MA Creative Writing

This course focuses on twenty-first century literature not just as words on a page, but also as a constitutive feature of that wider cultural formation known as ‘contemporary literary culture’ (itself made up of a set of contingent and intersecting discourses, practices, coteries, markets, etc.). Alongside the set texts, we will consider the contexts of production and reception of contemporary literature and discuss questions of value and canonicity; we will consider the role of literary criticism, the construction of readership(s), and the impact of prize culture; and we will focus on questions of history, form and genre, including the notion of ‘literariness’ itself as it is constructed and understood in the twenty-first century.

One three-hour seminar per week, plus optional essay tutorial, and guidance during published office hours. 

Use of Canvas: 

Class handouts, extracts from critical material, relevant journal articles, readings lists and information on assessment, plus other course materials will all be posted on Blackboard. 

Show a developed knowledge and understanding of literature of the period 2000 to the present, its formal and stylistic diversity, its critical reception, and the contexts of its production and reception, along with some knowledge of critical/theoretical discourse of this period. 

Demonstrate skills of close reading and analysis of literary texts, alongside skills of appropriate research and critical argument. 

Locate and employ library and web-based materials in support of a developed critical argument, plan a project and meet a deadline. 

Demonstrate enhanced verbal and written communication skills, with a view to clarity, concision and reasoned argument, and work well both independently (in the preparation of the assessment) and in groups (in class-based discussion exercises). 

A confirmed reading list will be provided in September 2025, but in previous years, primary texts have included:

•    W. G. Sebald, Austerlitz (2001)
•    Zadie Smith, On Beauty (2005)
•    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah (2013)
•    Ben Lerner, 10.04 (2014)
•    Rachel Cusk, Outline (2014)
•    Bernadine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other (2019)