Studying the MLitt in Romantic and Victorian Studies
The MLitt in Romantic and Victorian Studies is a one-year taught postgraduate programme, which offers students the opportunity to explore the key texts, contexts, and debates that shaped literature and culture from the 1760s to 1900.
What you'll study
In each semester the course is structured around a core module, offering a comprehensive introduction to postgraduate study of the literature and culture of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Semester 1
During Semester 1 students take Life, Text, Afterlife. This module examines the processes of 19th-century literary production and reception, studying the lives of authors and cultural figures; the conditions of publication of their work and the challenges of presenting modern editions of that work; and the reception of Romantic and Victorian texts in later works of literature and in various forms of publication and dissemination. Subjects likely to be covered include:
- Milton’s Romantic readers
- the adaptation of Jane Austen in the 20th century
- Romantic celebrity culture
- periodical publication
- 19th-century definitions of the figures of the author and the poet
- the construction of female subjectivity in letters and fiction
- editorial and biographical theory and practice.
Students also take Literary Research: Skills and Resources; this module equips students with the advanced skills needed to pursue independent research in preparation for seminars, assessments, and particularly for the MLitt dissertation.
Semester 2
During the second semester, students take the module Literary History, Politics, Culture. This module explores the interactions between literature and its various historical, philosophical, cultural, and political contexts in the Romantic and Victorian periods. Many of the authors we study as producers of imaginative literature also engaged in polemical, historical, or philosophical writing. Literary works could make decisive and poignant contributions to particular political debates, and the literary sphere itself had its own politics. Subjects likely to be covered include:
- Romantic medievalism
- literary writing about war and empire
- socialism, aestheticism and decadence
- anti-Semitism and Englishness
- literature and the slave trade
- literature and science.
The two core modules will study a range of Romantic and Victorian texts, including works by:
- Jane Austen
- Charlotte Brontë
- Maria Edgeworth
- Felicia Hemans
- John Keats,
- Olive Schreiner
- Alfred Tennyson
- Oscar Wilde
- William Wordsworth.
Students are encouraged to develop their own research interests via a final optional Special Topic module. This gives students the opportunity to develop as researchers within a specific area of study, combining students’ individual interests with staff research expertise.
- Difference and Dissensus: Postcolonial Studies in-between Literature and Politics
- ‘Musical’ Fiction
- Modernism and Nature
- W.B. Yeats
- The Short List: World Lit and International Prestige
- Caribbean Literature
- Literature and Environment.
Dissertation
The final component of the MLitt is a 15,000-word dissertation, which students write, with the support of a supervisor, over the summer months.
Contact
School of English
University of St Andrews
Castle House
The Scores
St Andrews
KY16 9AL
Phone: +44 (0)1334 46 2668
Email: pgeng@st-andrews.ac.uk
Academic staff
The staff teaching on the programme will vary in any one year, but will always include some of the following:
Student testimonial
"The Romantic and Victorian MLitt has allowed me to delve into multiple aspects of 18th- and 19th-century literature, including texts' relationships with contemporary history, politics, and culture. The modules offer a diverse and fascinating range of authors and works, ranging from Jane Austen's Mansfield Park to the poetry of 19th-century periodicals to nonsense literature for children.
The academic staff assigned to the MLitt are approachable, and small class sizes also promote a strong sense of camaraderie with your peers – the discussions are always enlightening and often entertaining. Class seminars (in the beautiful English buildings overlooking the castle ruins and seashores!) are certain to inspire and motivate you in your studies. St Andrews, in its small-town charm and beauty, is the perfect setting for reading and writing, but the town is always buzzing with activity outside of studying, too. I couldn't recommend studying here more highly."
Natalie – 2017