English Literature - MA

This module allows students to explore the evolution and transformation of literary texts through processes of writing, publishing, editing and adapting. There is a focus on the roles of different participants (authors, publishers, editors, readers) in respect of three case studies from different periods and genres (normally but not exclusively a play, a collection of poems, and a work of prose fiction, one of which will usually be by a living writer). So doing, the module provides an introduction to Master’s level study of key critical issues and debates concerning authorship, the literary canon, and the roles of publishers, performers, editors and readers in the production of meaning. An editorial exercise forms part of the assessment regime, encouraging skills of research, pedagogy, transcription and critical evaluation.

The module will centre on William Shakespeare, Macbeth; Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805 and 1850 versions) and a contemporary novel.

The content of this module will be drawn from a range of historical periods, relating to locations and environments, both real and imagined. You will be encouraged to think about the connection between writing, place and placelessness as it develops through history. The module is also interested in the ‘place’ of literature in our own local, national and global contexts: how does an informed understanding of writing and its relation to place (or displacement), through time, help us to see how literature might intervene in, or modify, the world now. Indicative texts for study: The country house tradition of poetry; dystopian/utopian writing – e.g. Thomas More, Utopia; Romanticism and ideas of nationhood (e.g. the poetry of Robert Burns); contemporary fiction and statelessness (e.g. Abdulrazak Gurnah, By the Sea).

The 20-credit bespoke Research Methods module focuses on the skills necessary to complete a major project: project management, networking, liaising with partners, extended writing skills, archival skills. It is carefully placed to support the initial stages of the major project and your progression on to a significant piece of independent research. Assessment will involve organizing a conference with your classmates, at which you will each give a 20-minute presentation.

The purpose of the module is to enable you to undertake a sustained, in-depth and theoretically informed research project exploring an area that is of personal interest to you. It is important that we can support you appropriately, so you will be guided towards choosing a research topic which is relevant to your discipline and in which your lecturers have expertise. The outcome may take the form of a written dissertation or a practical outcome with accompanying reflective, critical and contextual material. The main consideration when choosing your topic is that it must be relevant to your programme and you should consider the relevance of this topic to your future academic or professional development.  

Literature and Truth is a provocative and original module that typifies the MA in exploring a range of literary and intellectual concerns while enabling a focus on the here and now. We will take an in-depth look at literature preoccupied with the presence and absence of truth. We will consider literary experience as a distinct mode of truthfulness, dystopian fiction, social critique, and the role writing plays in creating individual identity.

Indicative texts for study: Shakespeare’s Othello; Swift, A Tale of a Tub; George Eliot, Daniel Deronda; Ezra Pound’s poetry; D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow and Fantasia of the Unconscious; Sylvia Townsend Warner, Summer Will Show.

In this module, you will study the nature and practice of creative nonfiction, exploring the distinctive issues it raises for writers in recent published works and in your own, including the ethical considerations involved in drawing from real-life subjects as source material, the quality of truth, and the interplay between ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’. You will explore several forms of creative nonfiction, including memoir, travel writing, nature writing, auto/biography, the personal essay, the nonfiction thriller, and literary journalism, and consider the variations in style these might involve.

The module is an opportunity to learn and critically reflect on the skills of collaboration by enabling you to create a research-informed interdisciplinary project with students from complementary disciplines, or with academic staff.