Royal Holloway
Course
Director’s Homepage English
Dept Graduate School
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MA in LITERATURES
of MODERNITY:
Modernism, Postmodernism, Postcolonialism
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The object of the course is to enable students to
study a range of twentieth-century literature within the context of the
historical, intellectual cultural and technological changes which we refer to
as ‘modernity’. It offers study of
modern, postcolonial and postmodern literature with scholars who have
international reputations in their fields. It aims to develop advanced skills
in literary study, and instruction in methods of research. Students on the MA take two of the three core
courses (Modernism, Postmodernism, Postcolonialism) and choose from a range
of further options. The aim is to enable students to direct their study
towards any of the three components of the MA, and also to explore the
complex linkages which exist between these three fields – for example,
notions of postmodernism as late modernity; interpretations of postcolonial
identity and resistance as modernistically fragmented; or accounts of
modernism which see it as a product of colonial anxieties and the end of
empire. There is scope to work on topics in literary and cultural theory, and
on issues in European literature as well as a variety of literatures in
English. The course is designed for intending research
students, but is also suitable for those who simply wish to develop knowledge
and skills beyond first-degree level. The core courses concentrate on
historical, critical and theoretical issues, while the options study
individual authors or look at issues including the holocaust, women’s
writing, technology, the body and the city. An introduction to research
methods is part of the course. The College has a lively postgraduate
community ,and excellent scholarly resources are at hand in the College
library, the University Library in Senate House, and the British Library. |
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Structure of MA
Teaching and assessment
Short Course Descriptions
Course Teachers
Funding Application
Form
Contacts
Structure of MA
Length of Course 50 weeks, full-time; 102 weeks, part-time There are five elements: (i) and (ii) A choice of two of the three core
courses offered, normally Term 1: (iii) Options: Two of the following half units, normally Term 2:
(iv) (v) Teaching
All courses are taught by a series of two-hour seminars over the first two terms. Preparation is assigned by the tutor and includes regular class presentations by students. Methods of Assessment With the exception of element v, which is not directly examined, courses are examined by essay, with one essay of 5,500 – 6,500 words submitted for every half-unit taken. The first set of essays, for the previous term’s course components, is submitted in draft form at the beginning of Term 2; these essays can then be revised and re-submitted with the essays for the second term’s courses at the beginning of Term 3. (There may be some variation on this pattern where an option is taken from another programme.) After completion of the coursework component (in year 2 in the case of part-time students), students write a dissertation of 12-15,000 words (excluding bibliography and appendices) on an approved topic, to be submitted at the end of the year’s study. Students are offered advice and feedback on work submitted. Entry requirements
Normally at least a good second-class BA in Single or Joint Honours English or a related discipline, is required of UK applicants, and a degree of equivalent standard of overseas applicants, who must have a high level of competence in spoken and written English. SHORT
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Core 1: Modernism, Modernity and History
(Tim Armstrong) Core 2: Postmodern Literature
( The Postmodernism core involves one term spent studying fiction, and one term poetry. The fiction course is designed to trace the development of conceptualizations of postmodern fiction, from the ‘Literature of Exhaustion’ and ironic Metafiction of the 1960s and 70s to contemporary texts in which Postmodernism is more readily defined by the text’s engagement with issues of gender, ethnicity, media, cultural hierarchy and politics within the ‘new world order’. The poetry course is concerned with ‘linguistically innovative poetry’ / poetry of the signifier and with the development of an urban poetic within this area of poetic production. London and New York are the particular urban locations. Comparison is also made with other art forms. Core 3: Postcolonialism This course aims to explore some of the key issues and debates in the broadly ramifying fields of postcolonial writing, theory and criticism. The first term will investigate leading approaches and topics in the area, ranging from passive resistance and subalternity to mimicry and transnationalism. We will focus in particular on how postcolonial activism has shaped theory. In the second term we will be looking in more detail at these approaches through the lenses of two issues which impact on our postcolonial times: migration, and terror OPTIONS
(not all the courses below may be offered in any given year): James Joyce, Modernism and
Irish History (Finn Fordham/Andrew Gibson) Joseph Conrad: Modernism,
Colonialism and Gender ( Virginia Woolf, Modernism and
Subjectivity (Betty Jay) Postmodern Theory (Robert Eaglestone) This course is designed to support the Postmodernism pathway within the degree, offering an introduction to a range of postmodern thinkers, from Derrida and Lyotard to Badiou. Coetzee and Rushdie (Robert Eaglestone) A course which looks at the work of these two major contemporary writers; and is concerned especially with the intersection of postmodernism and postcolonialism in their work. Technologies of Writing (Tim Armstrong) This half-unit explores the way in which writing can be conceived as media and as communications system, from the ‘hypermedia’ of Emily Dickinson through the cinematic and radio-active writings of the modernists to the intersection of internet and poetics in recent texts. Full description Representing the Holocaust in
British and American Literature (Robert
Eaglestone) This course, part of the Holocaust Studies MA, looks at issues of memory, representation and historical understanding raised by writings on the holocaust. Full description Methods and materials of
research: Course Teachers
The Programme Director is Professor Tim Armstrong. He has an international reputation in study of modernism, with books including Modernism, Technology and the Body: A Cultural Study (1998) and Modernism: A Cultural History (2005), and many articles on modernism and later twentieth-century literature. He also has an interest in Hardy’s poetry, publishing Haunted Hardy: Poetry, History, Memory (2000), and editing Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems (1993). He is editor of American Bodies (1996) and co-editor of Beyond the Pleasure Dome: Writing and Addiction from the Romantics (1994). He is currently working on a study of the cultural metaphors which arise from the presence of slavery in Western thought. Professor Robert
Eaglestone works on contemporary literary theory and culture; and on the
study of the holocaust. He is author of The
Holocaust and the Postmodern (2004), Postmodernism
and Holocaust Denial (2001); Doing
English: A Guide for Literature Students (1999); and Ethical Criticism: Reading After Levinas
(1997). He has recently edited Rereading Lord of the Rings (2005), and
is working on The Cambridge
Introduction to Literary Theory and a short study of Postmodernism. He is series editor of Routledge
Critical Thinkers. Dr Finn Fordham works on James Joyce and on their theory of textual production. His book Fun at Finnegans Wake: Unravelling Universals came out with Oxford University Press in 2007; he is currently editing a collection on Joyce's relation to the French 19th Century novel and working on the idea of literary revison. Professor Andrew Gibson has an international reputation in the fields of postmodern theory and Joyce studies, with interests in other areas including film and urban studies. He is author of Reading Narrative Discourse (1992), Towards a Postmodern Theory of Narrative (1996), Postmodernity, Ethics and the Novel (1999), Joyce’s Revenge (2002), and of forthcoming studies of Joyce and of Badiou and Beckett. He is editor of Pound in Multiple Perspective (1993), Reading Joyce’s Circe (1994), Joyce’s Ithaca; and co-editor of a number of other books including Beyond the Book: Theory, Culture and the Politics of Cyberculture (1996) and London: From Punk to Blair (2003). Professor Robert Hampson has an international reputation in Conrad studies and in the study of contemporary experimental poetry. He also has interests in Kipling, Ford and postcolonialism. He is an Assistant Editor on the Cambridge Edition of Conrad’s Works, and author of Joseph Conrad: Identity and Betrayal (1992) and Cross-Cultural Encounters in Joseph Conrad’s Malay Fiction (2000); co-editor of Conrad and Theory (1997); and of two recent collections on Ford Madox Ford, Ford Madox Ford: A Re-assessment (2002) and Ford Madox Ford and Modernity (2003). He has published extensively on Conrad and edited both Conrad and Kipling for Penguin, and co-edited a collection of essays: New British Poetries. Dr Betty Jay, co-editor of The Discourse of Slavery: Aphra Behn to Toni Morrison (1994), editor of E. M. Forster: A Passage to India (1998) and author of Anne Brontë (1999). Her research interests include psychoanalytic, feminist and post-colonial theory; literature and film; and the twentieth-century novel. She has recently completed a study of women and film. Funding
and Accommodation
Students entering this programme will normally either be recipients of an AHRC studentship or overseas studentship or self-financing. Applicants for AHRC funding are advised to carefully check deadlines for these applications, including the internal College deadlines posted on the Graduate School webpages and on the Departmental pages (typically these are 2-3 weeks before the AHRB deadline). Early application, involving consultation with the course director over the forms, is important. A small number of College MA studentships are available on a competitive basis. All applicants will automatically be considered for these awards. While accommodation cannot be guaranteed, the campus is well provided with student residences. Overseas applicants are given priority in allocation. Contacts and Further
Information
For application forms write
to: For further information, contact
the MA Programme Director, Royal
Holloway is a College of the University of London. It was founded in 1886 and
further strengthened in the mid-1980s by amalgamation with Bedford College.
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