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English Literature: Material Cultures and the History of the Book

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MSc Material Cultures and History of the Book - 1 Year (Full-time)

MSc Material Cultures and History of the Book - 2 Years (Part-time)

Information on fees & costs

Individual programme fees are linked above. For detailed information on fee status, policies, payment and funding opportunities see:

Contact information: Phone: +44 (0) 131 650 3030
Email: llc.postgrad@ed.ac.uk; Dr Jonathan Wild (Programme Director)
Email: jwild@ed.ac.uk; Address: School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
12th Floor, David Hume Tower
Edinburgh
EH8 9JX

This one year taught postgraduate degree that brings together theory and practice in new and innovative ways. The programme is distinctive for its integration of traditional bibliography, training in special collections, and advanced theoretical approaches.

Entry requirements

Good honours degree in an appropriate discipline.

International students

All applicants must meet our general entry and language requirements. Detailed advice for international students is available here:

Programme description

Combining the study of cultural history, intensive archival research, and the latest intellectual developments, the postgraduate programme is taught across several academic units by leading international experts in the field.

Programme structure

Students take two core courses, one per semester, along with two specialised option courses. Cultures of the Book, the first-semester core course, offers an introduction to an extensive range of media forms and technologies, from manuscript to electronic text.

In the second semester, students choose from one of two core courses: 2A: Book History, Media Theory, and Communications explores some of the major theoretical issues with which practitioners of the material culture of the text have engaged in recent years; while 2B: Working with Collections, based in the University Library's Special Collections division addresses problems in conservation, cataloguing, digitisation, and the display and management of collections.

Students also choose two options from a variety of courses. See the programme website for further information:

Material Cultures and History of the Book

Learning outcomes

The aim of this programme is to provide an introduction to Book History as a concept and to provide a general overview of the key developments in the field, tracing the movement from scribal culture to hand printing, from industrialisation to new technologies.

By the end of the programme, students will have a firm grasp of:

the extensive range of media forms and technologies, from manuscript to electronic text.
the issues surrounding conservation, cataloguing, digitisation, and the display and management of collections.
advanced archival research methodologies in manuscript and print.

Funding

Please see Scholarships and Student Funding Services for information about funding opportunities:

Scholarships and Student Funding Services

Further Information

This article was published on Apr 25, 2013