Contemporary Literature and Culture Loughborough University

Overview

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 Contemporary Literature & Culture programme from Loughborough University 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.  

Career

During the MA in Contemporary Literature and Culture your academic and research abilities improve and you become skilled in written communication, critical thinking, and independent assessment.

Your confidence and self-awareness develops, and you will gain practical skills and experience in problem-solving, teamwork, and flexible working. This equips our graduates to go on to further study and careers in academia and provides opportunities in many kinds of public and private sector graduate careers requiring research skills and the formulation of projects and policy documents.

Our graduates are qualified to go into a range of careers, including writing and journalism, editing and publishing, research, arts management, marketing, public relations, and education.