MA English and Mediaeval History
About this course
English and medieval history is a combination that asks you to engage seriously with the intellectual and cultural life of an era that is both remote and foundational. Medieval history covers roughly a thousand years of human experience between the fall of Rome and the early modern period, a span that saw the formation of European states, the spread of Christianity and Islam, the development of vernacular languages and literatures, and the emergence of universities and legal systems. Studying it alongside English literature allows you to encounter the great texts of the period, from Chaucer and Langland to the Arthurian romances and Anglo-Saxon poetry, in their full historical context. At the University of St Andrews you will study this four-year full-time programme, which includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to engage with medieval studies in an international academic environment. St Andrews is one of Scotland's oldest universities, with deep historical roots and a strong reputation in both English and medieval history. You will develop the skills of close reading and textual analysis in English alongside the archival and contextual methods of historical scholarship, learning to work with manuscripts, chronicles, literary texts and material culture from a period when these were often indistinguishable from one another. The typical entry tariff for this programme is around 200 UCAS points. Graduates of this combination carry a distinctive intellectual formation: the analytical precision of literary close reading combined with the evidence-based reasoning of historical enquiry, applied to a period that requires real specialist knowledge. Careers in academia, archival work, museums and heritage, publishing, teaching, journalism and the civil service are all natural destinations. Many graduates proceed to postgraduate research in medieval studies, English literature, history or related humanities fields, where the combination of literary and historical competence is a genuine asset.
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