Studying for an English Literature MA at Liverpool allows you to advance your literary scholarship and pursue areas of interest across a wide variety of genres and historical periods.
Introduction
You will have the opportunity to study a wide range of literary disciplines, genres and themes. Our general pathway offers a flexible and bespoke route of study, allowing you to take modules from across other MA English Literature pathways, such as Renaissance and Eighteenth Century, Victorian, Modern and Contemporary, and Science Fiction.
We look to equip our students with the knowledge and confidence to reflect critically and creatively on the practices, contexts and real-world applications of literary study.
You’ll acquire the necessary research skills to make effective, critical interventions in the study of English Literature. You will be able to participate in our lively research culture through attending regular seminars and lectures by guest speakers, as well as our own staff and students.
You will be encouraged to take a global perspective on changing literary, cultural and political landscapes, and invited to explore current critical and theoretical debates.
You’ll be taught by staff including award-winning writers and four BBC ‘New Generation Thinkers’, who are experts in their respective fields.
English Literature students graduate with sought-after skills that apply to a wide range of careers, and a significant number of MA graduates also continue their studies to PhD level.
Who is this course for?
This master’s is suitable for English Literature graduates who want to explore this subject further across a number of literary time periods.
What you'll learn
Detailed literary knowledge across a variety of genres
Effective and critical research skills
How to present and communicate clearly for advanced study
Textual analysis from multiple perspectives
How to debate, argue and persuade
Continued independent learning and critical thinking
Course content
Discover what you'll learn, what you'll study, and how you'll be taught and assessed.
Semester one
In addition to the three compulsory modules, students are required to take at least 60 credits. You must also take at least one of the following core modules:
Editing the Early Modern (ENGL752)
Genre Definitions (ENGL780)
The Modern (ENGL770)
Yore Victorians (ENGL760)
Compulsory modules
Research Skills and Practice (ENGL700)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 1
Research Skills and Practice introduces students to the practices, contexts and real-world applications of academic research. Through regular seminars and a variety of assessment methods, it provides students with the opportunity to develop skills in advanced literary study, independent research and para-academic activities. The knowledge and skills practised through this module provide a foundation for the world after Master’s study.
Optional modules
Genre Definitions (ENGL780)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 1
How (and why) do we point at a story and say, “This is science fiction”, and what does such a gesture reveal about the genre and our own attitudes to its concerns? In this module, we will explore the territories that Science Fiction ranges over, historically and conceptually. From “A Planet Called Science Fiction” (weeks 1-4), which examines the space that science fiction marks out for itself, we will move into the complicated relationship that Science Fiction has with fantasy, and analyse the ways in which it has been sub-divided into various effects and sub-genres in “Travels in Genre Space” (week 5-8). The final section of the module, “Re-drawing the Genre Map” (weeks 9-12), explores the burgeoning field of sf production, its relevance to society, and the ways in which its tropes and techniques relate to other “fantastic” modes of literary production, alongside recent controversies in the field.
Literature and Crisis (ENGL771)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 1
This module encourages students to read widely across the late 19th, 20th and 21st centuries with the specific angle of ‘crisis’. Topics may include literary responses to political, social, psychological, theological or climate crisis, aesthetic responses to moral or societal panic, war and migration/trauma, as well as any links between identity and crisis in literature and the visual (photography, film, fine art). Authors may include: Bessie Head; Jean-Paul Sartre; Virginia Woolf; Sarah Kane; Danez Smith; Solmaz Sharif among others. We will consider how the framing of crisis as a moment or event shapes how we think about chronologies of literary response and its social uses. The module will be delivered via six fortnightly seminars.
Science Fiction and/as The Archive (ENGL781)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 1
Science Fiction texts are, for all their presentations of alternative worlds, deeply embedded in the cultures that produce them. Using examples from the Science Fiction Foundation Collection and science fiction archives in the University Library, this module introduces students to skills of archival research alongside providing the knowledge required to understand how modern Science Fiction developed as a unique interaction of authors, editors, and readers. Alongside this, students will read selected sf texts that consider or reflect upon the notion of the archive and/or which reveal themselves to be “archival” texts through their relationship to their contemporary period. Although texts may vary year-by-year, indicative authors include Margaret Atwood, Alastair Reynolds, Olaf Stapledon, and John Wyndham.
Shakespeare & Co (ENGL751)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 1
The aim of this module is to read Shakespeare’s plays and poetry in company with others’ works and writings, and thereby to consider a ‘comparative’ approach to reading and interpreting Shakespeare both within and beyond his own time, and against eighteenth-century ideas of him as the great English poet of ‘Nature’, ‘Nation’, and ‘Genius’. Particular attention will be paid to Shakespeare’s contemporaries – for example Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson – as well as to his Restoration and eighteenth-century adapters and ‘improvers’, critics and performers, such as Colley Cibber and David Garrick. Material studied may include Shakespeare’s critics: Jonson to Johnson; Shakespeare and Marlowe; Shakespeare, and Milton; Hamlet and its ‘ghosts’; Richard III – sources and adaptation; and collaborative dramas in which Shakespeare is a co-author, such as All is True and Sir Thomas More.
The Modern (ENGL770)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 1
This module encourages students to engage with literary modernism in a range of contexts, from the cities in which it was made to the periodicals in which it was published and the theories that contributed to its development. As well as analysing the formal innovations of modernist literature, students will explore connections between writers, texts, works of visual art, geographic locations and mass culture, to understand modernism as a global network of people, objects, places and ideas. Conceptions of modernity will be studied, including approaches to the past and tradition, and ideas around novelty and fashion. Authors may include: T.S. Eliot, Hope Mirrlees, Virginia Woolf, Jean Rhys, Mina Loy, Djuna Barnes, Jean Toomer and Nancy Cunard.
Victorian Gothic (ENGL761)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 1
On this module, we will explore the strange, the uncanny and the supernatural in Victorian literature. We will examine the range and variety of Victorian Gothic writing: its hauntings, supernatural terrors and sensational stories. We will consider the literary, cultural and technological contexts of Victorian Gothic, including its relationship to realist literature, to shifting beliefs about religion, nature and the human, and to new and emerging technologies. We will also explore current critical debates in Gothic studies and introduce key theoretical approaches to the genre. Expect lots of discussion of the fears and thrills that kept Victorian readers awake at night.
Yore Victorians (ENGL760)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 1
Victorian literature and culture revived, reconstructed, and reimagined the Middle Ages. The nineteenth century’s fascination with days of yore saw a new word – “medieval” – invented to reflect the upsurge of interest in, and romanticisation of, the Middle Ages in art, architecture, literature, philosophy, politics, and religion. This module interrogates the ways in which the Victorians made the medieval through their literature and material culture. Students will encounter a variety of texts and objects of the Victorian revivals (medieval, Gothic and classical), through archives, art collections, digital resources, and architecture unique to the city of Liverpool. Attention will be given to the profound implications of the Victorian medieval revival on shaping ideas of England and Englishness locally and globally, past and present, showing students how they are still Victorians today.
Editing the Early Modern (ENGL752)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 1
How do editions of the literary works read and study come into being? What’s involved in their production? What textual complexities and difficulties might they obscure? And how far can or should an editor go in resolving these complexities and difficulties? The aim of this module is to show how your critical understanding and interpretation of Renaissance and eighteenth-century literary works can be enhanced by unlocking key aspects of their remarkable life and history on the page, from early printed forms through to present-day editions. Working with an expert team of tutors with current experience in the scholarly editing of early modern texts, Editing the Early Modern introduces you to key debates in textual theory, examines the specific editorial, challenges raised by works of Renaissance and eighteenth-century writes, and asks you to produce (and defend) your own scholarly edition of a passage from an early modern text. In this way, the module introduces you to the practice of scholarly editing, historical trends and current debates in editing and textual theory, as well as early modern printing practices and book history.
Any optional modules listed above are illustrative only and may vary from year to year. Modules may be subject to minimum student numbers being achieved and staff availability. This means that the availability of specific optional modules cannot be guaranteed.
Semester two
In semester two, you must take at least one of the following core modules:
Fictions of Technology (ENGL782)
Literature, Slavery and Empire (ENGL750)
Reading Victorians (ENGL762)
The Contemporary (ENGL772)
Optional modules
Bodies in Space (ENGL783)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 2
The philosopher Rosi Braidotti tells us that science fiction unfolds social imaginaries that reveal to us our potential to metamorphose, to mutate to become posthuman, while Donna Haraway urges us to embrace our cyborg identities. Such new materialist thinking shapes this module. To borrow from Karen Barad, what we’re interested in here is how ‘matter itself is diffracted’; how are different kinds of bodies – human and non-human, gendered, raced, classed, aged, prosthetic, engineered, planetary – materialized and sedimented according to the various spaces in which they find themselves. These spaces can be bewilderingly diverse in science fiction: from the hyper-urban to the rural, from the aquatic to the aerial, from high to zero gravity, from confined spacecraft quarters to the hostile expanses of desert planets. We’ll explore representations of gender, race and religion, with particular attention to the ways in which bodies become vulnerable or empowered, protected or miscegenated. And we’ll also address the ethical and practical concerns of exploration, immigration, colonization and cultural imperialism, all the while with an eye to theories of embodiment that take us far beyond binary thought into new forms of becoming.
Fictions of Technology (ENGL782)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 2
This module examines texts from a variety of historical periods, interrogating the role that technology plays within them. After setting up some of the initial concerns of the module regarding technology, and the relationship between literature and technology, we will situate our reading within three broad topic areas: Technologies Across Time, Humanity & Technology, and The Uneven Distribution of the Future.
Literature and Science (ENGL754)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 2
This module explores the literary and cultural frameworks within which scientific knowledge and practice was produced, narrated, and communicated during the Renaissance and long eighteenth century. Reading science as performance, and theatre as experiment, the module will locate plays alongside alchemical and natural philosophical ideas and writings, in order to think through the issues both literature and science raise about secrecy and public demonstration, curiosity and observation, audience, and space. The module will also pay attention to how emerging ways of knowing and seeing influenced poetic and prose accounts of body and mind, discovery and imagination, and nature and self, and how writers were inspired by or set themselves against different narratives of nature, from simple conceits to grand visions of the cosmos.
Literature, Slavery and Empire (ENGL750)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 2
At the end of the sixteenth century, England was making its first attempts to build a tradition as a nation of travellers and unsuccessfully attempting to establish colonies in north America. By the end of the Eighteenth century the European Grand Tour was a standard part of a British aristocratic education, and the British Empire was a global force actively participating in the international slave trade. This module looks at both literary and non-literary records of and responses to: the relationship between the ‘old world’ or the Mediterranean and the ‘new world’ of the Americas; the encounter with unfamiliar people and lands; the rise of and debate about the international slave trade, from the perspective of both the enslaver and the enslaved; the literary and cultural importance of these developments for the city of Liverpool.
Reading Victorians (ENGL762)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 2
Reading was woven into the fabric of the Victorian world. Thanks to urban living, cheaper printing, and vastly increased rates of literacy, Victorian society was one of the first societies where you might not have known your neighbours very well, but in which you were surrounded by vast swathes of paper and print – a forest of words. This module not only aims to investigate how the Victorians thought about reading – what they read, how they read it, and how reading itself was thought about and portrayed in literature; but also how we read the Victorians today – who reads them, how and where they are read, how that reading is perceived and constructed, and what insights and benefits our reading of the Victorians in the contemporary moment might gift to us.
The Body (ENGL773)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 2
This module focuses on theories of the body in contemporary critical thought and in modern and contemporary literature using relevant theory to support readings of a range of literary texts. We will study politically informed theories such as critical race studies, feminist, queer and disability studies and topics such as the maternal body, the body in pain and the ageing body. In all these cases the body emerges as a concept marked by internal division in terms of sex, gender, age, size, and race. We will study bodies as organisms and bodies as social phenomena, exploring the tension between the body’s material manifestations and its sites of immateriality such as the mind, spirit, psyche and affect.
The Contemporary (ENGL772)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 2
This module asks students to consider the question ‘What is the Contemporary?’. How can literature help us to understand our sense of ‘the now’ and locate us in the present? And what does it have to tell us about our past and our future? These enquiries take in a series of literary and critical positions on matters of ‘the present’ and ‘contemporariness’ as explored through literature and theory. Over a series of seminars, students will be required to conceptualise and understand the different ways that we can understand the idea of the contemporary, contemporaneousness as a historical term and as a term of theoretical discourse.
Victorian Murder and Other Crimes (ENGL763)
Credits: 15 /
Semester: semester 2
This module examines the literary representation of murder and other serious crimes in the Victorian period. Students will examine the interrelation of different genres in the period (such as court and newspaper reports, essays and the novel). The module considers these topics in relation to wider cultural and intellectual developments such as evolving ideas about psychology and forensic evidence, and in particular how such matters may be reproduced in literature so as to allow the reader a window into the world of crime. Students will be encouraged to consider the significance of genre when thinking about Victorian representations of murder and to engage with a wider range of primary sources. They will develop appropriate research methods and understanding of theoretical perspectives, and combine these with detailed textual analysis in the development their critical reading and writing skills.
Any optional modules listed above are illustrative only and may vary from year to year. Modules may be subject to minimum student numbers being achieved and staff availability. This means that the availability of specific optional modules cannot be guaranteed.
Final project
You will continue to work on and complete your dissertation over the summer.
Compulsory modules
Dissertation (ENGL702)
Credits: 60 /
Semester: summer
The final dissertation, comprising a 14,000-15,000-word thesis on a subject devised by the student and agreed with their supervisor, is written over the summer. Some students take this opportunity to explore in more depth a theme, idea, or author studied in one of the taught strands; others strike out in a wholly new direction. This module is a culmination of previous modules studied on the MA, in which students, under the supervision of a tutor, bring to bear the skills, knowledge and confidence they have developed over the course of the Master’s programme.
Any optional modules listed above are illustrative only and may vary from year to year. Modules may be subject to minimum student numbers being achieved and staff availability. This means that the availability of specific optional modules cannot be guaranteed.
How you'll learn
Teaching on the MA in English Literature is delivered through a combination of seminars and tutorials held on campus. Depending on which module options you choose, there may be lectures and separate seminar sessions scheduled, but all classes will take place on campus in person. Class sizes for master’s programmes in the Department of English tend to be small, and a typical class in English will include between eight to ten students.
How you're assessed
On the English MA you will be assessed by a combination of formative and summative coursework. This will take a number of different forms, including essays, essay plans, research proposals, and a dissertation. In addition, students will be assessed by presentations in certain modules. Other assessment formats may apply also depending on the options modules taken.
Liverpool Hallmarks
We have a distinctive approach to education, the Liverpool Curriculum Framework, which focuses on research-connected teaching, active learning, and authentic assessment to ensure our students graduate as digitally fluent and confident global citizens.
Your experience
The Department of English, based in the School of the Arts, is committed to small group teaching and encouraging a more rewarding learning experience, with ideas shared and explored amongst peers and tutors. You’ll have access to extensive library facilities, special collections and Liverpool’s renowned museums, libraries and galleries.
Support for students with differing needs from the Disability advice and guidance team. They can identify and recommend appropriate support provisions for you.
An exciting place to study English
The Department of English is in the top 100 English Language and Literature departments in the world according to QS Top Universities rankings
We are internationally renowned for advancing the study of language, literature, and creative writing and have a strong research ethos
Our programmes offer opportunities to study creative writing and literature from a wide range of periods, as well as a range of approaches to understanding the way in which the English language works
We have a reputation for radical thinking, as exemplified by our success rate in the BBC and Arts and Humanities Council’s ‘New Generation Thinkers’ scheme. In total, five members our academic staff have been selected since the scheme was established in 2010
We are committed to small group teaching. This encourages a more rewarding learning experience, where ideas are shared and explored with peers and tutors
Ranked 10th in sector for research impact classified as outstanding (4*) (REF 2021)
We are host to Europe’s largest collection of science fiction materials which includes the John Wyndham Archive and home to the annual Liverpool Literary Festival.
What students say...
The staff are the best thing about the English department. They’re not only incredibly knowledgeable about their fields, but they are also enthusiastic, encouraging and take a genuine interest in their students’ work.
The MA in English Literature provides students with rigorous academic training in the broad interdisciplinary field of literary history, theory and culture. The professional skills that students will develop upon completion of the programme will prepare them well for a wide range of potential employment areas.
Career support from day one to graduation and beyond
Our English degree programmes are valued by employers who recognise the skills our students develop, including teamwork, project design, critical thinking, proficiency in text analysis and communication and presentation skills.
The MA is particularly suitable for graduates looking to pursue careers in:
The arts
Culture, creative and heritage sectors
Journalism
Copywriting
Management in arts and culture organisations
Teaching.
If you wish to continue your academic studies, you will find a supportive and nurturing research environment that prepares you well for doctoral-level research activities. Career pathways that follow this route include employment in higher education (teaching and/or research), or teaching at secondary and further education levels.
89% of University of Liverpool postgraduate students go on to highly skilled employment within 15 months after graduation.
Graduate Outcomes survey, 2019-20
Fees and funding
Your tuition fees, funding your studies, and other costs to consider.
Tuition fees
UK fees (applies to Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland)
Full-time place, per year
£11,700
Part-time place, per year
£5,850
International fees
Full-time place, per year
£24,100
Part-time place, per year
£12,050
Fees stated are for the 2025-26 academic year.
Tuition fees cover the cost of your teaching and assessment, operating facilities such as libraries, IT equipment, and access to academic and personal support.
If you're a UK national, or have settled status in the UK, you may be eligible to apply for a Postgraduate Loan worth up to £12,167 to help with course fees and living costs. Learn more about fees and funding.
Additional costs
We understand that budgeting for your time at university is important, and we want to make sure you understand any course-related costs that are not covered by your tuition fee. This could include buying a laptop, books, or stationery.
We accept a 2:2 honours degree from a UK university, or an equivalent academic qualification from a similar non-UK institution. This degree should be in English studies or a closely related subject.
Applicants will be asked to submit a sample of written work (e.g. an essay from your undergraduate studies) as part of the application process. You will be contacted in regard to this once you have submitted your application.
International qualifications
If you hold a bachelor’s degree or equivalent, but don’t meet our entry requirements, a Pre-Master’s can help you gain a place. This specialist preparation course for postgraduate study is offered on campus at the University of Liverpool International College, in partnership with Kaplan International Pathways. Although there’s no direct Pre-Master’s route to this MA, completing a Pre-Master’s pathway can guarantee you a place on many other postgraduate courses at The University of Liverpool.
International applicants who do not meet the minimum required standard of English language can complete one of our Pre-Sessional English courses to achieve the required level.
English language qualification
Requirements
IELTS
6.5 overall, with no component below 6.0
TOEFL iBT
88 overall, with minimum scores of listening 19, writing 19, reading 19 and speaking 20. TOEFL Home Edition not accepted.
Duolingo English Test
120 overall, with no component below 105
Pearson PTE Academic
61 overall, with no component below 59
LanguageCert Academic
70 overall, with no skill below 65
PSI Skills for English
B2 Pass with Merit in all bands
INDIA Standard XII
National Curriculum (CBSE/ISC) - 75% and above in English. Accepted State Boards - 80% and above in English.
WAEC
C6 or above
PRE-SESSIONAL ENGLISH
Do you need to complete a Pre-Sessional English course to meet the English language requirements for this course?
The length of Pre-Sessional English course you’ll need to take depends on your current level of English language ability.
Liverpool bursts with diversity and creativity which makes it ideal for you to undertake your postgraduate studies and access various opportunities for you and your family.
To fully immerse yourself in the university experience living in halls will keep you close to campus where you can always meet new people. Find your home away from home.
Discover what expenses are covered by the cost of your tuition fees and other finance-related information you may need regarding your studies at Liverpool.
Contact us
If you have any questions about the course content please get in touch with the programme director.
