Explore your passion for contemporary literature and the way it can be used to understand our society. You will examine current developments and critical issues in the past 30 years of literature on a course that provides an international and cross-cultural outlook.
Whether your interests lie in the world of the postcolonial or you have a fascination with women's writing, this challenging course will allow you to study recent volumes of poetry, research cultures and explore novels and films relating to current debates. You will use key theoretical models and concepts to gain a greater understanding of how we study literature and the motivations and historical events that have driven the authors you choose to read.
Taught by a team with an international reputation for their research in diverse areas, ranging from Caribbean culture, history and literature to cultural representations of the 2007-08 credit crunch across literature, stage and screen, this course will expose you to new ideas and encourage you to question them.
Check out our twitter feed @BeckettEnglish for up-to-date information on staff and student events, short courses and fun happenings around the school.
- Research Excellence Framework 2014: 38% of our research was judged to be world leading or internationally excellent in the Communication, Culture and Media Studies, Library and Information Management unit.
Visit the website
http://courses.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/englishcontemp_ma Mature Applicants
Our University welcomes applications from mature applicants who demonstrate academic potential. We usually require some evidence of recent academic study, for example completion of an access course, however recent relevant work experience may also be considered. Please note that for some of our professional courses all applicants will need to meet the specified entry criteria and in these cases work experience cannot be considered in lieu.
If you wish to apply through this route you should refer to our University Recognition of Prior Learning policy that is available on our website (
http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/studenthub/recognition-of-prior-learning.htm).
Please note that all applicants to our University are required to meet our standard English language requirement of GCSE grade C or equivalent, variations to this will be listed on the individual course entry requirements.
Course Benefits
You'll learn how to use a range of cutting-edge theoretical approaches to texts, while you will be able to draw upon the course team's research and teaching strengths in contemporary women's writing, postcolonialism and popular fiction.
You will acquire a well-informed, critical understanding of current developments, questions and critical issues in the field of contemporary literatures and develop the transferable skills needed to undertake independent research into contemporary literatures and associated criticism and theory.
Core Modules
Researching Cultures
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 & Identity
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
Examine contemporary genres with an emphasis on their innovations and socio-cultural developments.
Haunting the Contemporary: the Ghost Story in 20th & 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 & 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
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
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.
With the exception of Researching Cultures and Dissertation, the modules offered each year will be rotated. Other modules include:
Poetry & Poetics
Analyse volumes of recently published poetry (2009-12) and consider them alongside a range of influential contemporary statements on the genre including pieces by Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida.
Contemporary Gothic
Examine the relevance of the Gothic today by studying contemporary Gothic texts. You will engage not only with novels but with Gothic-influenced US TV drama, South-East Asian vampire films, and Latin American horror.
India Shining: Secularism, Globalization, & Contemporary Indian Culture
Discover the diverse and challenging selection of literary and visual texts offered by modern postcolonial India and explore the different conceptual and political approaches taken by writers and film-makers.
Journeys & Discoveries: Travel, Tourism & Exploration 1768-1996
Consider the journeys, voyages and discoveries described in a range of travel writing from 1768 through to 1996 and gain an understanding of how travel, tourism and exploration have evolved.
Translating Tricksters: Literatures of the Black Atlantic
Explore postcolonial writing in the form of short stories, novels and poetry, and unpick the ways writers use religion and folklore to define their identity and resist the legacy of western imperialism.
New Yorkshire Writing: Scholarly Practice & Research Methods
Develop the research and writing skills needed to conduct advanced research in your field as you study representations of Yorkshire and the region's position within Britain.
Other Victorians: The Neo-Victorian Contemporary Novel
You will use pastiches, rewritings and parodies of the 19th-Century novel to consider how we are 'other Victorians' and the role of the 'other' in Victorian society.
Facilities
- Library
Our libraries are two of the only university libraries in the UK open 24/7 every day of the year. However you like to study, the libraries have got you covered with group study, silent study, extensive e-learning resources and PC suites.
- Broadcasting Place
Broadcasting Place provides students with creative and contemporary learning environments, is packed with the latest technology and is a focal point for new and innovative thinking in the city.
Find out how to apply here -
http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/postgraduate/how-to-apply/
