Studying the MLitt in Modern and Contemporary Literature and Culture
The MLitt in Modern and Contemporary Literature and Culture allows students to navigate the key texts, contexts and theories that have shaped literature and culture from 1900 to the present. Exploring a range of topics and texts from across the period, the programme aims to enhance students’ textual knowledge and promote thinking about the interconnections between modern and contemporary literature and its historical, cultural and theoretical contexts.
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During Semester 1 you will study the two modules. The first of these – Contextualising the Modern – offers an exploration of the radical literary experiments following the First World War in the context of the wider movements in culture and society that informed literary modernism in the first decades of the twentieth century. This course aims to introduce and develop an understanding of the influences and debates that shape literary modernism, through topics which have included primitivism in art, the influence of avant-garde music and early cinema, the crisis of character, gender and modernism, and modernity and mass culture.
In the second module – Reading the Modern – the focus will be on a range of modernist texts, and may include works by poets such as T. S. Eliot, Hugh MacDiarmid, W. H. Auden, Sorley MacLean, and novelists including Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Marcel Proust, Jorge Borges, George Orwell and Flann O’Brien. This module offers an exploration of influential British, American and French modernists' pursuit to develop modes of representation compatible with a newly urban, industrialised and mass-oriented age.
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In Semester 2 students move on to the contemporary period, taking two modules: one focused on theory and one on literature. Theorising the Contemporary introduces the key literary and cultural theories of the contemporary period (topics may include the postmodern; poststructuralism; Marxism; postcolonialism; queer theories; minor literature) via the work of prominent post-war thinkers. These might include Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Hélène Cixous, Fredric Jameson and Homi Bhabha.
In the second module, Contemporary Literature and Culture, you will study a global range of late twentieth and early twenty-first century writing in relation to its social and cultural contexts. This module is designed to expose students to a range of contemporary authors, poets and playwrights, which might include Seamus Heaney, Howard Barker, Tom McCarthy, Alan Hollinghurst, Ali Smith, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Christine Brooke-Rose, moving between a detailed focus on highlighted key works and a wider perspective on individual writer’s oeuvres.
Contact
School of English
University of St Andrews
Castle House
The Scores
St Andrews
KY16 9AL
Phone: +44 (0)1334 46 2668
Email: pgeng@st-andrews.ac.uk
Why choose St Andrews?
St Andrews was one of the first universities in the world to teach English literature. Today, the School of English is ranked first in the UK in the Guardian University Guide 2024 and we enjoy an international reputation for excellence as a centre for academic research and literary creativity.
Our Masters programmes span the history of English literature from the Medieval period to the present, explore works from diverse literary cultures drawn from across the world, and cultivate the next generation of creative writers, poets and playwrights.
You will be part of a vibrant scholarly community of more than 120 postgraduate students from around the globe and over 30 permanent members of staff with expertise in a range of specialisms. By joining one or more of our Research Groups you will have the opportunity to work with the School’s outstanding academic researchers, visiting speakers, and fellow postgraduates in research seminars, lectures and workshops.
Our Creative Writing and Playwriting/Screenwriting classes are taught by award-winning novelists, poets and playwrights with strong links to the University-managed Byre Theatre and the StAnza Poetry Festival.
As a postgraduate scholar at St Andrews, you will have access to rare books and manuscripts in the Library’s Special Collections, an archive built up since the 15th century.
The School of English also believes that knowledge is best imparted by those working in the same discipline and at the highest level: all the School's writers have national and international reputations, and are regarded as leaders in their individual fields. All are dedicated teachers with a passion for their art.
In addition, the ancient town of St Andrews – with its pristine beaches, castles and historic buildings, its constantly changing seascapes and cloudscapes – is simply a beautiful and inspiring place for any writer to work.
Academic staff
The staff teaching on the programme will vary in any one year, but will always include some of the following:
Student testimonials
"Pursuing a Masters at the University of St Andrews has been an amazing life experience. The School of English is actively interested and engaged in you and your work, and the camaraderie between postgraduates means that I have made friends for life here! The town itself is gorgeous and with Scotland on your doorstep, there’s always somewhere beautiful waiting to be explored. With fantastic library facilities and excellent staff who have a wide range of academic interests, St Andrews is an excellent choice for a postgraduate degree."
- Sadbh (County Meath, Ireland) - 2020
"Everyone is so willing to be supportive and collaborative. The staff who teach you, and also the other students you interact with, are so passionate about the subject that you gain wonderful insights you previously may not have thought of. The Postgraduate Society puts on events all year meaning that you meet people from all different disciplines and areas of study."
- Mia (Devon, England) - 2020