Course summary

The Contemporary Literature and Culture MA is an innovative programme that provides an understanding and appreciation of literature and culture in the contemporary period. The course provides students with the opportunity to study a range of cultural forms, including literature, digital media, drama, film, and television, in order to analyse what we understand by the contemporary and its culture. Modules attend to cultural and theoretical responses to contemporary events, crises, and phenomena that shape our lives and environments, such as climate change, Black Lives Matter, gender rights, globalised capitalism, technological communication and innovation, migration, the rise of populism and the far right, and the Covid-19 pandemic. A distinctive focus is on how contemporary publishing, prizes, and their promotional strategies shape the literary landscape and its politics. The programme furnishes knowledge and skillsets that are put to practical use in an innovative core module that sees students collectively contribute to the dissemination of contemporary literature by planning and holding a literary festival in the summer term. The culmination of the programme is the research and writing of the final dissertation on a topic chosen and developed by each student individually.