Contemporary Literature and Culture (2000-present)
Entry requirements
Our standard postgraduate entry requirement is a second-class honours degree (2:2 or above) from a UK university, or an equivalent international qualification. Your first degree does not have to be in English Literature.
Applications are reviewed on their individual merits and your professional qualifications and/or relevant work experience will be taken into consideration positively. We actively support and encourage applications from mature learners.
Months of entry
September
Course content
Informed by our world-class research in contemporary literary and cultural studies, on this course you will examine:
- the effects of new technologies on narrative form
- the aesthetic, spatial and political coordinates of writing produced in an increasingly networked and globalised world
- literature’s role among a vibrant and diverse range of digital, visual and multimedia texts.
You will develop your expertise in key topics, such as: migrants’ narratives and refugee film-making; precarity fiction and emergent pandemic storytelling; anti-gentrification zines and the low-fi aesthetics of resistance; nonhuman forms of agency; post-gender feminism; the relationship of genres such as science fiction, horror and the fantastic to literary fiction; trans aesthetics in film and TV; African American poetry and performance; contemporary black aesthetics.
This MA also gives you the opportunity to pursue your own interests, whether they lie in contemporary poetics; in African American culture, or indigenous futurisms; in literary and cultural responses to environmental crisis; in the changing forms of the book in a digital age; or in historical approaches to issues like nation, race, gender and sexuality.
This course is part of our new Birkbeck Flexible Master’s UK, which gives you the choice of how you want to study - on campus, online or via flexible learning, which combines both.
Highlights
- Birkbeck was ranked 2nd in the UK for its English Language and Literature research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
- In particular, this environment is fostered by close links between the MA and the Centre for Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, which runs a wide variety of talks and conferences in this field. You will have access to a host of other relevant research centres, including the Contemporary Poetics Research Centre, the Centre for Contemporary Theatre and the History and Theory of Photography Research Centre. We are also actively involved in a number of institutes specifically designed to foster work across disciplines at Birkbeck and beyond: Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality and the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism. These institutes are driven by the work of world-class scholars including Laura Mulvey, Slavoj Žižek, Lynne Segal and David Feldman.
- Birkbeck is located in the heart of literary London, in Bloomsbury, WC1. You could be studying in a building that was once home to Virginia Woolf and frequented by members of the Bloomsbury Group. The building houses our own creative hub which includes the Peltz Gallery, the Gordon Square Cinema and a theatre and performance space.
- The Summer Research Programme is a programme of events run for our closely connected cluster of MAs, on a weekly basis throughout the 11-week summer term. It includes a series of dissertation workshops that supplement one-to-one supervision, but it also reflects the dynamic and wide-ranging nature of our contemporary studies courses. It includes guest speakers, debates and film screenings, takes in Birkbeck’s annual Arts Week and is concluded by a student-led conference that showcases the work of our MA students.
- We offer a number of bursaries for postgraduate students.
Careers and employability
Our graduates are trained to be effective researchers with effective communication skills and an ability to critically assess a wide range of textual and other cultural materials.
You will find graduates of this MA in the following kinds of roles:
- journalism
- professional writing, including creative writing careers
- arts administration or research
- civil service
- law and business professions
- publishing
- political adviser roles
- social media management
- film and TV production
- teaching in schools or as lecturers in further and higher education
- museum and cultural heritage work
- curation.
A number of our Master’s students go on to study at PhD level and we provide structured support and guidance if you are interested in this progression.
We offer a comprehensive careers service - Careers and Enterprise - your career partner during your time at Birkbeck and beyond. At every stage of your career journey, we empower you to take ownership of your future, helping you to make the connection between your experience, education and future ambitions.
Information for international students
If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, the requirement for this programme is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests.
If you don't meet the minimum IELTS requirement, we offer pre-sessional English courses and foundation programmes to help you improve your English language skills and get your place at Birkbeck.
Qualification, course duration and attendance options
- MA
- part time24 months
- Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
- Online learningis available for this qualification
- full time12 months
- Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
- Online learningis available for this qualification
- MA
- full time12 months
- Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
- part time24 months
- Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
- MA
- full time12 months
- Online learningis available for this qualification
- part time24 months
- Online learningis available for this qualification
Course contact details
- Name
- Student Advice Service
- studentadvice@bbk.ac.uk
- Phone
- +44 (0)20 3907 0700