Victorian Gothic: History, Literature and Culture (Distance Learning)

University of Portsmouth
Postgraduate MA Distance learning (part-time) 2 Years HistoryEnglish literature and creative writing

About this course

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 Portsmouth’s 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.

What you'll experience

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 Library’s 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

    Careers and opportunities

    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

    After you leave the University, you can get help, advice and support for up to 5 years from our Careers and Employability service as you advance in your career.

    • Study Options

    This course is available in 2 study options:

    Distance learning (part-time) Shown above

    Duration: 2 Years

    Qualification: MA

    Location: Portsmouth

    Distance learning (full-time)

    Duration: 1 Year

    Qualification: MA

    Location: Portsmouth

    Career Prospects

    Graduates from this course typically go into the following occupations:

    3412 Authors, writers and translators
    4135 Library clerks and assistants
    4214 Company secretaries and administrators
    2472 Archivists, conservators and curators
    4112 Local government administrative occupations
    2471 Librarians

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    A-Levels

    BBB - BBC

    UCAS Points

    112 - 120 points

    Avg. Salary

    £26,000

    Course Details

    Qualification
    MA
    Study Mode
    Distance learning (part-time)
    Duration
    2 Years
    Start Date
    2025
    Academic Year
    2025
    Campus / Location
    Portsmouth
    Scheme
    Postgraduate
    Subjects
    History, English literature and creative writing

    Offered by

    University of Portsmouth

    Portsmouth

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