MA Contemporary Literature and Culture: The University of Manchester

Course description

The MA Contemporary Literature and Culture is an exciting new postgraduate programme, based at the prestigious Centre for New Writing.

Students on the MA will be able to take full advantage of the Centre's resources, expertise and impressive events programme. They will have access to prominent writers both on the staff and appearing at the Centre's Literature Live and Martis Amis public events, with recent visitors including John Banville, Will Self, Rose Tremain, Galway Kinnell and Michele Roberts. They will also be encouraged to mix with the Centre's MA Creative Writing cohort, allowing a unique and productive dialogue between the creative and the critical.

Students on the MA will be taught by experts in contemporary literature and culture across the English and American Studies subject area, including M.J. Hyland, Geoff Ryman, Vona Groarke and Kaye Mitchell, and will also be eligible to attend Professor of Creative Writing Martin Amis's exclusive master classes.

Module details

The core course, Reading the Contemporary, will introduce key ideas and concepts in the study of contemporary literature and culture.  It will consider a range of critical perspectives but also the material contexts in which contemporary literature is produced and received, along with topical themes such as identity, nationalism, history, trauma culture and literature and terrorism.

A diverse range of options will be on offer, allowing students to work on contemporary British, American, Irish and Postcolonial literature and culture, specific topics such as gender or sexuality, or specific forms such as film, poetry or the novel.

Options include:

• The American Body: Race and Sexuality in the Twentieth Century
• Black Cultural Studies in Post-Civil Rights America
• Contemporary Fiction
• Contemporary Poetry
• Contemporary Irish Fiction
• Postcolonial Narratives: Space, Mobility and Diaspora
• Queer Cinema and Beyond

Entry requirements

Academic entry qualification overview: A First or Upper Second class honours degree or its overseas equivalent, in English or a closely related area.

English language: Students whose first language is not English are required to take either the IELTS or TOEFL test. On the IELTS test applicants are normally expected to score a minimum of 7.0 overall; on the TOEFL test a minimum score of 600 (paper test) or 250 (computer test) is expected. They also may request a 1,500 word essay on any subject relevant to the discipline.