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English Literature, MLitt, Newcastle University

the United Kingdom

Newcastle University

Study options for this course

The award How you will study Study duration Course start Domestic course fees International course fees
MLittFull-time, Part-time12 - 24 monthsfind outfind outfind out

About English Literature, MLitt - at Newcastle University

Our English Literature MLitt allows you to work around your own research interests. It will prepare you for further research within and beyond academia. Our specialist areas include: Medieval and early modern literature; eighteenth-century and Romantic literature; Victorian literature; post-colonial literatures; children's literature and theatre studies.

Our course is an individually tailored research master's degree that contains some taught modules, independently conducted research assignments and a larger research dissertation at the end. The topics are chosen by you, in consultation with your supervisor.

The course is taught by small teams of research specialists clustered in the following research areas:

  • Medieval and early modern literature
  • eighteenth-century and Romantic literature
  • Victorian literature
  • fin de siècle and modernism
  • post-colonial literatures
  • American literature and culture
  • children's literature
  • theatre studies

We will encourage you to undertake placements, including archive work offered by our various partner institutions. Our partners include the Wordsworth Trust and Seven Stories: National Centre for Children's Books. You will also be part of the rich research culture in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and may participate in and lead events for our research groups.

Delivery

This course is primarily taught on our city centre campus, although some sessions are sometimes based with partner institutions such as the Wordsworth Trust.

Your contact and study times vary across modules although teaching typically includes seminars, tutorials, presentations, visits and independent learning. Where a number of people are working in a similar area we can offer small group tuition from research experts in the field.

The course gives you the flexibility to design a programme of study according to your own research interests. For example, you might choose to write four shorter research assignments of 6,000 words or two longer ones of 12,000 words. Whichever path you take, your learning will be supported through one-to-one supervision with a research specialist.

The course is made up of 180 credits:

  • 20 credits for research training modules
  • 80 credits for research assignments with a combined length of 16-24,000 words
  • 80 credits for a 16-24,000-word dissertation, which is written in the spring/summer for full time students or in the second year for part time students

You may also attend lectures and seminars (not the assessments) for approved taught postgraduate modules.

Here are some examples of how your programme of study could be structured, in different research areas and with research assignments of different lengths:

MLitt in Children's Literature

  • Research Training Assignment
  • Research Assignment 1: 6,000 words, Ideology in the children's book
  • Research Assignment 2: 6,000 words, Real Children in Jan Marks' Thunder and Lightnings and Robert Westall's The Machine Gunners
  • Research Assignment 3: 12,000 words, Children Alone: Independent Child Characters in Philip Pullman and David Almond
  • Dissertation: 16-24,000 words, Representing the Real Child: Social Realism in Selected Children's Literature, 1970s-1990s

MLitt in Early Modern and Renaissance Literature

  • Research Training Assignment
  • Research Assignment 1: 12,000 words, The Gendered Body in Female Poetic Subjectivity
  • Research Assignment 2: 12,000 words, The Trope of Childbirth in Early Modern Women's Writing
  • Dissertation: 24,000 words, The Creative Womb: The Construction of the Womb in Early Modern Medicine and Literature

MLitt in Drama and Theatre Studies

  • Research Training Assignment
  • Research Assignment 1: 6,000 words, The Material Theatre: Reading Bodies, Space and the Rehearsal Process
  • Research Assignment 2: 6,000 words, Patterns of Repetition in Greyscale's Gods Are Fallen and All Safely Gone
  • Research Assignment 3: 6,000 words, Come Again? Iteration and Narrative Structure in Contemporary British Theatre
  • Research Assignment 4: 6,000 words, Assignment attached to placement at Northern Stage
  • Dissertation: 24,000 words, Once More, From the Top: The Rehearsal Process as a Form of Collective Authorship in Contemporary British Theatre

Facilities

The School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics is a lively and diverse community with over 700 undergraduates and 200 postgraduates.

We are based in the Percy Building where the majority of your seminars and tutorials will take place. Our purpose-built postgraduate suite includes several dedicated computer clusters, meeting rooms, a kitchen and lounge area.

You also have access to the award-winning Robinson Library, which offers excellent resources for archival research in the Special Collections. There are also collections that you can use at Newcastle City Library and the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society.

Notes about fees for this course

See our course fees and funding webpage - http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/courses/degrees/english-literature-mlitt/#fees&funding

Entry requirements

Entry Requirements

A 2:1 honours degree or international equivalent. 

International Students

To study this course you need to meet our Band 9 English Language requirements:

Direct Entry: IELTS 7.0 overall (with 6.5 in writing and a minimum of 6.0 in all other sub-skills) 

If you have lower English Language scores, you may be accepted onto a pre-sessional English course. 

Our typical English Language requirements are listed as IELTS scores but we also accept a wide range of English Language tests.

The equivalent academic qualifications that we accept are listed on our country pages.

Pre-sessional English Language Course Requirements

  • 6 week Pre-sessional entry:Not accepted         
  • 10 week Pre-sessional entry: IELTS 6.5 overall (with 6.0 in writing and a minimum of 5.5 in all other sub-skills)   

You can study a pre-sessional English course at our INTO London Centre.

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