MA English Literature/History

About this course

English literature and history are disciplines that share a fundamental concern with human experience over time, but they approach it through different methods and materials. Literary study asks you to read closely, to interpret meaning, to understand the craft of writing and the relationship between form and content, and to engage with texts as cultural and aesthetic objects. Historical study asks you to evaluate evidence, to construct causal and contextual accounts of past events and societies, and to understand how the sources available to us both reveal and conceal the past. Together, they give you an unusually comprehensive set of tools for reading and understanding the world. At the University of Glasgow, this part-time programme allows you to study both disciplines while managing other commitments, developing your knowledge and skills at a pace suited to your circumstances. Glasgow's English literature provision is broad and research-active, covering early modern to postmodern literature with particular expertise in American, Irish and postcolonial literatures, critical theory, creative writing, and the relationship between literature and other arts, media and science. The history component brings similar breadth and rigour, engaging you with historical scholarship across a range of periods and geographies. A year abroad is available, giving you the opportunity to extend your academic experience internationally. You will develop strong analytical and interpretive skills in both disciplines, and you will learn to move between them with intellectual fluency. Writing clearly, researching effectively, and constructing sustained arguments are central to both, and the part-time structure allows you to develop these capacities thoughtfully over time. Graduates from English literature and history programmes move into education, publishing, journalism, archiving, heritage, the civil service, law, the cultural sector, and a wide range of other careers. Postgraduate study in literature, history, creative writing, or related fields is a well-established pathway.

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