The General Pathway offers a flexible and bespoke route of MA study, allowing you take modules from across other MA English Literature pathways (Renaissance and Eighteenth Century, Victorian, Modern and Contemporary and Science Fiction). You will acquire the necessary research skills for advanced literary scholarship, while having the opportunity to pursue areas of interest across historical periods and in a wide variety of genres. The focus of our modules ranges from slavery and empire in Elizabethan writing to the body in contemporary literature, and from Victorian Gothic to fictions of technology in SF. 

With access to local institutions, such as Tate Liverpool and the International Slavery Museum, you will be encouraged to take a global perspective on changing literary, cultural and political landscapes, and invited to explore current critical and theoretical debates. Staff members who teach on our modules are experts in their respective fields, and include New Generation Thinkers, as well as members of the Literature and Science Hub, the Centre for New and International Writing and the Olaf Stapledon Centre for Speculative Futures.

The independence of study, clarity of expression and management of time demanded by all our taught programmes equip the successful graduate with the skills and knowledge base required for further academic study and research in English and other areas.

Many graduates also choose to enter careers such as teaching, publishing and journalism, or to work in the business sector, often in human resources, administration, marketing or sales.

Successful alumni have gone on to teach English at elementary, secondary and tertiary levels in schools around the globe. A significant number of MA graduates have also continued their studies to PhD level.