English Literature and American Studies MA

Year of entry: 2025

Course length: 12 months Full-Time | 24 Months Part-Time

About the course

Our MA English and American Studies prepares you for further research in the discipline while also broadening and deepening your critical engagement with British and American literature and culture.

This MA consists of taught course units and a dissertation. Course units cover: • Space, Place and Text • Historicism and the Archive • American Studies: Theory, Methods, Practice • Shakespeare: Theory and the Archive • Revolutionary Poetics 1789-1850 • Radical Subcultures

These are example course units based on 2023/24 options and are subject to change each year.

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Broaden and deepen your critical engagement with British and American literature and culture.

Explore a wide range of cultural assets in Manchester, a UNESCO City of Literature.

Our graduates are among the most targeted by top UK employers

(High Fliers 2024)

Where will your degree take you?

Upon successful completion of their course, many English postgraduates go on or return to jobs as teachers or librarians, continue their research, or go on to academic jobs.

Career paths are extremely varied, and other English postgraduates go on or return to careers in law, publishing and retailing, as well as into many other fields.

Sarah Bolger

English Literature and American Studies MA

"In every seminar I'm challenged to think in ways that I've not thought for several years. The theoretical and critical aspects of the course have not only rejuvenated my passion for critical and cultural theory, but also for reading in general."

Libby Turner

MA English Literature and American Studies |Peer Advisor and Placements Coordinator at St Giles Trust

"In my current job I work to several strict deadlines at one time, which I think I gained a lot of practice at during my degrees. I also use my research skills on a daily basis, and I attribute these to researching sources and information for essays. I write monthly reports for my programme, analyse qualitative data and create informed summaries – all of which are skills that I honed during my degrees! Additionally, I think I use my critical thinking skills in work and out of work."