MA in English Literature and Culture University of Groningen

Literary study is socially relevant: from the medieval to the modern, it maps the forces which divide and unite people. English is the global language of cultural exchange and experiment.

The themes of conflict and co-operation are at the core of the Master's track in English Literature and Culture, a program that allows students a broad choice from a range of modules drawing on the full historical and geographical sweep of literature in English.

It is a key tenet of the track that the academic study of English literature can be used to reflect on the ways that people - as individuals and as groups - interact with one another and that it provides a catalyst for insight into contemporary social debates. Literature captures the separation and the solidarity of its writers and audiences in a manner particular to itself: it is a multidisciplinary practice that is as various as the texts it studies. The program's core themes of conflict and co-operation are linked to a sustainable society, a research priority of the university.

Why study this program in Groningen?

• An academic humanities degree with a socially relevant focus
• Size: The resources of a large research university but with small classes (typically 10-15 students)
• Atmosphere: A friendly ambiance contributes to our positive student feedback
• International: Our staff have received their doctorates from a mix of Dutch universities and international institutions (Oxford, Cambridge, Toronto, Edinburgh)
• Employability: Academic excellence with transferable skills

Year 1

• Crossing Borders: From Literature of Exile to Migrant Fiction (5 EC, optional)
• Literature of Holiness and Heroism: Saints' Lives in Anglo-Saxon England (5 EC, optional)
• Something Wicked this Way Comes': Order and Conflict in Renaissance England (5 EC, optional)
• The Digital Text: The Book Past and Future (10 EC, optional)
• Master languages Courses (5 EC, optional)
• Module from Writing Editing and Mediating or Interdisciplinary Seminars in Modern Literature (10 EC, optional)
• Literature and Laughter: Literary and Theoretical Approaches to Comedy (5 EC, optional)
• Strangers in the South Seas: The Western Idea of the Pacific (5 EC, optional)
• The World of Women in Early Medieval Europe (5 EC, optional)
• Literature and Rebellion 1381-1539 (5 EC, optional)
• MA Thesis (20 EC)
• MA Work Placement (10 EC, optional)
• British Enlightenment: Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture (5 EC, optional)

Curriculum

The course titles above are recent examples. Courses can vary each year. Recent interdisciplinary courses dealt with European modernism, minority literature, and homosexuality in nineteenth and twentieth-century literature.

Placements (which are optional) are arranged by the students themselves but they are supervised by the English Department which will give you advice about them.

Students can also follow Masterlanguage courses. These courses are jointly organized by the English departments of the universities of the Netherlands and courses take place all over the country. You may follow Masterlanguage courses in consultation with the Board of Examiners of your Master's degree program.

Program options

• Master's Honours Programme (honors program)
• Master's placement (specialization)

Study abroad

• Study abroad is unaccommodated

Job prospects

A Master's track in English is a well-recognized postgraduate qualification in a market where having a good BA is no longer enough. Graduates go on to work in a variety of fields including the following:

• publishing
• teaching
• research
• translation
• journalism
• administrative jobs
• cultural industries

Some jobs are related to English literature (publishing) while other opportunities arise from skills integral to the course. The most obvious of these is the ability to use English, a facility that is as prized in countries where it is the native language as it is in places where it is a medium for commerce. Whether they study Beowulf or Virginia Woolf, our MA students hone their analytical and interpretative skills and work on expressing complex ideas clearly in writing and in oral presentations. They work on texts from other places or times and so engage with cultures other than their own, developing flexibility in habits of mind necessary in a globalized environment.

Finally, graduates have written a thesis, thereby demonstrating their ability to manage their time and to work independently, two vital skills for responsible jobs. Regardless of where you go to work, the first thing you will have to do is to persuade an employer that you are right for a job. Jobs don't simply attach themselves naturally to the holders of a particular degree - they need to be won, and the skills imparted in the study of our Master's track provide graduates with the tools they need to do this.