Medieval Literature and Culture (MA)

This degree has two core modules - Medieval Material Texts, and Medieval Text and Intertext - which run in alternate years. Both modules explore resources for studying medieval literature and demonstrate their use in higher-level postgraduate research work. You will take one of these, depending on your year of entry. The other core module will be offered as an option to part-time students in their second year.

You will also study Approaching Research in Medieval Literature and Culture, which covers the skills you will need in preparation for writing your dissertation. Classes on this module may include field trips to local archives and workshops on describing manuscripts and good writing.

Option modules will reflect the research interests of Birkbeck staff from the Department of English, Theatre and Creative Writing, but also the disciplines of history, archaeology and art history.

These will variously cover:

• Old English, Middle English, and Old Norse literature and books
• Religious, cultural, political and gender history
• Visual, literary, materially and ecologically engaged theory
• The archaeology of a number of different parts of Europe
• European architecture and art.

• Medieval Material Texts
• Medieval Text and Intertext

• Early Modern London: Society and Culture
• Magic, Science and Religion in the Renaissance
• Medievalism: Re-presenting the Middle Ages
• Power and Communication in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (1400-1800)
• Practitioners and Patients in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe
• The Senses in Medieval Europe c1100 to 1500
• Visualising the Renaissance Stage

• MA Medieval Literature and Culture: Approaching Research into Medieval Culture

• Dissertation MA Medieval Cultures