Course summary

Our English Literature: Modern and Contemporary Fictions MA gives you the opportunity to study English literature in a modern university environment, while taking advantage of London's rich cultural life. You'll examine literary texts in the wider context of cultural production and relate them to their social, historical and political circumstances. Our team of academic specialists make use of the many nearby museums, galleries and libraries in their teaching. The course will be of particular interest if you're wishing to prepare for further study at MPhil or PhD level, or if you're teaching English and wish to gain a further qualification and investigate current developments in the field. Studying the MA, you'll have the chance to revisit and reinvestigate the texts, critical practices, institutions and periods of English Literature in order to see it in new and exciting ways. The course consists of three core modules, which together will help you to develop advanced skills of argument, synthesis, research and presentation. Themes and Problems in Modern and Contemporary Literature introduces you to current major themes in contemporary literature, in particular, the ways in which contemporary texts engage with and mediate ongoing crises and conflicts post-2001. Writing the Self explores issues such as life-writing, autofiction, embodiment, biography, memory, otherness, and the non-human. The Dissertation, which can be written on an appropriate topic of your choice, is also a core module. The option modules provide an opportunity for you to deepen and extend your knowledge of a range of periods, issues and forms across the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.