Whether you simply enjoy Victorian literature or are looking to prepare for PhD research in the future, the Victorian Literature MA pathway provides rigorous and comprehensive training in nineteenth-century literature and culture. Taught and studied in perhaps the best-preserved of all Victorian cities, Victorian studies at the University of Liverpool has a long history of combining a strong literary focus with a commitment to innovative critical techniques and interdisciplinary study. On this MA pathway, you will look at topics as diverse as the Victorian supernatural, the way the Victorians imagined the end of the world, the reinvention of the medieval in the Victorian period (the same reinvention that is still embodied in so much of Liverpool’s nineteenth-century architecture), Victorian thinking about murder and serious crime, and what literature in the Victorian period meant to readers at the time, and the wide variety of meanings it might have for us now.

With superb Victorian collections and institutions in easy visiting distance (the Walker and Lady Lever art galleries, Sudley House, Gladstone’s Library, to name only a few), the Victorian MA pathway aims to provide a study of Victorian literature that is thoroughly rooted in writing and ideas, but also in the felt experience and physical reality of the Victorian period.

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.