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The Research Master's in Literary Studies offers you the opportunity to explore your own research interests. While the core courses provide a clear grounding in both literary theory and cultural history, the programme encourages you to determine your own research path. We offer a broad selection of electives and our tutorial set-up allows you to explore topics in-depth and in close collaboration with a small group of students and a Faculty member. The specialist nature of the programme is an excellent preparation for a PhD upon graduation.

Programme overview

The Literary Studies Research Master's programme is anchored in the three core courses, all of which you take in the first three semesters. These core courses introduce you to the two chief orientations that guide research at the faculty: literary theory and cultural history. In addition to the core courses, you will choose an elective and a tutorial each semester. These offer you in-depth knowledge and (methodological) skills in the topics that fascinate you. In the final semester, you will write your thesis and develop a complementary research project.

COURSES SEM 1 SEM 2 SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 EC
  • Key Debates in Literary and Cultural Studies
    Period 1
    Period 2
    12
  • Literature, Context, Historicity
    Period 4
    Period 5
    12
  • Restricted-choice electives: Tutorials and Research School Activities
    Period 1
    Period 2
    Period 3
    Period 4
    Period 5
    Period 6
    12
  • Free-choice electives
    Period 1
    Period 2
    Period 4
    Period 5
    24
COURSES SEM 1 SEM 2 SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 EC
  • Literary Studies Lab
    Period 1
    Period 2
    12
  • Research Project Literary Studies
    Period 4
    Period 5
    12
  • Free-choice electives: Tutorials and Research School Activities
    Period 1
    Period 2
    Period 3
    Period 4
    Period 5
    Period 6
    12
  • Free-choice electives
    Period 1
    Period 2
    Period 4
    Period 5
    6
  • Research Master's Thesis Literary Studies
    Period 4
    Period 5
    Period 6
    18
Compulsory course
Elective
UvA Course Catalogue: Literary Studies
  • Core courses

    In the first three semesters, you will be taking three core courses. In Key Debates in Literary and Cultural Studies, you become familiar with the current debates and methodologies in literary studies. In the second semester, you will take the course in Literature, Context, Historicity and focus on what the workings of literature actually does in social, cultural and historical terms. Finally, in the Literary Studies Lab in your second year, you will focus on what it means to conduct the practice of high-level academic research. In this course, you work on your research topic with fellow students and a Faculty member, helping you to prepare for the thesis that you will write in the final semester and learn how to write a PhD proposal.

  • Electives

    The programme offers ample space for electives and encourages you to take courses that best suit your research interests. We have over 50 electives in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Scandinavian and Slavonic literatures, as well as Comparative literature. Interdisciplinary electives deal with topics like globalisation, cultural memory, gender and the post-human.

  • Tutorials

    In the tutorials you work closely with one of our Faculty members and a small group of students on a topic, method or field that interests you. Some tutorials are offered in the study guide, but you may also create your own. In the tutorial space, you also take seminars at one of the national research schools, where you’ll meet Research Master's students, PhDs and researchers from other universities in the Netherlands and abroad.

  • Thesis

    The Master's thesis reports on research carried out under the supervision of an academic staff member involved in the programme. In addition, you complete a research project related to the topic of your thesis.

  • Internship

    You can also opt to do an internship. This may involve taking part in ongoing research at the faculty or a research-oriented internship at a cultural or literary institution like a museum or publishing house.

Copyright: Bob Bronshoff
Literary Studies allows us to make visible what is at stake philosophically and politically in cultural expressions like literature, film, new media, visual art or popular culture. It asks questions about the ways in which people give shape to meaning, and thus how knowledge about contemporary culture is produced. Dr Hanneke Stuit
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