English Literature (Creative Writing)

Core modules:

Core Skills in Postgraduate Study

This module will help support you in making the transition to MA study. It is taught through a series of workshops on topics such as writing essays at MA level, finding and using secondary materials, giving presentations, and employability. Throughout, you'll be encouraged to reflect on your experiences and expectations, as well as receiving guidance from lecturers. Although the module is not formally assessed, and does not carry credits, it's taken by all students on the MA English Literature programme and as well as helping you to understand the skills you'll be using at MA level will include reflection on your learning and development.

Optional Modules

Creative Writing: Fiction, Genre, Theory - Bodies and Landscapes

This module can be taken as a standalone module, though it complements all other Creative Writing Modules. In this module we will ask what it means to write from and with the body as archive, as a site at which all that is known and unknown, internal and external, self and other, meet. Reading contemporary fiction alongside hybrid works and theory, we will explore different ways of writing the body with writing landscapes. Through this framework, we will develop a nuanced and experimentally-inclined understanding of how to deploy character, setting, voice, situation, plot, perspective, tone, and atmosphere, in prose fiction. We will expand our understanding of fiction through reading and incorporating into our own practice other forms of writing, including creative non-fiction, prose poetry, creative-critical writing and other hybrid and experimental forms. We will consider the relationship between literary experimentation in the context of the climate crisis and the numerous other structural crises that mark the contemporary moment. This module will encourage you to expand and experiment with your existing fiction-writing practise by producing new work every week, independently seeking out texts and experiences which speak to your own 'body archive', and contributing to critical and creative discussions in seminars.

30 credits

Creative Writing: Poetry, Poetics, Fusion - (De)Constructi(ve)ing Selves

This module can be taken as a standalone module, though it complements EGH443,EGH440 and EGH441,a practical and theoretical workshop which is designed to look at current methods of creative writing exploring a wide range of forms of poetry and poetics, prose poetry, poetic prose and the hybrid. During the term our core readings and discussions (critical and creative) will be focusing on language itself and within that on concepts of self and selves, complex concepts of identity as fusion of the private and the public, political and personal, the position of the lyric, or fictional, 'fused' and layered I or is, on phenomenological questions in poetry such as the correlation between psyche and world, language and self, inside and outside while exploring notions and structures of memory, trauma, movement, documentation, perception, body (psyche) and place and environment, politics, historicity, constructions and deconstructions of self, identity and gender; we will be focusing on unnameables, hybrid - psychoanalytical, philosophical and other theoretical concepts through the lens of the creative writer; liminalities and boundaries within the contemporary text of (an old and new) genre, as made, found, de-constructed words of selves. During the module you will be given the opportunity to develop your writing in various contemporary formations of more established and currently forming conventions/experimentations; your critical thinking through a wide range of creative samples by current published authors of both poetry and prose and other speculative genres of fusion; and through the weekly workshops to sharpen your editorial skills.

30 credits

Creative Writing: Prose, Ekphrasis, Experiment, Ritual Writing - Prose Transformations

This module can be taken as a standalone module, though it complements all other Creative Writing Modules. This module allows you to develop your own creative prose by engaging both creatively and critically with texts which push at, break and spill over the boundaries of genre and form. Through studying a wide range of fiction, hybrid texts, poetry, creative-critical writing, and theory, you will develop a practical and theoretical understanding of the ways in which the creative process can transform texts. We will ask: what does it mean to write the self and the other, or the self as the other? We will consider how texts can function as modes of resistance and repair, or resistance to the idea of 'repair', particularly in the context of racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia, and other structural harms. We will look at different ways of generating material from unusual sources, ranging from other art forms to biographical and historical material, to theory. to dreams, myths and folklore. Through experimenting with different processes of writing, you will challenge your expectations around our own approaches to literary style, genre and form. Through alternating discussion-based seminars and peer workshops, you will produce your own writing that engages creatively and critically with the themes and concerns of the module.

30 credits

Creative Writing: Poetry, Prose, Hybrid - Writing, New Writing, Rewriting, Not Writing

This module can be taken as a standalone module, though it complements EGH442, EGH440, and EGH441, a practical and theoretical workshop which is designed to look at current methods of creative writing exploring a wide range of forms experimenting further with genre-fusions, the boundaries of genre conventions exploring forms of writing as re-writing and writing as process and experimentation focussing on through stretching borders and edges of poetic and prose forms contours of self, selves and identity: prose poetry, poetic prose, lyric poetry, hybrid, creative nonfiction, fictional memoir, auto-theoretical prose texts, poetic prose, blog, script and other cross-media. Through a wide range of conventional and cross genres, we will continue to be exploring notions and structures of identity, of perception and consciousness, the construction and re/de/constructions of self and selves in writing, layers of memory, trauma, the correlation between psyche, body, place, movement and environment, politics, historicity, race and gender; we will be focusing on unnameable, the 'difficult' and 'tender tissues' of the writing and writer's material, the abject, the other, the liminal and further hybrid concepts, psychoanalysis, post-modern philosophy, liminalities and boundaries of the contemporary creative text, as made, found, speculated, re-invented, documented, de-constructed words of public and private selves. During the module you will be given the opportunity to develop your writing in various contemporary formations of more established and currently forming conventions/experimentations; your critical thinking through a wide range of creative samples by current published authors of prose, poetry, creative non-fiction, speculative prose, play, radio and performance, cross- and multimedia and the hybrid; and through the weekly workshops to sharpen your editorial skills.

30 credits

Dissertation (MA in English Literature)

The Dissertation is an independent research essay equivalent to around 15,000 words on a topic chosen by you, relating to your programme of study on either the MA in English Literature, MA in Creative Writing or the MA English Studies. It will be supervised by a member of staff with an academic interest in the topic, and you will meet your supervisor approximately three times. The dissertation should present an argument that develops over a series of chapters/sections. It should demonstrate an ability to carry out effective research using appropriate methods of enquiry, as well as expertise in writing and the communication of research discoveries, and in organisation.

60 credits