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MA Victorian Gothic: History, Literature and Culture

University of Portsmouth

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University of Portsmouth

Course options

4 options available

  • Qualification

    MA - Master of Arts

  • Location

    Online/Distance learning

  • Study mode

    Full time

  • Start date

    12-JAN-26

  • Duration

    1 Year

Course summary

Overview

Victorian society and culture was a contradiction – an era of bold vision and technological wonders entwined with deep social fears and cultural anxieties.

Why do we associate the Victorians with darkness, sin, hypocrisy and monstrosity? Why does the Gothic seem to best encapsulate how we think about and remember the Victorians? These are some of the questions you'll explore on this course.

This MA explores not just 19th-century Gothic cultures but, more generally, the fears, wonders, and dark imagination of the Victorian era. Through a rich and fascinating range of historical, literary and folkloric texts, themes and approaches, you'll probe the darker side of the Victorian age.

The course gives you access to a wealth of online resources and digitised archival material relating to Victorian culture and draws on local literary and cultural resources, such as the Conan Doyle Collection (Lancelyn Green Bequest) in Portsmouths Central Library. You'll have the freedom and scope to pursue your own areas of interest and research via an individual research project and 15,000-word dissertation.

On this course you'll:

  • Be taught by experts from both the History and English departments at the University of Portsmouth
  • Develop your research skills, critical thinking and literary analysis
  • Work through two core content modules, focused on the cultural tensions between Victorian anxieties (crime, poverty, slums, and degeneration) and Victorian enchantment (supernatural folklore and magic, ghosts, spiritualism and the occult, and the development of Victorian celebrity culture)
  • Use our Librarys wealth of online archival material including London Low Life, Victorian Popular Culture, The Old Bailey Online, The Charles Booth Archive, and the British Library Newspaper Archive
  • Have opportunities to undertake research in the Charles Dickens Collection and Arthur Conan Doyle Collection (Lancelyn Green Bequest), both housed in the Portsmouth Central Library
  • Get to study any topic of interest within the broad scope of the Victorian Gothic and the history of Victorian culture
  • Be able to base your studies around more recent Neo-Victorian re-imaginings of the nineteenth century in their research projects, exploring areas such as crime or supernatural fictions, or steampunk culture
  • Have the chance to listen to extracurricular talks by guest scholars and writers
  • Be fully supported by a personal tutor (one of the teaching team) throughout your course.

Career development

As well as giving you greater expertise in the fields of nineteenth-century history and Victorian Gothic literature, this course also enhances your knowledge and skills in other areas. During this course, you'll:

  • develop the skillset required to work in the heritage industry, the arts and media
  • develop a strong grounding for pursuing more advanced levels of academic study, including PhDs and careers in academia
  • improve your broader academic skills, such as the ability to analyse, assess, synthesise and evaluate
  • develop your archival and research skills, as well as data analysis and interpretation abilities
  • improve your oral and written communication, time and workload management, and other transferable skills

Tuition fees

Students living in Hong Kong
(International fees)

£ 9,400per year

Tuition fees shown are for indicative purposes and may vary. Please check with the institution for most up to date details.

University information

University of Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth

  • University League Table

    49th

  • Campus address

    University of Portsmouth, University House, Winston Churchill Avenue, Portsmouth, Portsmouth, PO1 2UP, England

VIEW PROFILE
Over 5,700 of the university's 24,000 students come from 150 countries around the world.
The University of Portsmouth Global team is dedicated to supporting international students from enquiry, through application and arrival, to graduation.
Facilities at the award-winning Ravelin sports centre include an 8-lane swimming pool, 175-station gym, climbing wall and ski simulator.

Subject rankings

  • Subject ranking

    English

    76th out of 96 5

    48th out of 91 3

    45th out of 101 5

  • Entry standards

    / Max 202
    127 63%

    45th

  • Graduate prospects

    / Max 100
    63.0 63%

    82nd

    6

  • Student satisfaction

    / Max 4
    3.31 83%

    19th

    3

  • Entry standards

    / Max 204
    114 56%

    65th

  • Graduate prospects

    / Max 100
    70.0 70%

    42nd

    14

  • Student satisfaction

    / Max 4
    3.23 81%

    35th

    4

  • Entry standards

    / Max 206
    127 62%

    38th

  • Graduate prospects

    / Max 100
    59.0 59%

    55th

    2

  • Student satisfaction

    / Max 4
    3.12 78%

    24th

    14

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