English Language and Literature, MA (Hons)

Many of the world's most fascinating and influential literary works have been written in English. This programme offers you the opportunity to study the development of the English language alongside the literature of the English-speaking world in its cultural contexts. You can also choose to study Scots language, which has its own rich linguistic and literary tradition. The programme aims to develop your critical, analytic, linguistic, literary and creative skills by engaging with a broad range of texts and a variety of approaches to reading. You will also deepen your understanding of:

• the principles of theoretical linguistics

• the way we learn language

• the regional and social variations of language in general (and of the English language in particular)

• methods of communication

In the second part of the programme, you will study research-led courses selected on the basis of your own interests. In English Literature, for example, this might be a topic or set of texts from a particular period between the late middle-ages and the present. Edinburgh is the first UNESCO World City of Literature, a fantastic literary city which many greats of English literature have called home.