research project on a topic of your choice.
If you choose to study part-time, you’ll study over a longer period and take fewer modules in each year.
Course structure
The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our Terms and conditions.
Modules
Year 1
Compulsory modules
- Studying English: Research Methods 30 credits
- Research Project 60 credits
Optional modules (selection of typical options shown below)
- Romantic Identities: Literary Constructions of the Self, 1789-1821 30 credits
- Arthurian Legend: Medieval to Modern 30 credits
- Africas of the Mind 30 credits
- Reading (with) Psychoanalysis 30 credits
- So Where do you come from? Selves, Families, Stories 30 credits
- Writing about Death in Nineteenth-Century America 30 credits
- Postcolonialism, Animals and the Environment 30 credits
- Postcolonial Cultures of Encounter and Settlement 30 credits
- The Enigmatic Body of Modernism 30 credits
- Shakespeare's Tyrants 30 credits
- Apprentices to Life: The Nineteenth-Century Bildungsroman 30 credits
- Feeling Time 30 credits
- The Literature of Crisis: Politics and Gender in 1790s Britain 30 credits
- Turks, Moors, and Jews: Staging the Exotic in the Renaissance 30 credits
- Victorian New Media 30 credits
- Imperial Masculinities: Late-Victorian Romance Fiction 30 credits
- Writing Identities: Criticism, Creativity, Practice 30 credits
- Literature and the Politics of Language 30 credits
- War, Mourning, Memory: 1914-1939 30 credits
- Culture and Anarchy: 1945-1968 30 credits
Learning and teaching
You’ll generally have two-hour weekly seminars in each module where you discuss the themes and issues arising from your reading, and you’ll be able to enhance your learning by attending the wide range of research seminars and talks by visiting speakers that we arrange throughout the year. You’ll also benefit from supervisions throughout semester 2 with your dissertation supervisor.
However, independent study is a vital part of the degree as it allows you to build your skills and explore your own ideas.
Assessment
Most of our MA modules are assessed with a single essay of around 4,000 words, which you’ll submit at the end of the semester. You’ll usually also be required to submit unassessed essays to gain feedback on your work and give presentations on your reading in seminars. The research project/dissertation is 12,000-15,000 words in length.
Applying, fees and funding
Entry requirements
A bachelor degree with a 2:1 (hons) in English literature or a related subject.
We accept a range of international equivalent qualifications. For more information contact the School of English admissions team.
English language requirements
IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in all components. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications.
Improve your English
International students who do not meet the English language requirements for this programme may be able to study our postgraduate pre-sessional English course, to help improve your English language level.
This pre-sessional course is designed with a progression route to your degree programme and you’ll learn academic English in the context of your subject area. To find out more, read Language for Arts and Humanities (6 weeks) and Language for Social Science and Arts: Arts and Humanities (10 weeks).
If you need to study for longer than 10 weeks, read more about our postgraduate pre-sessional English course.
How to apply
Deadlines
We don’t have a final deadline for MA Applications, and we’ll consider your application right up until the start date of the programme. However, we encourage you to apply before the end of July if possible, to make arrangements such as securing funding, accommodation or visas. Modules will be allocated to offer holders in early August, so if you apply after that point you may have a more limited choice of modules.
You’ll also need to apply for a place before applying for any scholarships, so check the deadlines for available scholarships on the postgraduate scholarships database.This link takes you to information on applying for taught programmes and to the University's online application system.
If you're unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.
Documents and information you need
You’ll need to upload the following documents when completing the online application form:
- A transcript of your completed BA degree or grades to date
- A personal statement of around 500 words outlining your reasons for applying to the programme and your suitability to the programme
- A recent sample of your academic work of around 2,000 words on a topic relevant to the programme
- We do not generally request references, unless further information is required to support the assessment of your application
- If English is not your first language, you’ll need to submit proof of your English language results (e.g. IELTS)
Read about visas, immigration and other information in International students. We recommend that international students apply as early as possible to ensure that they have time to apply for their visa.
Fees
- UK/EU: £8,500 (total)
- International: £18,500 (total)
Read more about paying fees and charges.
For fees information for international taught postgraduate students, read Masters fees.
Part-time fees are normally calculated based on the number of credits you study in a year compared to the equivalent full-time course. For example, if you study half the course credits in a year, you will pay half the full-time course fees for that year.
Additional cost information
There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more about additional costs
Scholarships and financial support
If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There may be help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government. Find out more at Masters funding overview.
The School of English also offers a range of scholarships for taught postgraduate study. Find out more on our Scholarships page.
Career opportunities
This degree will allow you to develop subject knowledge in a challenging and dynamic subject while building skills that are highly prized by employers.
You’ll be a confident researcher who works well independently, but you’ll also be an excellent communicator and comfortable in a team. You’ll have good analytical and critical skills, as well as having the ability to use different approaches to think about a situation from several different viewpoints.
All of these qualities are attractive to employers across sectors, and you’ll be well equipped to pursue a career in a wide range of fields depending on your interests. These could include teaching, journalism, publishing, advertising, broadcasting and law. Many of our graduates also progress to PhD-level study and you’ll be in a good position to develop a career in academia.
Careers support
Leeds for Life is our unique approach to helping you make the most of University by supporting your academic and personal development. Find out more at the Leeds for Life website.
We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.
The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more at the Careers website.