English Literature

Description

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We offer doctoral supervision in a huge variety of topics, theories and genres. The work of postgraduate students is supported within the department by a network of research groups in the following periods: medieval; early modern and Shakespeare; restoration, the eighteenth century and romanticism; and the nineteenth and twentieth century (including Victorianism, modernism, aestheticism, postmodernism and contemporary literature and theory).

Our principal areas of research expertise include Medieval English (for example, Old English, Chaucer, Langland, the Vernon manuscript); Early Modern English and Shakespeare (for example, Spenser, Marlowe, Jonson, Middleton, Daniel, Donne); Restoration, 18th century and the Romantics (for example, Milton, Swift, Pope, Johnson, Coleridge); and 19th and 20th century research (for example, Wilde, Woolf, Zadie Smith)

Duration: PhD 3 years full-time, 6 years part-time; MLitt 2 years full-time, 4 years part-time; MPhil 1 year full-time; 2 years part-time;

Contents

The following summary indicates our principal areas of research expertise. Please view the Department of English website for further details of possible research topics and staff contact details.
Our work in Medieval English (for example, Old English, Chaucer, Langland, the Vernon manuscript) extends through medieval literature into concerns with editing, print production, bibliography, manuscript studies, and non-manuscript verbal cultures of the Middle Ages; and also with relations between medieval verbal and visual cultures. In the Early Modern andShakespeare area (for example, Spenser, Marlowe, Jonson, Middleton, Daniel, Donne), our focus on drama extends into the reception of the dramatists in later periods, running alongside work on the wider literature of the Early Modern period and on cultures of manuscript and print. In Restoration, 18th century and Romantics (for example, Milton, Swift, Pope, Johnson, Coleridge) we focus on reading literary works in their historical and cultural contexts, with specific interests in the editing of texts, in language and lexicography, in reception of the medieval, and in gender.

Our 19th and 20th century research (for example, Wilde, Woolf, Zadie Smith) has a particular focus on the periods 18301940 (especially Victorianism, Aestheticism and Modernism, periodisation and historiography); and Postmodernism, Cultural Theory and Film (especially psychoanalysis, nationhood, space and place, Black British and British Asian writing, gender and sexualities, and literary and cultural studies). The research themes of materiality of the text (for example, textual editing, history of the book) and gender (for example, women writers, relevant theoretical approaches) can be pursued across all these periods.

Our staff work on a variety of other areas, and recent examples include: Browne, Marvell, Suckling, and 17th-century womens writing; Judith Cowper and Mary Leapor; Johnsons Dictionary online (a fully annotated critical edition); Henry James Michael Field, Oscar Wilde, Arnold Wesker, J G Ballard, and Kazuo Ishiguro.

Requirements

Applying to a Doctoral Research programme at Birmingham is a simple four-step process -

Step 1 - Ensure your qualifications meet our entry requirements|

Step 2 - Find a potential supervisor(s) and identify your research area|

Step 3 - Develop and submit an initial research proposal|

Step 4 - Submit your formal application

In order to undertake a programme of study here at the University, you will need to demonstrate that you have a good level of written and spoken English. You can demonstrate your level of English with IELTS, TOEFL or alternative qualifications..

Funding

See the University of Birmingham Website for more details on fees and funding.

Scholarships may be available. International students can often gain funding through overseas research scholarships, Commonwealth scholarships or their home government.