Theorising the Contemporary, Contemporary Theorising

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Dr Grace Halden
• Tutors: Dr Grace Halden, Professor Esther Leslie
• Assessment: a 5000-word essay (100%)
  

In this module we introduce you to a range of contemporary literary, cinematic, visual and theoretical works published since 2000, tracing some of the major developments in contemporary literatures at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Taking in poetry, film, memoir, journalism, television, the novel, the graphic novel, science fiction and digital culture, we will explore together the meanings and characteristics of the ‘contemporary’ via a focus on categories like trauma, crisis, memory, futurity and the digital - terms that have been major preoccupations of cultural production in the last two decades.

By the end of this module, you will have:

• a comprehensive grounding in key trends and texts in the field of contemporary literature and culture, with a special focus on the post-2000 period
• engaged in debates about the conceptualisation of the contemporary, using appropriate vocabulary and critical paradigms
• identified and engaged with key features and characteristics of new forms of writing that have emerged as a result of new technologies
• developed a multidisciplinary approach to the study of contemporary literature and culture.