English (1830-1914) MSt

University of Oxford

The English master's programmes are designed to serve both as an autonomous degree for students wishing to pursue more advanced studies in English literature, and as a solid foundation for doctoral research.

The MSt in English Literature (1830-1914) offers graduate students an opportunity to expand their knowledge and critical understanding of nineteenth-century literature and culture. The responses of writers to cultural change in this period, provoked—and continue to provoke—animated debate about language and literature, aesthetics and politics, and the objects and purposes of cultural criticism.

English Faculty staff teaching on this course have a wide variety of interests, and encourage a wide range of critical perspectives. Areas of special strength include the history and practice of cultural criticism, literature and science, English and world literature, transatlantic cultural exchange, theatre and drama, life writing, material culture, comic and nonsense literature, aestheticism and decadence, poetry and poetics. Individual profiles are available on the English Faculty website.

Course structure

The MSt programme comprises four main components spread over three academic terms, through which you have the opportunity to pursue interests within your chosen MSt strand, as well as across period boundaries. In the first two terms, you will take a core course (A), a compulsory course in book history and theories of text (B), and choose two courses from a wide range of options (C). Under the guidance of a specialist supervisor you will also research and write a dissertation (D), which is submitted at the end of the third term.

A. Core course: Literature, Contexts and Approaches

B. Core course: Bibliography, Theories of Text, History of the Book, Manuscript Studies

C. Special options

D. Dissertation