Studying the MLitt in Women, Writing and Gender
The MLitt in Women, Writing and Gender offers students the opportunity to spend a year exploring the rich and varied output of women writers across history and considering critical issues surrounding gender and writing from 1500 to the present day. It provides an excellent foundation for anyone considering further research on women writers or issues of gender but also functions as a cohesive and fulfilling one-year degree.
What you'll study
The programme is structured around three core modules. The year-long module Theories and Contexts provides an introduction to key concepts and debates in contemporary feminist and gender theory alongside an overview of historical conceptions of women and gender.
The Semester 1 module Renaissance to Romanticism provides an opportunity to study the work of women writers and representations of gender from early modern writers such as Elizabeth Carey and Anne Bradstreet to Romantic writers such as Mary Shelley, Maria Edgeworth, and Mary Wollstonecraft.
The Semester 2 module Victorian to Contemporary continues the programme’s historical coverage, examining the work of nineteenth-century women writers such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and the ‘New Woman’ writers of the fin de siècle through modernist women writers such as Virginia Woolf, Mina Loy, and Jean Rhys and women writers of the First and Second World Wars to recent women writers who have experimented with the rewriting of myth and history.
In Semester 1, students also take a foundational Research Skills module, while in Semester 2 they have the opportunity to personalise their degree programme by taking an optional module chosen from the core modules of other MLitt programmes within the School of English or from modules in associated programmes such as Modern Languages and Comparative Literature or, alternatively, by taking a Special Topic module developed around the research interests of individual staff members. Special Topic modules change on a yearly basis, but recent offerings have included:
- Sex and Scandal at the Fin de Siècle
- Contemporary Irish Fiction
- Maria Edgeworth
- Postwar Masculinities
- The Romantics and Arthurian Myth
- Difference and Dissensus: Postcolonial Studies
- Modernism and Nature
- Musical Fictions
- The Short List: World Literature and International Prestige
- W. B. Yeats
- Caribbean Literature.
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
Women, Writing and Gender at St Andrews
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Academic staff
The staff teaching on the programme will vary in any one year, but will always include some of the following:
Student testimonials
"The Women, Writing, and Gender MLitt was the most comprehensive and enjoyable preparation that I could have received for my further studies in feminist literature. Beginning with female-authored Renaissance texts and concluding with twenty-first century feminist theory, the course allowed me to delve deeper into areas of interest while exploring beyond my comfort zones to consider alternative primary texts and critical approaches.
The structure of the course provided me with the experience of numerous faculty members throughout the year, while the dissertation portion of the programme allowed me to engage with texts and theories in a more meaningful and creative way. The Women, Writing, and Gender degree course provided the best foundation of knowledge and analytical skills for my ongoing PhD project, as well as introducing me to a network of friends and colleagues working within and outside of the academy."
Dr Susan Garrard – 2018
"The breadth and diversity of the Women, Writing, and Gender MLitt provides an excellent grounding in the practice and study of feminist literary theory alongside the historical, cultural, and political contexts of women’s writing. The materials and methodologies covered within the module prepared me to pursue my own research and subsequently a successful academic career within English Literature and Women’s Studies."
Professor Hope Jennings
"After working at a non-profit for a few years, I came to the Women, Writing and Gender programme hoping to find a pathway back into academia and the time to explore my abiding interests in English literature and feminist theory. My studies in the English Department met and far exceeded these expectations. While working through four centuries of women’s writing in one year is no minor task, the care and close attention of a world-class faculty and the support of a small student cohort ensured that every challenge I faced yielded, in time, great rewards.
Academically speaking, I gained confidence and skills as a self-motivated researcher, reader, and interpreter of literary texts and critical theory. More personally, I made friends who I hope stay with me for life, those whose passions and views of the world have inspired me to be a better human. As a result, whether my readings drew from early modern needlework samplers or queer theory, Mary Wollstonecraft or bell hooks, I experienced what I can only call a continuous excitement to learn—which is largely why I decided to prolong my studies here with a research degree. But frankly, when your average Wednesday morning walk to class winds along Medieval castle ruins and the edge of the North Sea, you find that it’s truly all too easy to fall in love with postgraduate life in St Andrews."
Alexa Winik – 2018