External summary

This taught Masters degree introduces students to the relation between literary writing in English and political and social discourse in Britain and Ireland between the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 and the end of the 19th century.

This is the period which saw the parallel emergence of a modern ‘public sphere’ of print culture, the economic institutions of modern capitalism, and the modern British constitution: the creation, that is, of the Britain in which we live today. It also saw the conceptualisation of ‘ancient’ British, Scottish and Irish national cultures as a response to these radical innovations. Literary verse and prose played a crucial role in all these developments, and examining that role is the central concern of this degree.

The core courses examine:

• the construction in literary writing of ideas of ‘nation’ and ‘race’ as political, cultural or biological inheritance;
• the role of literature in the formation and dissemination of ‘liberal’ ideas of the relation between the individual and the state;
• the role of gender in the valorisation of ‘private’ spheres of experience and the opportunities and limitations that this offered to women writers;
• the changing ways in which ‘literature’ is itself conceptualised and understood in relation to other social institutions and practices.

To do this, core seminars will typically discuss novels and poems alongside contemporary political theory or polemic, and/or in relation to more recent texts of literary, cultural or critical theory.

Educational aims of programme

The primary aim of this programme is to train students in the critical reading of 18th and 19th century literary texts in terms of the political and social ideas that they assume, explore or contest; ideas that continue to shape British politics and society today.

By the end of the programme, students will have a firm grasp of:

• the role of literary genres in the mediation of social and political ideas;
• the history of political categories such as nation, gender, culture, and liberalism as their meaning shifted and changed over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries;
• the historical contingency of the category ‘literature’ itself.

The ultimate aim of the course is to produce graduates who can understand the cultural politics of today’s Britain by placing them in a long historical perspective.

The programme achieves these aims by reading poems and novels alongside political theory and polemic from the period which more explicitly express those ideas, and in relation to critical-theoretical writing by Adorno, Foucault, Derrida, Habermas, Butler and others in which those ideas are subject to sceptical critique.

Programme outcomes: Knowledge and understanding

Students will develop a knowledge and understanding of some of the key literary texts which have shaped British literary, cultural, and political identities from 1688 until the end of the nineteenth century. Students will also develop a critical understanding of the ways in literature mediates a variety of social, political, and philosophical ideas, and the changing construction of political categories such as nation, gender, and culture throughout this period . They will also deepen their knowledge and understanding of selected themes and topics through a combination of core and option modules and acquire advanced research skills which enable them to undertake the independent research exercise which is the dissertation. Overall, this degree programme will build on previous academic experience to deepen and foster the development of key analytic skills of textual analysis, of historical, contextual, and theoretical understanding, of critical self-awareness, and of independent thinking.

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in research and enquiry

Graduates of this programme will be able to:

• search for, evaluate and use information relevant to their field of study using library resources including databases
• identify, conceptualize and define new and abstract problems and issues
• plan and execute a significant project of research, investigation or development
• clearly communicate their research plans and the rationale underpinning them unambiguously to specialist and non-specialist audiences

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in personal and intellectual autonomy

Graduates of this programme will be able to:

• exercise substantial autonomy and initiative in activities, including decision making on the basis of independent thought.
• be open to new ideas, methods and ways of thinking
• be intellectually curious with that curiosity leading to professional, personal and academic goals and they will have the ability to work towards these goals
• be able to develop, maintain and sustain intellectual rigour and application

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in communication

Graduates of this programme will be able to:

• communicate to a range of audiences with different levels of knowledge
• communicate with peers, more senior colleagues and specialists
• communicate orally, written, or visually demonstrating clarity and coherence
• engage in debate demonstrating skills of active listening, critical reading and the ability to advance an argument and to develop that argument in the light of new evidence
• seek and to respond to feedback

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in personal effectiveness

Graduates of this programme will be able to:

• be able to plan, execute and critically evaluate a significant project of research investigation or development
• be able to work collaboratively while recognizing the diversity of the group, the complexity of the specific context and the complexity of the process of collaboration itself
• transfer learning, skills and abilities from one context to another

Programme outcomes: Technical/practical skills

In addition to the range of skills detailed above, graduates of this programme will be able to

• engage at a critically advanced level with a variety of primary and secondary sources, literary concepts and theories

• contextualize their knowledge in relation to relevant conceptual frameworks

• identify relevant sources (from a variety of printed, electronic, and media sources), and incorporate them in their assignments and research in an appropriate way
• apply relevant research methods
• develop and demonstrate their communication and writing skills
• gain appropriate time-management skills in relation to a variety of tasks

Programme structure and features

The MSc Literature and Society: 1688-1900 consists of 180 credits allocated as follows:

Students must pass the assessment requirements of the taught stage at an appropriate level at the first attempt before progression to the dissertation.  In order to progress to the masters dissertation students must:

(a) pass at least 80 credits at SCQF level 11 with a mark of at least 50% in each of the courses which make up these credits; and

(b) attain an average of at least 50% for the 120 credits of study examined at the point of

decision for progression; and

(c) satisfy any other specific requirements for the masters degree programme, that are clearly stated in respective programme handbooks.

The degree is available in full-time and part-time modes and dependant on required credits, students are able to exit the programme at different stages with a postgraduate certificate, a postgraduate diploma, a masters degree or a masters degree with distinction.

Please see the regulations below for clarification on the requirements for different awards:

Regulation 50 Postgraduate degree, diploma and certificate award

In order to be awarded the certificate students must:

(a)          pass at least 40 credits at SCQF level 11; and

(b)          attain an average of at least 40% for the 60 credits of study examined for the certificate; and

(c)          satisfy any other specific requirements for the named certificate that are clearly stated in respective programme handbooks.

 In order to be awarded the diploma students must:

(a)          pass at least 80 credits at SCQF level 11; and

(b)          attain an average of at least 40% for the 120 credits of study examined for the diploma; and

(c)          satisfy any other specific requirements for the named diploma that are clearly stated in respective programme handbooks.

In order to be awarded a masters degree students must:

(a)          have satisfied any requirements for progression, as laid out in taught assessment regulation 49,

(b)          attain an additional 60 credits, by achieving a mark of at least 50% for the dissertation or project component and

(c)          satisfy any other specific requirements for the masters degree programme, that are clearly stated in respective Programme Handbooks.

When all the marks for the taught components of the programme or diploma are available, if the student has achieved PASS marks (40%) in at least 80 credits and has an overall average of 40% or more over the full 120 credits, then they will be awarded credits on aggregate for the failed courses, up to a maximum of 40 credits. For a certificate, a maximum of 20 credits may be awarded on aggregate.

Regulation 52 Award of postgraduate distinction

Taught postgraduate degrees may be awarded with distinction. To achieve a distinction, a student must be awarded at least 70% on the University’s Postgraduate Common Marking Scheme for the dissertation, if the programme has a dissertation element, and must pass all other courses with an average of at least 70%. Borderlines, for both the dissertation and course average elements, are considered for distinctions.

University Strategic Plan

All taught MSc programmes in English Literature fulfil the University’s Strategic aims and themes. Students engage with tutors and seminar leaders who are also active and international researchers in their fields of expertise, and this is reflected in the nature of teaching provision at Masters level. The taught Masters student population is truly international in its diversity, leading to an inclusive and diverse community of learners of global reach. In turn, the taught Masters students in English Literature belong to a wider community composed of postgraduates on a variety of Research programmes which meets at Friday English Literature seminars, works-in-progress, and various reading groups, all activities which help facilitate social and intellectual cohesion. All Masters programmes enable students to acquire a valuable set of transferable skills and attributes which they can deploy and implement within the different cultural and linguistic communities to which they may ultimately return.         

Teaching and learning methods and strategies

Teaching and Learning strategies employed at the University of Edinburgh consist of a variety of different methods appropriate to the programme aims. The graduate attributes listed above are met through a teaching and learning framework (detailed below) which is appropriate to the level and content of the course.

Lectures

Tutorials

Seminars

Problem based learning activities

Peer group learning

Examples Classes

Dissertation

One to one meetings with programme directors and supervisors

Core and option courses are predominantly delivered by means of seminar teaching which is most frequently centred on student discussion. This may involve student presentations, either singly or in groups, and classes may make use of peer-group study outside the designated class time, or autonomous learning groups, in addition.    Research Methods in semester 2 is delivered by means of lectures, individual consultation with the designated supervisor, and peer-review workshop led by a staff member.

Alongside the university’s central library and computing facilities, the School has a number of specialist libraries within its subject areas such as the School of Scottish Archives, the European languages library, and the Language and Humanities Centre which provides language laboratories.  The Graduate School has its own computer lab at 50 George Square for the exclusive use of its postgraduate students.

The University of Edinburgh Innovative Learning Week is scheduled in Week 6 of Semester 2. During this week ‘normal’ teaching is suspended which provides space outwith the curriculum for staff and students to explore new learning activities. Some examples of the types of activities held in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures were language taster sessions, workshops on essay writing and dissertations, a German play, a Russian folklore concert, careers sessions, poetry and drama workshops as well as various film screenings and readings.

Assessment methods and strategies

The overall assessment is comprised of 180 credits, 60 of which pertain to the supervised dissertation. Students will complete six courses of 20 credits each, of which two will be Research Skills (one taken in each semester), two will be core courses (one taken in each semester), and the remaining credits will be in two option courses (one taken in each semester). The core and most of the option courses are summatively assessed by means of a 4000 word essay (inclusive of footnotes but not bibliography) which will evaluate students' ability to engage effectively with a particular topic or area of inquiry relevant to the subject of the course by means of evaluating and synthesising relevant scholarship and criticism, and by formulating their own critical and intellectual response to a variety of appropriate issues. This must be achieved within a set period of time. On a number of option courses students may devise their own topic in consultation with the seminar leader.

The 15000 word Dissertation component is intended to assess students' ability to plan and execute a significant project of research investigation or development over a sustained period of time. The culminates in the production of an independent and substantial piece of research which tests student skills and abilities across the range of programme outcomes in the key areas of research and enquiry; personal and intellectual autonomy. The process is facilitated by the Research Methods II course, taught in the second semester (see below for further details) which is designed to foster a sense of coherent and progressive development between submission of a Dissertation title and the production of the final assessed piece of work.

Research Skills and Methods introduces first-year postgraduates in LLC to Edinburgh's extensive range of electronic sources and material archives, training them to recognise the research methodologies that these resources serve-so they can generate effective research strategies. In addition to the three lectures during Week-1, students attend workshops and undertake bibliographical assignments that will provide students with the scope and opportunity to produce solid preliminary research on topics that they choose. Students complete this course prepared for the discipline-specific methods courses offered by their subject- areas in the second semester.

Career opportunities

A degree in English literature is essential if you wish to teach this subject in schools, colleges and universities. Your critical research and writing skills, together with your understanding of the social and political issues and perceptions that literature of different societies and eras assumes, explores, shapes or contests, is also useful in a range of different careers. These include journalism, publishing, advertising, marketing and PR, library and information management, arts administration, writing and media research and production.

Graduates from this course have also used their qualification to move on to further academic study by taking a PhD in English literature, either at Edinburgh or by moving to another university.  Some have gone on to further vocation study to train in teaching and library and information work, for example.

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