Contemporary Literature module (EN41034)

This is a hybrid creative-critical module. The guiding questions of this module are:

• What is at stake when we mobilize 'the contemporary' as a category in our own critical and/or creative writing?
• What must we question, what must we be concerned with, and what does literature ‘of’ the contemporary ask of us as readers/writers?

On this module you will read a selection of anglophone literary works published between 2000 and the present. The reading list will span poetry, prose, performance texts, and hybrid genres, as well as accompanying theoretical and critical works (the selection changes on a yearly basis, and is released for information at the start of the summer in the academic year preceding the course).

The module is taught through a combination of large and small group discussion seminars.

Assessment

Assessment is by 100% coursework comprising:

• an essay of 1500 words (40%)
• and, for those on a 'critical' pathway, a second essay of 3000 words
• or for those on a 'creative' pathway, a portfolio of writing (3000 words prose fiction / 12 pages poetry or performance text) (60%)