English Literature: Modernities - Literature, Culture, Theory (Taught)

Guided by a team of internationally recognised experts, you will investigate the key texts and concepts which shape our understanding of literature and culture across a period of radical change from 1880 to the present. You will relate the literary texts you study to developments in other cultural practices, such as film, theatre and the visual arts.

WHY THIS PROGRAMME

• The programme has an international reputation for delivering outstanding research-led teaching, with a particular focus on interdisciplinary and theoretically informed approaches to this literary period.

• You will have access to world class libraries and museums, as well as the extraordinary diversity of cultural, literary and artistic events that make Glasgow such an enriching place for postgraduate study.

• The programme includes tailored workshops with the University’s archives and Special Collections as well as a bespoke field trip to the archives of the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

PROGRAMME STRUCTURE

Full-time Students:

Semester 1 - September to December
RESEARCH TRAINING COURSE
MODERNITIES I:1880-1945
One optional course

Semester 2 - January to March
MODERNITIES 2: 1945 TO THE PRESENT
Two optional courses

Summer - April to September
MODERNITIES DISSERTATION

Part-time Students:

First Year
Research Training Course
Both compulsory Modernities courses
One optional course

Second Year
Two optional courses
Dissertation

OPTIONAL COURSES

Optional courses will usually be taken from among the 20 credit courses listed under the general pathway. Not all options will be available in any given year, depending on staff availability. A number of optional courses have been devised with the needs of the Modernities programme particularly in mind including, but not limited to:

AFRICAN MODERNITIES: COLONIALISM AND POSTCOLONIALISM IN THE NOVEL
THE AMERICAN COUNTERCULTURE, 1945-75
THE BLEEDING EDGE: CONTEMPORARY NARRATIVES OF ILLNESS AND MEDICINE
CANADIAN LITERATURE (PGT)
CONTEMPORARY REALISMS
FANTASIES OF ENERGY (PGT)
MODERN EVERYDAY
THE MIND OF THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN NOVEL
PROUST IN THEORY
VIRGINIA WOOLF WRITES MODERNITY

With the convenor’s permission, you may also take option courses from elsewhere in the College of Arts, Social Sciences and beyond.

DELIVERY

All taught courses are 20 credits and are delivered in weekly 2 hour seminars or similar.
Students are taught in seminars and proceed through a planned sequence of reading and discussion. The working style however is exploratory rather than didactic; students are expected to engage fully with primary sources, to develop, express and take responsibility for their own opinions and to work towards independent argument and expression in their resulting coursework and dissertation.