Modern and Contemporary Literature

What does it mean to be modern? Where does literary modernism begin and end? This English and Theatre Studies subject explores the endurance and plurality of modern writing across 20th and 21st century literary landscapes in Britain, Ireland, North America and Australia. By introducing and applying an intertextual lens, we will discover genealogical connexions between contemporary, popular texts and their influences. In doing so, we will consider vital moments of innovation, adoption and rupture in works by key modernist authors and their inheritors. Across three genre-based modules (Modernist Fictions; Verse and Performance; Non-fiction Prose and Literary Magazines), you will encounter works by canon modernists, mid-century essayists, and contemporary authors. These writers variously tease out and reorganise categories to do with perspective (e.g. marginal and primary), space (e.g. cities and rooms), and form (e.g. fiction and non-fiction, prose and verse). With peers, and in

• 1Apply critical and analytical skills and methods to key texts and ideas in twentieth and twenty-first century literature
• 2Demonstrate a detailed knowledge and understanding of some of the thematic and formal innovations as well as the controversies and contexts of literature in the twentieth century and beyond
• 3Demonstrate a general understanding of the concepts and principles of recent innovations in literary-critical methodology
• 4Apply an independent approach to knowledge that uses rigorous methods of inquiry and appropriate methodologies that are applied with intellectual honesty and a respect for ethical values
• 5Acquire relevant research skills including use of the library, referencing and presentation of written work
• 6Communicate effectively in a variety of oral and written formats.