MA in Black British Writing

What you'll study Overview The MA draws upon the expertise of literary, drama and theatre specialists from the Departments of Theatre and Performance and the Centre for Caribbean Studies. The degree is made up of: two compulsory core modules. a dissertation. two option modules. Full-time students study both compulsory modules and two options and write their dissertation across one year of study. Part-time students select one compulsory module and one option per year across two years and write their dissertation in their second year of study. Core modules Module title Credits. Historicising the Field Historicising the Field 30 credits This module examines the representational presence of black people in Britain (noting the aporia in such an undertaking), to trace the lines of descent and tradition that connect writers and performers across time and place. The module reviews the past via a problematised continuum to ascertain how mainstream or canonical culture is altered in centralising traditionally marginalised or neglected perspectives. It asks: What were the formative conditions of production and reception for early black writers and artists in Britain? What part do retrospective historical novels, poetry, visual arts, or drama play in retrieving and reviving past times, to re-circulate and celebrate marginalised voices? 30 credits. Interculturality, Text, Poetics Interculturality, Text, Poetics 30 credits ‘Interculturality, Text, Poetics’ explores interpretative theories of interculturality including creolisation, poetics of relation, postcolonialism and carnivalisation in relation to Black British and Caribbean poetics, performativity and discourses such as humanism and globalisation. We interrogate questions concerning what is literature and what meanings might be revealed by the ‘emergence’ of Black British and Caribbean literature mainly in the twentieth century. We consider the challenges of writing across histories and cultures in order to articulate a profoundly interconnected world and possibilities other than the nation. We examine how oral and literary texts, forms and genres within this body of writing through consolidation and experimentation, illustrate distinctive features of interculturality and syncretism. We investigate some of the determining forces underpinning the aesthetics of the texts. As one of two core compulsory modules within the MA Black British Writing programme, the module intensively surveys Black British Writing since the late eighteen century to highlight the nature of its ‘relation’ to the social, political and intellectual contexts in which it was written. We consider the emergent literature primarily as a body of relational texts communicating across and between cultures and diversities. This writing, sometimes defined by its transnational location, problematizes questions of nation, the political, identity, critical theories and literature itself. ‘Interculturality Text Poetics’ applies to the texts a range of critical and theoretical perspectives including diasporic criticism and Glissant’s poetics of relation in order to undertake readings of the selected texts alongside other texts for the purposes of rigorous critical enquiry that complements in its emphases the ‘Historicising’ core module. For example, Equiano’s ‘Interesting Narrative’ may be read alongside Eze’s Race and the Enlightenment. Similarly, Sunmonu’s Cherish may be read in tandem with ‘Queen Victoria’s Black Daughter’ in Gerzina’s Black Victorians, Black Victoriana. 30 credits. MA in Black British Writing Dissertation MA in Black British Writing Dissertation 60 credits ‌As part of the module, you're expected to read widely and to attend a range of performances across genres: theatre, spoken-word, performance poetry, and film that relate to Black British cultural production. 60 credits. Option modules You choose two options from those available in the Department of Theatre and Performance and the Department of English and Comparative Literature. This could include: Module title Credits. Genre and Aesthetics Genre and Aesthetics 30 credits This module evaluates the degree to which Western, Euro-centric theoretical frameworks (to name two), fit or contort reception of Black British writing and performance. Through a survey of sources of critical languages: reviews, theatre criticism, and academic scholarship, you participate in the task of evolving an inter-referential methodology that can meet the demands of writing that slips between, and re-works literary genres and performance traditions, considering texts as printed and performed embodiments of words. 30 credits. Intermediate exit points It's possible to exit the programme early with a Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate if specific learning outcomes have been achieved. These options can be discussed with the course convenor. Download the programme specification for the 2018-19 intake. If you would like an earlier version of the programme specification, please contact the Quality Office. Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.