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Studying English Literature

English Literature

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Work on your knowledge of English literature

If you are passionate about education and you enjoy making teaching materials accessible for students, then you may want to enroll in a teacher training programme, after finishing your Bachelor’s programme in Communication and Information Studies.

If you want to join the teacher training programme (Ma level, 2 years), then your proficiency in Dutch must be B2 or higher. But you can also opt for a teacher training programme in an English speaking country. The following text, however, refers to the VU Master’s programme.

During this Master’s programme you will learn to master your subject (teaching English language and literature) at all Dutch high school levels. Of course, you will also learn the tricks of the trade in courses that focus on didactics: how do you activate pupils to really learn something? How do you deal with differences between pupils? And what is the best way to learn a language? What can language education mean for developing citizenship?

When you complete this master you will be a first-degree qualified teacher. This is the highest authority in the Netherlands, with which you can teach in all classes and in all forms of secondary education, from pre-vocational secondary education to pre-university education, and from first-year classes (‘brugklas’) to the final exams.

With this piece of paper in your pocket, you are really an all-round English teacher. And those teachers are desperately needed!

Before you can start this master, you must have sufficient professional knowledge of English literature. In your bachelor's degree in Communication and Information Studies (English Language and Communication Studies track or Language and Mind track) you did not study English literature, nor the role that it plays in society. With this school subject minor you ensure that your knowledge of English literature is at the level needed for studying English at a master's level.

The complete overview of this year's courses can be found in the study guide.

Overview courses

  • Literature, Culture and Society

    For centuries, literary and other cultural texts have changed the way people think and look at the world. They reveal social injustices and societal ills, offering ideas and ammunition for social change, thereby helping people to imagine different, better realities. A single text may trigger an individual’s struggle for emancipation, but also that of a group or a nation. This course will explore the important ways in which literary texts have contributed to societal change and have liberated people throughout the centuries up to the present.

  • Transatlantic Travel Writing

    This course will introduce you to American and British literature written between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th century. As it is impossible to cover all Anglo-American writing of the “long 19th century” in the course of seven weeks, we will focus on one specific genre: travel writing. This literary genre, which has been popular for centuries, has been much overlooked by academics and those constituting the British and American literary canons. The new critical paradigms of “transnationalism” and “globalization,” however, provide a new perspective on these texts. We will read travel writings by authors such as Charles Dickens, Henry James and Mark Twain in combination with canonized texts by these same authors. This will allow us to compare and contextualize.

  • American Literature 1914-present

    Over the course of the twentieth century, American society changed tremendously. These changes are reflected in both the themes and styles of the literature of this time. By looking at works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction produced during this time, we will try to find an answer to what American literature is, what the shifts in styles and themes can tell us about American society, and what it might tell us about the direction in which American literature is headed now, at the beginning of the 21st century.

  • American Film

    You will become acquainted with the study of identity representation in American film. What issues arise when studying the representation of identity (think of race, gender, sexuality) in American cinema? Per meeting, we discuss a particular issue (for instance, stereotyping, the male gaze, character engagement, queer subtext) and apply it to a number of films.

  • Genre and Literary Analysis (blended learning)

    This course will provide a grounding in critical analysis of 'genre' in English Literature, examining the specificities and characteristics that are associated with various genres of literature. You will become familiar with the terminology used in literary analysis and will be able to apply these terms in your own analysis of a literary text.