MA English Literature

Entry is open to applicants with a UK first or 2.1 honours degree or equivalent in English literature or a related subject. Where students do not have a 2.1 in English literature or a related field, the Department/ School will make a decision on the basis of submitted written work and an interview.

English language requirements

IELTS minimum overall: 6.5

IELTS minimum by component: Reading: 6.0
Writing: 7.0
Speaking: 6.0
Listening: 6.0

All fees are subject to increase or review for subsequent academic years. Please note that not all visa routes permit part-time study and overseas students entering the UK on a Tier 4 visa will not be permitted to study on a part-time basis.

Compulsory Modules

• Research Skills
• Literary Scholarship and Creativity
• English Literature Dissertation (15,000 words)

Optional Modules

Students have an opportunity to choose from a range of optional modules offered by the Department of English and other programmes in the School of English and Languages.

Particular strengths in Surrey’s English programme include: 19th-Century Literature and Culture; Contemporary Literature and Culture; Transnational and World Literatures in English; Postcolonial Studies; Travel Writing; Creative Writing; as well as theories of gender and sexuality.

Students would normally be offered modules suited to these areas of strength. But modules such as Advanced Studies in 19th-Century Literature and Culture, Advanced Studies in 20th and 21st-Century Literature and Culture might be combined with Special Author tutorials or Open Essays (in which a student chooses a specific topic and is guided by an expert in the field).

Where appropriate, students will also have the option of choosing modules offered by the MA in Creative Writing and other MA programmes in the School.

The MA in English Literature provides both structure and flexibility, combining specially designed core modules with the opportunity to select further options from across the range of MA subjects and topics in the Department of English.

The core modules – Research Skills, and Literary Scholarship and Creativity – both consider how texts have been produced, disseminated and received throughout history, and examine how this kind of historical enquiry might influence our own textual interpretations.

Students will then have an opportunity to choose from a range of optional modules that focus on specific periods, theoretical paradigms or individual authors.

Provision is in small group seminars and/or one-on-one tutorials and supervisions.