English Literature - Victorian Literature

Overview

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 English Literature - Victorian Literature programme from University of Liverpool, 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.

Career prospects

The independence of study, clarity of expression and skills in time-management 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. In recent years, the Victorian MA pathway has an exceptionally strong record of producing successful PhD students, many of whom are now working in the academic field of Victorian studies.

Equipped as they are with high levels of empathy, concentration, and emotional intelligence, many graduates of this pathway also choose to enter careers such as teaching, publishing and journalism, or simply use their Victorian specialism as a distinctive and eye-catching part of their portfolio in applying for a whole range of graduate-level jobs, both on the national and the international stage.