About Contemporary Literature, MRes - at University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Course Overview

This programme draws on specialist staff with expertise in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Literature, Romanticism, Children's Literature, and Contemporary Literature and theory. It also makes use of the holdings of the Special Collections of the Roderic Bowen Library: a unique resource which houses the Special Collections of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, including over 35,000 printed works.

Underpinned by instruction in advanced research methods and skills and the comparative study of theoretically informed critical approaches, this MRes, based on the Lampeter Campus of the University, enables students to undertake an advanced level study of literature in English and associated aspects of culture in the period from 1790 to the present day.

Romanticism, post-Romanticism, the Victorian, Decadence, Modernism, Post-modernism - are explored in a range of modules. For example two modules, 'Visions of Society' and 'The Shock of the New', critically examine the connections and tensions between the ideas and kinds of literary production traditionally associated with those movements: for example, the emergence of the individual, shifts in religious belief, the importance of the city and urbanisation, attitudes to class, race and gender, the dominance of the novel and the impact of new media forms, commodification and the emergence of competing views of the real. Other areas of focus include the consideration of the figure of the child as a shifting ideological construct within and across various C19th cultural movements; writing by American Black Women writers; and the utopian urge in the literature of the period.

Key Features

The programme is delivered on the University's campus in Lampeter. They are taught through seminars, small workshops and individual tutorials and supervision that enable detailed and personalised feedback.

Access to a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) enables additional learning, especially work-shopping, to take place outside the sessions and supports the development of a mutually supportive cohort of committed writers. Graduates from the programmes have gone on to become successful and prize winning authors.

Moreover this programme will offer:

• Expert tuition from research active specialist staff
• Exceptional resources in the specialist holdings of the Roderic Bown Library
• Small seminar based classes
• Residential programme based on our beautiful and inpiring campus in Lampeter
• Available as an online and distance learning option

Modules

Students will choose three modules. Below is an illustrative list of modules available:

• Research Methods (compulsory)
• Comparative and Critical Approaches
• Visions of Society
• The Shock of the New
• Utopian and Dystopian Fiction
• The Child in Time
• Black American Women Writers

Course Tutor(s)

• Dr Paul Wright
• Dr Jeni Williams
• Dr Peter Mitchell

Assessment

Assessment is through a mixture of assignment and presentation supported by tasks designed to enhance research skills. The dissertation allows students to undertake a sustained research project on a topic of their choice under expert individual supervision.

Career Opportunities

• Professional Writers
• Editors
• Publishers
• Marketing
• Expert tuition from professional writers, poets, novelists, dramatists, script-writers
• An opportunity to learn about publishing through the design and production of the annual anthology
• An opportunity to read your work at such events as the Hay Festival
• Programme delivered on our beautiful and inspiring campus in Lampeter

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Entry requirements for this course

Contact University of Wales Trinity Saint David to find course entry requirements.

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View all courses at University of Wales Trinity Saint David

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