Combine study of the theory and history of Life writing from the 18th century to the present, with the possibility of researching and writing a practical exercise in biography. Receive training in research and writing skills for the completion of a large research project.
KEY BENEFITS
- Unrivalled location in the centre of London, with easy access to the British Library and the major libraries and archives of the capital.
- Flexible programme with a wide range of options allows students the opportunity to specialise in areas of their choice.
- A dynamic, research-led department with an international reputation for excellence.
KEY FACTS
Student destinations
Many students of English Language and Literature go on to pursue research in our and other departments; others have developed their skills in teaching, journalism, cultural arts and management, or the legal and financial sectors.
Programme leader/s
Professor Max Saunders, Department of English
Awarding Institution
King's College London
Credit value (UK/ECTS equivalent)
UK 180/ECTS 90
Duration
One year FT, two years PT, September to September.
Location
Strand Campus.
Year of entry 2013
Offered by
School of Arts and Humanities
Department of English
Closing date
None.
Please note that applicants wishing to apply for funding (e.g. AHRC) must submit their application by the relevant funding deadline, which is usually early in the year. Please see
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/funding/sources/index.aspx for information on the available funding opportunities and deadlines.
Approximately 40 FT.
Fees
PT Home: £3950 (2013)
PT Overseas: £8125 (2013)
FT Home: £7900 (2013)
FT Overseas: £16250 (2013)
CONTACTS
Contact information
Postgraduate Officer, Centre for Arts & Sciences Admissions (CASA)
tel: +44 (0) 20 7848 2765 / 2232 / 7232
fax: +44 (0) 20 7848 7200
Email
Website
PURPOSE
To develop critical understanding. To enable you to concentrate upon specific areas of literary and cultural studies and acquire advanced skills in research methods. To prepare you for doctoral study.
DESCRIPTION
This programme aims to offer students the chance to explore a range of topics and texts from the eighteenth century to the present, inviting students to think broadly across conventional period boundaries. The programme aims to provide teaching and research training at postgraduate level in a wide range of aspects of Life-writing, based in a research environment which values scholarly inquiry and independence of thought and offers graduate students a clear sense of what would be involved in progressing to the doctorate. Students receive training in research and writing skills (including manuscript work, bibliographies, internet resources) in preparation for the completion of a large-scale research project.
STRUCTURE OVERVIEW
Core programme content
Core module:
Indicative non-core content
Compulsory module semester 1:- Life Writing: Genre, History, Theory, Methods.
Option modules:Students take three option modules. Recommended options may include:
- Biographical Writing
- Life Writing 1700-1850
- Autobiographical Writing
- Illness Narrative as Life Writing.
Students may also choose from a wide range of option modules offered on other English Department MA Programmes, or modules from another departments in the School, subject to agreement by the programme leader.
Suggested modules:
- Conflict: 20th Century War Literature
- Prison Writing
- Eighteenth Century Writing, Gender, Culture
- Colonial Women Writers: Nation, Gender, Empire.
NB The above is an indicative list only. For further information on the programme structure (for full-time and part-time study) and modules, please visit:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/english/study/pgt/progs/life/index.aspx
FORMAT AND ASSESSMENT
Compulsory module, and optional modules assessed by coursework, plus a compulsory dissertation.
MODULES
More information on typical programme modules.
NB it cannot be guaranteed that all modules are offered in any particular academic year.
Module code: 7AAEM644
Credit level: 7
The genres of Life-Writing will be introduced (including biography, autobiography, letters, and journals), as will the theoretical problems involved in considering Life-Writing in terms of genre. The module will also introduce the literary history of Life-Writing in English from the Early Modern period. Finally, it will integrate these elements with discussion of practical methods: not only the use of archival sources, including manuscript material such as wills and letters; or the conducting of interviews; but also practical applications of theoretical ideas, such as in biographical interpretations of literary works, or psychoanalytic interpretations of auto/biographical subjects.
Module code: 7AAEM631
Credit level: 0
Credit value: 20
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 1 two-hour weekly seminar
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module will explore a variety of illness narratives: fictional and non-fictional, by patients and carers, written singly or collectively. We will consider how far illness narrative can claim to be a genre in its own right as well its relation to other forms of life-writing (especially trauma narrative and testimony). We will also read and critique the body of criticism to which illness narrative has given rise, both academic and extra-mural. There are specific questions in life writing that illness seems to throw into especially sharp relief. Chief among these is the question of authenticity.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/english/modules/2011-12/level7/7aaem631.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Elizabeth Eger
Module code: 7AAEM607
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: Two one hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module offers the opportunity to analyse a wide range of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century lifewritings. We will consider the porous boundary between the terms ‘biography’ and ‘autobiography’, the latter only appearing at the end of the eighteenth century. We will start with classical biography, using Johnson as our exemplar. Emerging philosophical ideas about the nature of identity will then be discussed in relation to the evolution of Romantic biography. We will also consider the genre of letters, familiar and literary. William Mason was the first writer to challenge the taboo surrounding the publication of private letters in biography. His Life of Thomas Gray (1775) in which he announced that, through his letters, Gray would ‘become his own biographer’, had an enduring influence on literary biography. Memoirs, confessions, and journals will also contribute to our study.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/english/modules/2012-13/level7/7aaem607.aspx
Module code: 7AAEM645
Credit level: 0
Credit value: 20
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: Weekly two-hour seminar
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module concentrates on literature in English from the 1870s to the 1930s, in which the forms of Life-Writing (such as literary portrait, autobiography, diary, journal, letters, etc) are increasingly used as resources for fiction. The resulting hybrid forms will be shown to play an important part in the literary history of the period. The module is designed for students wishing to deepen their knowledge of late 19th- and early 20th-century literature, and of the history of life-writing; and who have an interest in the theoretical considerations raised by such blurring of generic boundaries. It will focus on major texts from the late Victorian period, the fin-de-siècle, the Edwardian period, and Modernism. It will not only consider these texts from the perspective of recent theoretical accounts of autobiography, but will examine the ways in which such formal experiments were articulated and received by their contemporaries.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/english/modules/2011-12/level7/7aaem645.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Hope Wolf
Module code: 7AAEM635
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: One two hour seminar weekly
Assessment:
coursework; practical/s;
1 x 2,000 - 2,500 word critical essay (50%); 1 x 2,000 - 2,500 practical exercise (50%)
This module will combine the reading of certain significant eighteenth and early nineteenth century biographies with a study of more recent biographies of the same figures. Focusing on lives of (and by) Dr Johnson and Hester Thrale, Wordsworth and Coleridge, Dorothy Wordsworth, Lord Byron, and Jane Austen, we will consider not only how biography has developed as a genre, but also how myths are formed and conceptions of identity have changed.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/english/modules/2012-13/level7/7aaem635.aspx
ACADEMIC ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
General entry advice
Minimum 2:1 undergraduate honours degree (or overseas equivalent), in English, or a subject in which English plays a significant part; other disciplines may be considered.
APPLYING TO KING'S
To apply for graduate study at King's you will need to complete our graduate online application form. Applying online makes applying easier and quicker for you, and means we can receive your application faster and more securely.
King's does not normally accept paper copies of the graduate application form as applications must be made online. However, if you are unable to access the online graduate application form, please contact the relevant admissions/School Office at King's for advice.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
Applicants are required to submit an essay of not more than 4,000 words, preferably on a topic related to their chosen programme. Applicants who completed their BA more than 10 years ago will normally be asked to submit a new piece of work. Please contact the MA Convenor if you wish to discuss your situation.
PERSONAL STATEMENT & SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Please state modules you wish to take, if known, as part of your personal statement.
FUNDING
AHRC, Graduate School and School of Arts & Humanities scholarships, Overseas Research Students (ORSAS) Award Scheme, self-funded.
Related programme student profile
Shakespeare Studies MA
The two things that first attracted me to King’s were staff reputation and the university’s connections. It was the opportunity to be mentored by Arden editors and taught at The Globe Theatre which made me accept the offer to study Shakespeare at King’s. I have not regretted my choice.
Through this programme I have obtained a 12-month internship at The Globe – a crash course in application of academic research which will undoubtedly prove an extremely transferable skill. Being completely self-funded, I will have to work for a few years to be able to afford a PhD, and I feel that my time at King’s is well preparing me for that necessity. My career interests lie in theatre management and publishing, two areas into which my internship and the invaluable support of the editors on staff have cast precious insight.
I’d advise prospective students to choose a subject they adore. Graduate study is hard work, so the only way you are going to find the determination to be the best you can be is if your specialist area is the thing you want to do most in the world!