Modern and Contemporary Literature and Culture - MA

The Modern School offers a broad range of options in the literature and culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries within the structure of its MA in Modern and Contemporary Literature and Culture.

These options enable individual graduate students to construct a distinct, individually chosen MA programme, yet build on the critical, theoretical, and historical contexts that are established in the core course. Students can design a course that will suit their wish either to acquire a general knowledge of the period or to specialise in a particular area.

You will develop an understanding of:

-The engagement of modern writing with a range of cultural issues

-The cultural meanings and associations of important developments in literary technique in the twentieth century

-The development of ‘modernity’ in association with particular genres and writers

-Some of the ways in which modern historical and technological development affected notions of writing

-The importance of political movements such as feminism and the formation of gay identities to modern writing

Course Structure

The programme is fully modularised and divided into 4 taught modules (one compulsory, three options), a research skills training programme, and a research dissertation.

The core module, Reading Modernity, provides an introduction to some of the key critical and theoretical debates in the study of modern literature and culture. It offers students the opportunity to examine a number of issues that are central to the period.

In addition to their core module, students take three option modules, one in the Autumn term, and two in the Spring term. During the Summer term and Vacation, students work on their dissertations.

Assessment

-Four assessed essays of approximately 4,500 words each

-A 14,000-16,000 word dissertation, written in consultation with a supervisor on an agreed topic

Why choose York?

Professor Helen Smith, Head of Department, explains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSXr3odNg3k&t=55s

Student Profile

https://www.york.ac.uk/english/postgraduate/taught-ma/

Visit the Modern and Contemporary Literature and Culture - MA page on the University of York website for more details!