MA in Contemporary Literature and Culture
Our MA Contemporary Literature and Culture is an exciting new postgraduate programme covering a range of literature written in English over the last twenty five years, and is taught by seminar and dissertation.
Its students will be able to take full advantage of the Centre for New Writing's resources, expertise and impressive Literature Live events programme. They will have access to prominent writers both on the staff and appearing at our Literature Live and Martin Amis public events, with recent visitors including John Banville, Will Self, Rose Tremain, Galway Kinnell and Michele Roberts.
Visitors in 08/09 will include DBC Pierre, A.L. Kennedy, Helen Dunmore, Andrew O'Hagan, Colm Toibin, Ciaran Carson and Jorie Graham.
Students will also be encouraged to mix with the Centre's MA Creative Writing cohort, allowing a unique and productive dialogue between the creative and the critical.
They will be taught by experts in contemporary literature and culture across the English and American Studies subject area, including M.J. Hyland, Geoff Ryman, Vona Groarke, Kaye Mitchell and Patricia Duncker, and will also be eligible to attend Professor of Creative Writing Martin Amis's exclusive master classes.
The programme will be available on a full-time basis over one year or part-time over two. It will have a truly contemporary perspective, considering literature produced from 1970 to the present day but with a particular focus on the period since 1990.
The core course, Reading the Contemporary, will introduce key ideas and concepts in the study of contemporary literature and culture. It will consider a range of critical perspectives but also the material contexts in which contemporary literature is produced and received, along with topical themes such as identity, nationalism, history, trauma culture and literature and terrorism.
A diverse range of options will be on offer, allowing students to work on contemporary British, American, Irish and Postcolonial literature and culture, specific topics such as gender or sexuality, or specific forms such as film, poetry or the novel.
Options include:
- The American Body: Race and Sexuality in the Twentieth Century
- Black Cultural Studies in Post-Civil Rights America
- Contemporary Fiction
- Contemporary Poetry
- Contemporary Irish Fiction
- Postcolonial Narratives: Space, Mobility and Diaspora
- Queer Cinema and Beyond
The dissertation of 12,000 - 15,000 words will give students the opportunity to produce, under supervision, an extensive piece of work on a topic of their choosing, from within the field of Contemporary Literature and Culture.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS & HOW TO APPLY
Click here for more information on this course.
For details of how to apply please contact:
e-mail: pg-english@manchester.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)161 275 3144