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English Literature and Creative Writing Masters - MA/PgD/PgC

The MA English Literature and Creative Writing is a rewarding degree taught by published writers and leading researchers. The course provides you with the perfect opportunity to combine your love of studying literature with the ambition to write your own. 

Our English Literature modules take you on an exhilarating literary journey from the sixteenth century to the present day. Taught by leading scholars, our MA draws on research expertise which ranges from Shakespeare to contemporary prize-winning authors. Our modules explore diverse literary forms and delve into subjects such as literary adaptation, the politics of genre fiction, the depiction of landscape, the representation of gender and sexuality, and the city as a literary space.

Our Creative Writing modules aim to support the development of your creative and critical writing skills. While the MA covers a range of literary forms, the focus is on developing students' skills and knowledge of narrative techniques, writing place, as well as writing for change. To add to this, a substantial portion of the Creative Writing content is dedicated to professional practice, helping students in preparing and submitting manuscripts, as well as giving them opportunities to learn from practitioners in the creative industries. English Literature and Creative Writing content is supported by two skills modules, Research Methods and Literary and Critical Theory, which give you the tools needed to make the leap to postgraduate study and encourage your development as a critical thinker and researcher. The dissertation, which can focus on either English Literature or Creative Writing, gives you the flexibility to pursue your own creative project and research interests with the support and encouragement of a supervisor.  

Our wider academic community is dynamic so you will also have the chance to take part in additional activities which can include, but are not limited to, open mics, cross-discipline collaborations, archive and museum visits, writing retreats, poetry readings, visits from industry experts, and more. 

You can take our MA English Literature and Creative Writing to prepare your work for publication or to enhance your career in industries such as the creative arts, education, and heritage. This degree will also develop your research skills and help you specialise in an area of literary study or creative practice which can pave the way for doctoral study. 

The MA English Literature and Creative Writing is designed to be inclusive and flexible. It can be studied either full or part-time and classes are scheduled in the evenings and select weekends, allowing you to combine study with other commitments. 

You may also be interested in our  MA English Literature  or  MA Creative Writing programmes. ​

​Course Content​​

Our modules are delivered over one year full-time or two years part-time. Your degree will total 180 credits: all modules are 20 credits, apart from the dissertation which is 60 credits.

There two core modules on the MA English Literature and Creative Writing: Research Methods and Literary and Critical Theory.

In addition to this you will choose two English Literature modules and two Creative Writing modules and either an English Literature or Creative Writing Dissertation.​

English Literature Modules

In any given year, four English subject modules will run, subject to staff availability.

"Juvenile Trash": Rethinking Genre Fiction Genre fiction is often seen as frivolous and less important than 'serious' literary fiction. In this module we 'rethink' genre fiction, digging deeper to evaluate the aesthetics, politics and undeniable value of genre fiction. In our seminars, we explore a range of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, crime fiction, historical fiction, romance, and children's literature. We examine the way in which various texts – Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House , Octavia Butler's Kindred , Walter Mosely's Devil in a Blue Dress , or Sarah Waters's Fingersmith, for instance – show that genre fiction can both entertain and challenge.

Literature and Landscapes This module aims to examine the interrelation of aesthetic and cultural theories, social contexts, and literary representations of landscape, with a particular focus on nineteenth-century literature. It aims to critically engage you in theories relevant to the intellectual, cultural, historical and sociological pressures underlying the various responses to experiences of space and place and considers how the idea of landscape is experienced and represented for different identities in a range of literary and visual texts. 

Reading The City: From Modernism to the Twenty-First Century This module introduces you to the socio-geographical significance of the city as a literary space. This space is neither sterile nor merely 'setting'. We explore how the city is an active participant in the narratives of the primary texts. Students are also able to chart the social history of the city over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, addressing the dramatic shifts in society and politics in that time. The module asks you to think critically about the city-space and the literature–society interconnection across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This will lead to a thorough exploration of the ways that writers respond to and shape social responses and engagements with space.

Adaptations, Transformations, Rejections This module asks you to think critically about the continuing influence of significant literary phenomena, whether authors (such as William Shakespeare) or texts (such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein ). To do so, students will examine the primary text(s) and compare it/them with subsequent interpretations. This will lead to a thorough exploration of the ways that modern and contemporary writers, artists, and filmmakers adapt, transform, and reject the phenomenon's legacy. Additionally, students will explore and apply theories of adaptation that encompass commemoration, memorialisation, translation, and postmodernist pastiche. 

Making Trouble: Gender and Sexuality in Literature  This module aims to examine the shifting paradigms of gender and sexual identities from the late 19th century to the present day, with reference to social, cultural and political changes, through a range of texts. We will examine the way that writers have challenged, or troubled, conventional notions of gender and sexual identities and used literature to imagine or write into existence alternative ways of being. Through a selection of fascinating authors —  for instance, Jean Rhys, Virginia Woolf, Carson McCullers, James Baldwin, Jeanette Winterson, and Alison Bechdel — you will develop a sophisticated understanding of debates, theories and ideas relevant to the topics of gender and sexual identities. 

Special Author Topic: The Writer and Their Work

This module is a research-led module that offers you the chance to engage with a single author specially selected by the module leader. The module will explore the contexts significant to the author - social, political, historical, critical - and also consider the relevance of the author's biography. The majority of the module will be spent reading the author's prominent texts, evaluating their impact on the canon and judging their inclusion in the history of English literature. 

Creative Writing Modules​

The Plot Thickens: How Narrative Works, and How To Work With It

This module aims to introduce you to narrative concepts, including theories of narrative, plotting and storytelling. It will provide you with the opportunity to read writers who use narrative techniques in innovative ways and help you engage with the effects of these different techniques. This module will create a space in which you can use and experiment with these approaches to explore a broad range of narrative techniques in your own writing. ​

Writing Place: Singing Horizons and Invisible Cities  

In this module you will explore how writers engage with place and produce your own creative portfolio of place writing. Considering historical and contemporary texts that engage with the city, the edgelands, and the wild, you will explore genres such as nature writing, life writing, fiction and eco-poetics. You will interrogate the practice of writing place using critical frameworks such as psychogeography, hauntology, (post)colonialism and cultural concepts such as 'hiraeth' and 'being on country'.  

Writing (R)evolution: Personal and Collective Change  

This module aims to introduce you to the various applications of creative writing and its impact beyond the arts. You will start by understanding the responsibilities of the writer's role and positionality and by developing awareness of the writer's voice. Through writing practice, the establishment of collaborations, and engagement with real-life projects, you will be encouraged and guided to use writing as a tool of community impact and change.  

Paths to Professional Writing: Developing Skills, Getting Published, Sustaining a Career  

This module aims to introduce you to the publishing process, allowing you to understand how books get published and why other books get rejected. The module will support you in becoming actively engaged with writing prizes and real publishing opportunities while you are studying. It will introduce you to the range of professional roles available to you after graduation and introduce you to real publishing professionals. The module includes a flexible professional placement element that will give you the opportunity to begin establishing a professional network in the publishing and creative industries. ​

Core Modules

Literary and Critical Theory

This module introduces you to the major coordinates of literary and critical theory as it emerged in the twentieth century. You may cover theories such as semiotics, Structuralism, Poststructuralism, Formalism, New Criticism. You may also be introduced to politically-inflected theories such as those deriving from Marxism and cultural materialism, as well as feminist and queer theories. Students may also cover psychoanalytical, postcolonial and critical race theories, as well as more modern postcritical readings.

Research Methods

In this module you will be encouraged to compare and understand the alternative conceptual and technical approaches to research in English Studies. During lectures, seminars, and workshops, as well as during hours of independent study, we will review and critically evaluate the relevant, current literature in English Studies to provide you with a well-rounded toolbox to apply to your other modules. We will also focus on the methodological frameworks within which to undertake research and the ethical and political implications of these. Finally, students will develop skills and confidence in the application of a range of techniques and methodologies as well as an understanding of their responsibility and position as researcher.

Dissertation The  Dissertation  module provides you with the opportunity to undertake a sustained, rigorous and independent creative project that will also involve an investigation of a specialised topic in the context of either English Literature or Creative Writing. 

Learning & Teaching​

This MA English Literature and Creative Writing degree is taught by leading scholars and active writers. Our expertise spans literature from the 16 th century to the present day.

Dr Nick Taylor-Collins is a specialist on William Shakespeare, modern Irish literature, and literary theory; Dr Carmen Casaliggi's is an expert in Romantic literature; and Dr Elizabeth English is a specialist in modernist literature and culture, early twentieth-century genre fiction, and women's writing. Our creative writers regularly publish poetry, short stories, nonfiction, novels, hybrid work and more.  Dr Ben Fergusson is an award-winning writer and translator who publishes both fiction and non-fiction. Dr Kate North is a poet, novelist, and short story writer who is particularly interested in applications of writing practice in health and community contexts. Dr Lucy Windridge-Floris is a novelist whose research focuses largely on creative writing for therapeutic contexts. Dr Sabrin Hasbun is an award-winning non-fiction writer whose work specialises in writing for and by marginalised groups.

Modules are taught through a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops, and online delivery. Some modules will also include individual tutorials and the dissertation module is delivered largely through one-to-one tutorials with your supervisor. A critical but supportive environment is achieved through a combination of workshops, online activities, and extra-curricular activities.

Our modules are supported by our Virtual Learning Environment, Moodle, with designated course pages which carefully detail each week's topic and reading. All course materials (apart from primary texts) are made available in advance via this platform, which you can access remotely. Primary texts may be available online for free (if out of copyright) or will be stocked in our library.

All modules are 20 credits, apart from the dissertation which is worth 60 credits. In a 20-credit module you will receive 24 hours of timetabled teaching and you will be expected to conduct 176 hours of independent study.  The 60-credit dissertation consists of a mixture of individual tutorials with your allocated dissertation supervisor (3 hours) and group tutorials (9 hours) and independent study (588 hours). Seminars are scheduled in the weekday evenings to be as inclusive and flexible as possible. If you are full-time, for instance, you will have classes on two weekday evenings each term (each evening session lasts two hours and is usually scheduled between 5pm and 7pm). In addition to this, you will study Research Methods in Term 1 and Literary and Critical Theory in Term 2. Research Methods is taught via four Saturday sessions of four hours each, four one-hour weekday tutorials, as well as non-scheduled online activities. Literary and Critical Theory is taught via four Saturday sessions of four hours, pre-recorded lectures, and online activities.

At Cardiff Metropolitan we recognise that student experience and outcomes can be enhanced through the support of a Personal Academic Tutor (PAT). You will be allocated a PAT when you join the University, who will support you on your educational journey and help you to make informed choices enroute to achieving your developing ambition, through both group and individual meetings.​​​

We have a variety of approaches to assessment across the programme depending upon the module. The majority of Creative Writing modules are assessed through creative work (i.e poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, script or hybrid works) and through critical reflection on your writing. The majority of your English Literature modules are assessed through the essay form. Other modes of assessment across the programme include blog posts, posters, and presentations. 

You will receive tutor support in class and through our VLE in order to prepare you for each assessment point. Each module embeds dedicated time to assessment and we offer students one-to-one tutorials both before submission and after to discuss feedback.

There are a range of wider facilities and support services on offer to support your progress, including library resources which can be accessed online or on campus and the Academic Practice team. ​

Employability & Careers​

The MA is a great choice for those wishing to enhance their employment and professional opportunities in the arts or heritage sectors. The programme is also suitable for those who would like to become teachers of English Literature and Creative Writing as well as those who are already teachers and would like to enhance their expertise. For example, teachers of English at 'A' Level and GCSE often find the course suitable for professional development purposes, providing them with skills to enhance their teaching of English literature and creative writing within their current curricula.

Many of our students use the course to generate and hone their own writing for publication. Our creative practice modules are designed with eventual publication in mind. Our assessments are designed around publication, performance and/or production. Several of our students have had publication and industry success (see below). 

This degree will encourage you to develop the valuable transferable skills of autonomy, effective collaboration, self-direction, organisation, initiative and adaptability that are highly regarded in the workplace. A Master's degree in English Literature and Creative Writing may lead to a variety of careers which include the particularly relevant areas of teaching, doctoral research, journalism, PR, publishing, the media, and employment in the public or voluntary sectors. 

The course also prepares you for further study at PhD level at Cardiff Metropolitan University and beyond.

Entry Requirements

Applicants should usually have a 2.2 honours degree, in a relevant subject.

You will be asked to submit an online application form. You may be asked to submit a samples of your creative and academic work. Please check the required Compulsory Supporting Documents  here . Applicants may be interviewed via Teams or over the phone.

International Applicants: Students whose first language is not English will need to provide evidence of fluency to at least an academic IELTS 6.0 standard with no sub-score lower than 5.5 or equivalent. For full details about how to apply and English Language qualifications please visit the International pages​ on the website.

Additional Information

Partner Employee Discount ​

There is a fee discount of 25% available to part-time students who are employed in one of Cardiff Metropolitan University’s partnership schools for Initial Teacher Education and Training or partnership employer community. Eligibility criteria and terms apply. For further information please contact Admissions.​​

For general enquiries, please contact the Admissions Team on 029 2041 6044 or email  [email protected] For course specific enquiries, please contact Dr Elizabeth English  Email: [email protected]

We endeavour to deliver courses as described and will not normally make changes to courses, such as course title, content, delivery, and teaching provision. However, it may be necessary for the university to make changes in the course provision before or after enrolment. It reserves the right to make variations to content or delivery methods, including discontinuation or merging courses if such action is considered necessary. Please read our Terms and Conditions for the full information.

Key Course Information

Place of Study: Cardiff School of Education & Social Policy Cyncoed Campus

Course Length: 1 year full-time; 2 years part-time

Course Disclaimer We endeavour to deliver courses as described and will not normally make changes to courses, such as course title, content, delivery, and teaching provision. However, it may be necessary for the university to make changes in the course provision before or after enrolment. It reserves the right to make variations to content or delivery methods, including discontinuation or merging courses if such action is considered necessary.

Please read our Terms and Conditions for the full information.

English Literature lecturer and Programme Director Dr Nick Taylor-Collins, talks about his love for reading and learning from passionate teachers at school, and how this influences his teaching in the seminar room.

Lisa tells us why she chose to study the MA at Cardiff Met and how its transformed her confidence and career. Read more

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English literature and creative writing

Dive into the diversity of English literature and discover connections across popular culture and theory or hone your Creative Writing talent with our professional writers.

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Explore fresh perspectives across the rich chronological span of English literature, or develop your talents in the field of Creative Writing, taught by professional writers respected within their chosen fields.

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The MA in English Literature at Cardiff was a great preparation for PhD study. The weekly Research Methods workshops and the MA Dissertation helped me to hone my critical voice. Similarly, the vast array of modules on offer introduced me to everything from the first poem written in English to a novel published in 2001. So, I’d recommend the MA to anyone!

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