Your postgraduate English Literature offer-holder hub
Congratulations on your offer to study at the University of Birmingham!
Birmingham is one of the few universities that lets me study and research popular literature and culture. It's fascinating to discover the literature we so easily dismiss as not being "intellectual" enough is actually descended from a long line of "intellectual" texts.
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Life in the Department of English Literature
Find out more about studying English Literature at Birmingham: from postgraduate reading groups to tips from our students
Postgraduate English Literature reading groups
Discover groups led by postgraduates in the Department - including a pop culture theory group and a romance reading group
My top reads on MA English Literature
Priyodarshini shares her favourite books she’s read on her course, spanning regency romance Bridgerton to lesbian voices in Victorian literature.
What to read and watch before starting an MA in English Literature
Discover tips on what to read from MA and PhD English Literature student Georgie.
Suggested optional reading
The English Literature admissions tutor Dr Amy Burge provides her reading suggestions for each of our English Literature pathways.
If you're considering the Medieval Literature pathway
-
Donoghue, Daniel, ed., Seamus Heaney, trans., Beowulf: A Verse Translation (W. W. Norton, 2001)
- The Public Medievalist 'Games' archive
- The Public Medievalist 'Film & TV archive'
If you're considering the Long-Nineteenth Century pathway
-
Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796), edited by Tone Brekke and Jon Mee (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)
- Elizabeth Gaskell, Cousin Phillis and Other Stories, edited by Heather Glen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)
If you're considering the Modern and Contemporary pathway
- Virginia Woolf, The Waves, To the Lighthouse and Mrs Dalloway
- T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
- Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
- Bernadine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
If you're considering the Popular Literature and Culture pathway
- Kristen Roupenian, "Cat Person", The New Yorker (4 December 2017)
- Mikaella Clements, “From Star Trek to Fifty Shades: how fanfiction went mainstream,” The Guardian (8 August 2018).
Career opportunities
We’re proud to be the UK university most targeted by the country’s leading graduate employers for two years in a row (The Graduate Market in 2024 and 2025 High Fliers reports).
Our English Literature postgraduate students have gone on to work in careers such as:
- 'Publications Editor'
- 'Artistic Director'
- 'Brand Manager'
Organisations our English Literature postgraduate students have gone on to work for include:
- The Royal Shakespeare Company
- Palgrave Macmillan
- The National Theatre
Accept your offer
Take the next step in your postgraduate journey
