About the course
Literature is a dynamic force for change. Hull English postgraduates gain insight into society, culture and politics by developing an understanding of the power of language. This MA provides students with a thorough grounding in research methods and practices.
We offer dedicated routes for study and supervision in both Literary Studies and Creative Writing. There are also designated pathways allowing students to focus their studies on Medieval and Renaissance Literature and Culture, Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, and Modern and Contemporary Literature and Culture. Creative Writing modules allow students to focus their interests on both fiction and non-fiction prose forms, as well as poetry as desired. Students can opt to take a combination of Literary Studies and Creative Writing modules if suitably qualified.
Students will be taught and supervised by experts specialising in wide-ranging chronological pathways from Chaucer to the 21st century. We make full use of tutor research interests in areas such as Shakespeare, Victorian visual culture, contemporary fiction, gender and popular culture, children’s literature, the Gothic, and creative writing.
What you'll study
All MA students undertake a core training module on Research, Creativity and Engagement in the first semester. This culminates in a one-day postgraduate conference, a process through which students will be guided and supported by the module tutors and convenor. Students will also take three optional modules in their chosen subjects, which will all include elements of research / creative training.
There is a final dissertation or creative portfolio worth 60 credits, and taught modules are worth 120 credits in total (30 credits each module).
Teaching methods will include three-hour seminars, creative writing workshops, student presentations and small group exercises.
All modules are subject to availability and this list may change at any time.
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Research, Creativity and Engagement
You'll be trained in research and practice-based methods in literary studies, creative writing or both. You'll work with the University-based Journal of Gender Studies to develop your reviewing skills or preparing your work for publication skills. You'll then present aspects of your research at a conference day.
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Dissertation
You will make an original contribution to research by designing, carrying out and writing up your own project on a topic you choose, supported by your dissertation supervisor.
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Creative Writing Portfolio
All modules are subject to availability and this list may change at any time.
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Bram Stoker: Literature, Theatre and the Gothic
This is an intensive, research-led module focusing on an underexplored area of Bram Stoker's 'unknown' writings, as well as Dracula. You will comprehensively examine Stoker's work and the influence of the theatre on his fiction.
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Gender in Popular Culture
This module analyses masculinity and femininity in genres central to contemporary popular fiction and film, such as crime fiction, chick and lad lit, war fiction, true crime and the gangster movie. You'll analyse these novels and films using the theoretical perspectives of Bakhtin, Foucault, Butler, Bourdieu and Fiske.
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Medieval and Renaissance Intertextualities
You will be introduced to classical and humanist theories of imitation and modern theories of intertextuality as a starting point for considering how English (and European) Medieval and Renaissance texts can be understood as 'intertexts' in relation to both classical precursors and contemporary works of fiction and art.
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Modern Children's Literature
You will explore key categories and developments in modern and contemporary children's fiction, such as the Gothic, Young Adult, Holocaust literature and fantasy writing.
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Modern City Fictions
Engage with ideas of the city and urban living in a range of fictions, including novels and other creative prose from the end of the 20th century to the present. You'll produce either a creative writing piece or a critical essay.
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Ruin and Reformation in English Renaissance Writing
You will explore writerly responses to the violence and vandalism of religious reformation in early modern England and see surviving evidence of iconoclasm at heritage sites in and around Hull. Writers studied include Shakespeare, Milton, and the Hull poet, Andrew Marvell.
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Writing from Life
Through the likes of travel writing, true crime, narrative history, and biography, learn how to take readers with you as you explore your world. You will mine creative nonfiction writers to see how they conjure effects, learn how to investigate archives and conduct field trips and interviews, and expand your writing's horizons.
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Writing Short Stories
Develop your understanding of the short story form by critically engaging with and examining a range of examples. You'll then build on this understanding by writing your own stories.
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Writing the Novel
How does an opening chapter make the rest of a novel inevitable? Through reading, workshops, and studies of character, plot and structure, you'll kick-start your own novel.