English (Medieval and Renaissance Literature)

University College Cork

Overview

The English (Medieval and Renaissance Literature) program offered by University College Cork examines canonical and lesser-known texts, forms, and authors from the islands of Britain and Ireland, ranging from the earliest works in English, such as riddles, elegies, and wisdom poetry, to the proliferation of texts and genres in Middle English writing of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, including Chaucer, to the cheap print of the sixteenth century and the popular plays of Shakespeare. We take a particular interest in interrogating conventional boundaries between periods (including between Old and Middle English, and between medieval and Renaissance texts), between genres, and between media (from oral to written traditions, from page to stage, and from text to screen).

Under the guidance of the MA’s expert scholars, who have published widely on many of the topics covered on the course, you will explore key conceptual and critical issues in Old, Middle, and Renaissance English literature; the historical, cultural, and material contexts of this literature; and the afterlives and legacies of this literature across time and media (transmission, reception, adaptation, appropriation).

Key Facts

On this MA programme we will introduce you to the discipline-specific skills that are required for postgraduate study of earlier English (palaeography, codicology, linguistic analysis, use of databases and bibliographies) and foster transferable skills that are invaluable in a range of careers. The MA English (Medieval and Renaissance Literature) programme is stimulated by exceptional medieval and early modern contexts and resources in the local area, such as the nearby Elizabeth Fort, Edmund Spenser’s Kilcolman Castle in north Cork, and the early printed book collections of the Boole Library’s Special Collections.