Program Overview

Early Modern English Literature: Books That Matter MA

Key Information

• Delivery mode: In person
• Study mode: Full time, Part time
• Duration: One year full-time, two years part-time, September to September
• Credit value (UK/ECTS equivalent): UK 180/ECTS 90
• Application status: Open
• Start date: September 2025

Programme Description

Taught in exclusive partnership with the British Library, this Early Modern English Literature MA: Books That Matter focuses on the transmission of key early modern literary texts to investigate their circulation, print, and reception. This allows you to explore the impact of the materiality of the text and the material conditions of its (re)production on how it is interpreted. You’ll join one of the strongest departments in the country for early modern literature, and learn directly from world-leading experts in Shakespeare, Milton, Donne, early modern women poets, and many other major dramatists, poets, and prose writers, in editing, book-history, and palaeography.

Entry Requirements

UK Applicants

• Standard requirements: A minimum 2:1 undergraduate Bachelor’s (honours) degree
• Programme-Specific Requirements: Minimum 2:1 BA honours degree in English Literature or in a subject in which English literature plays a significant part; other well-qualified candidates may be considered.
• English language requirements: English language band: C

International Applicants

• Equivalent International qualifications: Select a country to view equivalent qualifications
• English language requirements: English language band: C

Teaching and Structure

• Teaching methods: Our Early Modern English Literature MA is an innovative and exciting partnership between the Department of English at King’s and the British Library.
• Assessment: Your performance will be assessed through a combination of coursework and written/practical examinations. Coursework contributes 100% to your final mark.
• Structure: Courses are divided into modules. You will normally take modules totalling 180 credits.

Required Modules

• Working with Early Modern Literary Texts (30 credits)
• The Life of the Book: Constructing Knowledge at the British Library (30 credits)
• Research Methods and Practices (30 credits)
• Dissertation (60 credits)

Optional Modules

• Global/Local Shakespeares (15 credits)
• Shakespeare’s Poems (15 credits)
• Contested Voices in Early Modern England (15 credits)
• Theatre, Gender & Culture in Jacobean London (15 Credits)
• Poetic Movements, Poetic Moods (15 credits)
• Water and Environmental Humanities: Archives, Narratives, Futures (15 credits)

Employability

Graduates of this Early Modern English Literature MA: Books That Matter have pursued PhD level study in this area, which has led to teaching or academic careers. Other graduates are ideally placed for jobs in the arts, creative and cultural industries, journalism, special collections libraries and archives, curatorship and broadcasting.

Tuition Fees

UK:

• Full time: £13,500 per year (2025/26)
• Part time: £6,750 per year (2025/26)

International:

• Full time: £30,000 per year (2025/26)
• Part time: £15,000 per year (2025/26)

Deposit

• Home deposit: £500
• International deposit: £2000

Additional Costs

• Books: if you choose to buy your own copies
• Library fees and fines
• Personal photocopies
• Printing course handouts
• Society membership fees
• Stationery
• Travel costs: for travel around London and between campuses
• Graduation costs