Our English Literature MA is an opportunity to engage with a wide range of contemporary and historical texts to explore questions of intertextuality, adaptation, appropriation, tradition and literary inheritance. As well as studying texts in depth, you will go beyond this to consider their wider contexts and the interelationships between them. We also focus on investigating the concept of literary value, how it can be determined or disputed, and literature’s relationship to space and place.

This course will give you an in depth understanding not just of individual literary texts, but of how they relate to each other, to their wider literary and global context, and to our changing perceptions of literary value. The focus of the modules capitalises on the particular areas of expertise of our dynamic and supportive academic team, but they have also been developed in consultation with industry experts, to ensure your learning is relevant to many different potential career paths.

Rather than focusing on a particular form or period of writing, it allows you to explore texts across time, place and genre, and ask questions about literature as a broader concept. This means that when it comes to your final dissertation, you have free rein to focus on whatever genre, form, literary period or theme interests you most. For this extended project. You will be assigned a supervisor from our team, whose research expertise span a wide range of specialisms.

The English Literature department at York St John University has an established record of high levels of student satisfaction, and a reputation for being student-focused. As a student on this course you will be part of a vibrant postgraduate community, and an exciting research culture, with several active and welcoming research groups.