MA English: Contemporary Literatures

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You will develop your skills in critical thinking, research, project management and communication, ensuring that a range of careers are available to you. Publishing, editing, journalism, media, broadcasting, museums, archives, libraries, heritage collections, advertising, marketing, secondary and further education, and the civil service are all areas which will benefit from your expertise. A communications role at a charity, political organisation, or in government are additional options to consider. You will also be qualified to pursue a higher degree through research (MPhil, PhD) leading onto an academic career.

Editorial Assistant
Press Officer
Reader Development Librarian
Marketing Communications Executive

Researching Cultures (20 Credits)

Is an interdisciplinary research methods module, taught with students on other Masters programmes. It prepares students for their dissertation, and equips them with research skills and strategies necessary if they intend to progress to PhD.

Doris Lessing: Narrating Nation and Identity

You will explore a selection of the extensive body of work produced during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by the Nobel Prize-winning writer, Doris Lessing.

Contemporary Genre: (Re)Presenting the 21st Century

Explore contemporary genres with an emphasis on their innovations and socio-cultural developments.

Haunting the Contemporary: the Ghost Story in 20th and 21st Century Fiction

Discover the contemporary field of haunted narratives and consider them in relation to a variety of theoretical approaches, primarily the work of Jacques Derrida.

Post-Structuralist Theory: Foucault and Derrida

Develop a deeper awareness and more sophisticated understanding of two theorists who have been of fundamental importance to debates in literary studies in the twentieth century: Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida.

Neoliberal Fictions (20 Credits)

You will focus on the 1990s and 2000s – including the US-led globalisation project, the spread of global markets, the dotcom crash, 9/11 attacks on America and the bursting of the housing bubble.

Dissertation (40 Credits)

Presents the opportunity for students to synthesize the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the course and to write a substantial piece of supervised research, in the guise of a 15,000-word Masters dissertation.