Contemporary Literature and Culture

The Contemporary Literature & Culture MA enables graduates to explore British and American fiction, poetry, and drama, analysing contemporary issues such as #MeToo, the Covid pandemic, and climate change, and understanding how literary prizes influence the production of today’s literature.

Postgraduate study in English at Loughborough University is for graduates who aspire to create and interpret the literary cultures of the twenty-first century. Our courses offer an inclusive and practical approach to textual study and expression, enabling you to enhance your understanding and creation of contemporary writing through peer learning and hands-on projects.

You will be supported to organise and host a literary festival, contributing to the modern literary scene, and join a vibrant community of scholars and experts on campus who will support you in pursuing your intellectual goals, whether academic, cultural, or commercial.

The course provides you with the opportunity to study a range of cultural forms, including literature, digital media, drama, film, and television, in order to analyse what we understand by the contemporary and its culture. Modules attend to cultural and theoretical responses to contemporary events, crises, and phenomena that shape our lives and environments, such as global warming, Black Lives Matter, gender rights, late-stage capitalism, technological communication and innovation, migration, the rise of populism and the far right, and the Covid-19 pandemic. A distinctive focus is on how contemporary publishing, prizes, and their promotional strategies shape the literary landscape and its politics.

The programme furnishes knowledge and skillsets that are put to practical use in an innovative core module that sees students collectively contribute to the dissemination of contemporary literature by planning and holding a literary festival in the summer term. The culmination of the programme is the research and writing of the final dissertation on a topic chosen and developed by each student individually.

Who should study this programme?

Our MA in Contemporary Literature and Culture is for graduates who aspire to gain the skills and knowledge that unlock careers in a wide range of sectors, including the arts and arts management, publishing, journalism, teaching, and the legal and financial sectors. The course is suitable for students from a humanities background with an interest in developing both careers skills and advancing intellectual ambition, with a view to further research or employment.

The MA is underpinned by expertise from staff who are leaders in contemporary literature. They have published books, acted as journal and book series editors, and have played leading roles in organisations dedicated to the study of contemporary literature. We have strengths across the cultural forms of fiction, life writing, poetry, film, and drama, and our interests in gender, speculative fiction, American studies, and creative writing inform the content of the programme.