English and drama

Class, Culture and Contemporary Writing

Module code: Q3319
Level 6
30 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Seminar, Workshop
Assessment modes: Coursework

This module explores a body of work charting the lived experience of class in the late 20th and 21st century. Situating that trend in the longer history of modern social justice narratives, the module engages with different forms of creative and critical writing (novels, poems, memoirs) as well as social and political texts to develop an understanding of the co-ordinates of contemporary discourses on class, class differences and class transition. Addressing the social and economic violence of inequality, this module engages global themes, with a particular focus on the potential for imagining difference and change in the contemporary context.

 

Module learning outcomes

• Demonstrate an understanding of concepts of class explored on the module
• Demonstrate an understanding of the significance of differences of form and context in relation to contemporary writing.
• Understand the specific challenges of, and conflicts in, representing working-class experience explored in material on the module.
• Identify a topic for research within the area defined by the module, and undertake research on that topic
• Write a critical, or creative-critical, essay for the module