Course description
"The teachers and classmates that I have encountered on this course are very supportive.
When I told my instructor that I had difficulties understanding the readings, they suggested that I go to their office hour sessions to have further discussions on the topics."
Nadia / MA Modern and Contemporary Literature Student
Our MA Modern and Contemporary Literature master's course offers an opportunity to become part of a dynamic group of researchers working in 20th and 21st century literature, culture and theory.
You will undertake an intensive and challenging investigation of the broad field of modern and contemporary writing. Units provide opportunities to study modernisms, postcolonial writing, cultural theory, radical subcultures, American culture, contemporary fiction and much more.
We focus on the relationships between texts and the various political and historical contexts in which they are produced and in which they circulate. Via detailed engagements with aesthetic form, we consider the connections between cultural and political practice, with particular focus on representations and constructions of sexuality, class, gender and race.
Special features
Literature events
Manchester Literature Festival holds literary events across Manchester throughout the year, many in partnership with the University.
The Centre for New Writing also hosts a regular public event series, Literature Live, which brings contemporary novelists and poets to the University to read and engage in conversation. This series attracts an impressive line-up of speakers, such as Jeanette Winterson, Colm Toibin, Hanif Kureishi, Hilary Mantel and Audrey Niffenegger.
Unique collections
John Rylands Library on Deansgate is part of the University and offers the opportunity to see and work with a range of rare resources and archival treasures.
Centre for New Writing
Manchester is home to the Centre for New Writing, a major hub for new writing excellence and home to award-winning teaching staff including Women's Prize for Fiction winner Kamila Shamsie and the much-garlanded Jeanette Winterson.
Teaching and learning
You will learn through a variety of teaching methods, depending on the units you take, including lectures, seminars and independent study.
You will also attend seminars on topics such as how to study at MA level, how to research and write a master's thesis, and career options.
Coursework and assessment
You will be assessed through a variety of methods depending on the units you take, including written assignments.
Course unit details
You will undertake units totalling 180 credits. Core and optional units combine to make 120 credits, with the remaining 60 credits allocated to the dissertation.
You will take four units, including at least one of the three possible core units:
- Key Issues in Literary and Critical Theory
- Modernisms
- Historicising the Contemporary: Literature and Politics 1970-2000
You may also choose up to 30 credits worth of units from another MA course in place of one of your optional units, subject to the approval of the Programme Director.
You will write a 12,000-word dissertation supervised by an academic member of staff.
Course unit list
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
---|---|---|---|
Dissertation (MA) | ENGL60000 | 60 | Mandatory |
Key Issues in Literary and Critical Theory | ENGL70032 | 30 | Mandatory |
Historicising the Contemporary: Literature and Politics 1970-2000 | ENGL60081 | 30 | Optional |
Queer Cinema and Beyond | ENGL60152 | 30 | Optional |
Modernisms | ENGL60451 | 30 | Optional |
Postcolonial Literatures, Genres and Theories | ENGL60461 | 30 | Optional |
Critical Thinking in Gender and Sexuality Studies | ENGL60971 | 30 | Optional |
Key Issues in Literary and Critical Theory | ENGL70032 | 30 | Optional |
Forms of Fiction | ENGL70041 | 30 | Optional |
Literature and the Contemporary Literary Industry | ENGL71212 | 30 | Optional |
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What our students say
Find out more about the student experience by reading MA Modern and Contemporary Literature student Nadia's blog post about her time on this course at Manchester.
Facilities
You will have access to one of the UK's five National Research Libraries at Manchester, as well as 24/7 study facilities at the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons and cultural assets such as the John Rylands Library, the Whitworth and the Manchester Museum.
Find out more about our facilities .