What does it mean for literature to be contemporary? What are the concerns of contemporary writing and what interventions does it make in the world today? This module will equip students with critical ideas and theoretical concepts that will help them to understand the literature of the twenty-first century. They will be introduced to texts from a range of genres, including fiction, poetry, non-fiction prose and the essay, and encouraged to consider new ideas in contemporary theory and philosophy. Texts will be selected from the US and UK, Syria and continental Europe. The frame for studying them will be international in scope, and students will be encouraged to think about how contemporary concerns such as migration, climate change, economic crisis and global capitalism exceed national borders. They will also study a range of aesthetic developments and departures, such as the turn to creative non-fiction and the re-emergence of the political essay. Overall, the module will aim to show how writers are responding to the present period, how their work illuminates and reflects current cultural concerns.
Lecture 16, Seminar 16
10 minutes presentation. Assessment Details: Research presentation to the seminar group worth 20%.
2500 words Essay. Assessment Details: Essay on a topic chosen by the student worth 80%.
Reassessment Method: Single instrument100% written assessment (2000 words)
On successfully completing the module, students will be able to:
1) analyse examples of twenty-first-century literature in the context of contemporary concerns such as migration and climate change
2) understand the form and function of a broad range of contemporary literary genres
3) interpret and evaluate literary texts as part of a global literary system
4) create sustained, reasoned arguments to support their judgements on examples of contemporary literature
5) effectively communicate information, arguments, and analysis, in a variety of forms, to specialist and non-specialist audiences
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