Taught course

Contemporary Literature and Culture (2000-present)

Institution
Birkbeck, University of London · School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
Qualifications
MAMAMA

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

Our MA Contemporary Literature and Culture (2000-present) offers you the chance to specialise in twenty-first-century literature and culture, as well as exposing you to the most important literary and theoretical developments of the last few decades.

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

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 time
    24 months
    • Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
    • Online learningis available for this qualification
    full time
    12 months
    • Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
    • Online learningis available for this qualification
  • MA
    full time
    12 months
    • Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
    part time
    24 months
    • Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
  • MA
    full time
    12 months
    • Online learningis available for this qualification
    part time
    24 months
    • Online learningis available for this qualification

Course contact details

Name
Student Advice Service
Email
studentadvice@bbk.ac.uk
Phone
+44 (0)20 3907 0700