Offering expertise across the full chronological and specialist range of English literary study, we have forged a reputation as one of the most dynamic departments of English in the country.
Postgraduate Taught Overview
Research supervision is provided in all the main areas of literary study, from Anglo-Saxon and Middle English poetry to postmodern literature and critical theory. The department’s major strengths are in the Renaissance, the 19th century and the 20th century, with particular specialisms in Shakespeare, Swift, Sterne, Dickens, Browning, Hardy, Conrad, Wilde, Joyce, Beckett, the fin de siècle, and contemporary literature and critical theory. There are also thriving research interests in 18th-century literature, American and African-American literature, modernism, postmodernism and contemporary poetic theory and practice. Practice-based PhDs in various genres of creative writing and poetic practice are also available.
Choose from the below menu for information about individual degree programmes and resources available to students.
Our Courses
MA Creative Writing
Fiction Writing, Poetry, Non-Fiction, or Poetic Practice
The programme encourages you to develop and reflect on your work as a writer in the context of contemporary and well-established literatures. With four different pathways, the MA is designed for poets, novelists, non-fiction writers, and short story writers who are dedicated to their writing and want to see it in print.
Visit the MA Creative Writing homepage for more information.
Location: Central London
Duration: FT/PT; 12/24 months
MA English Literature
This flexible programme allows you to combine the core course from one of the other English MAs with further options from all the MAs (excluding Creative Writing) as well as dedicated twentieth-century courses to suit your particular interests.
Visit the MA English Literature homepage for more information.
Location: Main campus
Duration: FT/PT; 12/24 months
MA Medieval Studies
Taught in collaboration with the Department of History, the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and the Museum of London, this wide-ranging multi-disciplinary programme encourages you to explore many different aspects of the Middle Ages – historical, literary, and archaeological.
Visit the MA Medieval Studies homepage for more information.
Location: Main campus
Duration: FT/PT; 12/24 months
MA Victorian Literature, Art, and Culture
This cross-disciplinary MA offers a programme which draws on Royal Holloway’s expertise in History, Art History and English, with a core course providing an advanced grounding in current debates and approaches in the field of Victorian Studies.
Visit the MA Victorian Literature, Art, and Culture homepage for more information.
Location: Main campus
Duration:FT/PT; 12/24 months
Facilities, Resources, and Teaching
The MA Creative Writing is taught at Royal Holloway’s London Campus at Bedford Square in the heart of Bloomsbury, London’s literary centre.
All other MAs are taught at the campus at Egham, in London's green belt and close to Windsor Great Park. MA students have access to the University Library, Senate House Library, the British Library, seminar series at the IES in Bloomsbury, and to a range of online and IT support.
MA programmes are taught in seminars and workshops with close attention to individual students in the preparation of essays and dissertations. Many of our students go on to study in PhD programmes in the UK and abroad, and we offer careful advice on applications. The University Careers Service also offers full support to MA students, and some of our MAs offer placements.
As well as the facilities available to our large postgraduate community on campus and in central London, the Institute of English Studies at Senate House is also a venue for conferences, research seminars and lectures by the world’s leading English scholars. In addition, the Humanities and Arts Research Institute, the Royal Holloway Picture Gallery with its magnificent collection of Victorian art, and research centres for Victorian Studies and Poetics Research add to the vibrancy of the department. Students are given training in research methods and information retrieval. Teaching for the MA Creative Writing takes place at 11 Bedford Square, the newly-refurbished London campus of Royal Holloway in the heart of Bloomsbury.
Funding Opportunities
MA Bursaries
There is one £1000 bursary available for one student who applies to each of the following programmes:
- MA English Literature
- MA Victorian Literature, Art, and Culture
- MA Creative Writing (one bursary for each of the pathways: Poetry, Poetic Practice, Non-Fiction, and Fiction)
Prospective students who apply by the 30th of June will be automatically considered for these bursaries. There is no additional application process.
Fee Discount
Students who studied for the BA at Royal Holloway will automatically receive a 15% discount on their tuition fees. There is no additional application process.
