English Literature and American Studies

English literature and American studies is a combination that recognises both the distinctiveness of American literary and cultural tradition and its deep entanglement with British and global literary history. America produced some of the most influential writers in the English language, from Whitman and Emily Dickinson through Faulkner, Morrison, and Roth, and the cultural, political, and social history of the United States is inseparable from understanding both those writers and the literature that responded to, shaped, and sometimes resisted American power.

At Manchester you will combine the close reading and interpretive skills of English literary study with a broader engagement with American history, culture, politics, and society. Literary study trains you to read carefully, to attend to form and language as well as content, and to place texts in their historical and cultural contexts. American studies extends that context, giving you the frameworks to understand race, immigration, capitalism, democracy, and empire as they have played out in one of the most consequential countries in modern history.

You will read American literature alongside British and world literature, developing a genuinely comparative perspective. The three-year full-time programme gives you the time to explore both sides of the combination in depth.

Graduates move into careers in journalism, publishing, teaching, broadcasting, the civil service, cultural organisations, communications, and the creative industries. The combination of careful textual analysis and broad historical and cultural literacy is valued in many professional settings where understanding people, ideas, and narratives matters. Postgraduate study in English, American studies, cultural history, or related areas is also a common route.