English MA (Hons)
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Master
In St Andrews
Description
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Type
Master
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Location
St andrews (Scotland)
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Duration
4 Years
The MA (Hons) in English will teach you to closely read texts across a range of genres and historical eras, and to consider the ideas, human values and historical forces that have helped shape literature.
As part of your degree, you will be introduced to a wide spectrum of literary works, from medieval texts in Old English and Scots to Renaissance plays, contemporary poetry, revolutionary 19th-century novels and more.
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About this course
The MA (Hons) in English is a four-year course run by the School of English. In the first two years, you will read and reflect on a broad range of topics across a variety of literary genres from the Middle Ages to the present day. This will equip you with the range of literary experience and critical skills necessary for more in-depth study of specialist subject areas at Honours level.
Specialist subject areas include (but are not limited to):
Old English literature
literature and ecology
Renaissance bodies
literature and gender
Victorian culture
creative writing
Cold War writing
world literature.
The skills you gain through studying English are marketable in many career areas, and recent graduates in English have pursued a wide variety of career paths.
Perhaps the major strength of all English graduates is communication skills, both in speech and in writing. Other skills you will develop during your degree include critical analysis, structuring information, organisation of time and workload, and effective IT skills.
Career destinations for recent graduates include:
internships with the United Nations
writers and editors for various publishing houses and magazines
sales for Waterstones and WHSmith
charitable organisations
teaching
public policy
the financial sector.
SQA Highers AAAB, including English, English Language, English Literature or Drama.
GCE A-Levels AAA, including English, English Language, English Literature or Drama.
IB points 38, including HL6 in English.
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Subjects
- English
- Drama
- Poetry
- Old English
- Renaissance Literature
- Romanticism
- Victorian novel
- Literary Theory
- Scottish verse
- Restoration drama
Course programme
In the first two years of your degree (known as sub-honours) you will take the required modules in English alongside modules in at least one other subject.
Typically, you will take three modules per semester during your first two years, and two modules per semester during your third and fourth year
1st Year
Students will take both of the following compulsory first-year modules:
- Culture and Conflict: An Introduction to Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature: introduces a small number of texts, in prose and verse, from the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Explorers and Revolutionaries: Literature 1680-1830: examines travel, colonialism, and different constructions of “man’s natural estate” in the early 18th century.
Second year students must take the following two modules:
- Drama: Reading and Performance: introduces a number of representative plays from the Renaissance period and from the 20th century. Emphasis is placed upon the context in which these plays were first created and those in which they are now received.
- Medieval and Renaissance Texts: introduces early forms of English language and literature, using specially edited texts from Old English, Middle English and Older Scots
If you decide to take English in your third and fourth years, you choose from a wide variety of advanced options, including:
- Old English
- Renaissance literature
- Romanticism
- the Victorian novel
- literary theory
- Scottish verse
- Restoration drama
- Shakespeare
- modern American drama
- contemporary fiction
- creative writing
- playwriting.
Here is a sample of Honours modules which have been offered in previous years:
- Beowulf
- Civil Wars on Page and Screen
- Contemporary British Fiction
- Postcolonial Literature and Theory
- Romantic Writing and Women
- The Younger Romantics: Poetry and Prose (1810-1830).
In fourth year, students also undertake a substantial dissertation on a topic of their choice. This independent project enables you to develop key research skills which are desired by both prospective employers and by graduate schools offering postgraduate degrees.
Additional information
English MA (Hons)