English Literatures

Below is an indicative range of modules you could study as part of the MA English Literatures Programme:
SEMESTER 1
SEMESTER 2
SEMESTER 3
Humanities Masters Research Training: Research Skills in the Humanities (15)
Humanities Masters Research Training: Reflective Practice in the Humanities (15)
Dissertation (60)
Canon, Anti-Canon, Context (30)
Criticism, Analysis, Theory (30)
Option Module (30) from a selection of modules.
An illustrative list of modules follows.
Life/Writing 1700-1900
The Writer As Critic, The Critic As Writer.
Postcolonial and World Literature in English
Contemporary British Fiction
Contemporary American Fiction
Shakespearean Stages: Advanced Studies in the Plays of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries
Words and Pictures: The Contemporary American Graphic Novel
30 credits
Modules change yearly according to staff availability; where modules are augmented level 6 modules they are not available to continuing Keele students who took those modules as undergraduate students.
Free-standing Masters level modules in English Literatures.
These credit-bearing units can be taken as free-standing modules, either for interest or professional development, or as a taster session for pursuit of a full Masters degree. Entry requirements are similar to those of the MA degree: a 2-1 or higher at BA level (or its equivalent,) in English or a comparable discipline. Students are able to use these modules as part of the requirements for a full Masters degree if they wish subsequently to do so. All MA teaching takes place on weekday evenings between 5 and 7.
ENG-40007: Criticism, Analysis, Theory (30 credits)
‘Criticism, Analysis, Theory’ is a 30-credit module delivered in Semester one. It focuses on a selection of key theoretical and critical issues and methods in contemporary literary and cultural analysis. It introduces students to a common framework of critical discourse in order to: (a) showcase the great variety of interpretive methods presently at work in the discipline of English; (b) enable students to draw distinctions between major paradigms in literary criticism and cultural and critical theory; and (c) help students to make informed decisions about their individual critical priorities and methods in the light of collective debate and discussion, and give them confidence in applying such theory to a range of literary texts. Assessment for the module consists of a 1500-word essay on textual criticism/ book history submitted in the middle of the semester, and a 4000-word research essay, which should be primarily focused on the relative strengths and limitations of a given approach to literature submitted at the end of the module.
ENG-40032: Canon, Anti-Canon, Context
Canon, Anti-Canon, Context is a 30-credit module which is taught across the year over both semesters. It enables advanced students of literature to explore key questions of literary value and function 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, or from filmic ones? How might such texts relate to one another? How does a text become 'canonical'? What prevents other texts from being classified 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 this module consists of a presentation and a 5000-word essay.