This module introduces a selection of texts published in the twenty-first century. While continually emphasising the importance of close textual analysis, this module simultaneously situates the primary texts within their cultural, historical, national and aesthetic contexts. Some of the questions investigated in the module are: what are the thematic concerns addressed by the contemporary prose fiction? what formal and stylistic strategies do contemporary authors adopt? in what ways do contemporary writers both inherit and depart from earlier traditions of prose fiction?

We will consider how, when read individually and alongside each other, the texts studied on this module respond to the particular social, political, environmental, and technological changes of the twenty-first century. These include austerity and social inequality, Brexit, gender politics, social media and living in an age of global risk (including terrorism, climate change and financial crisis). While exploring how the contemporary novel incorporates and inherits antecedent literary modes (including myth, realism, satire, modernism and its legacies), the module will also explore the relationship between the novel and other contemporary forms (including visual and digital media) in the twenty-first century.

• define contemporary British fiction through detailed consideration of selected authors and works;
• discuss significant formal and thematic concerns of contemporary British fiction through close discussion of selected texts
• analyse the primary texts within relevant cultural, historical, national, theoretical and aesthetic contexts
• develop a coherent argument based on independent research and close textual analysis in verbal and written form.

This module will be delivered through a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous activities, as part of this programme’s blended provision, which will include on-campus and online teaching and support.

The precise mode of delivery and details – subject to Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance – of the teaching and support activities will be made available at the start of the semester via Learning Central.

Academic skills: The particular skills of the module involve reading and understanding how a literary genre adapts to, negotiates with and transforms the culture from which it emerges. Analysis of the complex relationship between different forms of media in generating meaning will also be an important facet of this module. This requires careful scholarship, sensitivity to language through close reading and a broader historical awareness of social change.

Employability skills: these include the ability to synthesise information, participate in group-based discussion, to negotiate different and conflicting standpoints, to communicate ideas and to produce clear, informed arguments in a professional manner. Student-led research will encourage skills of information collation, selection and synthesis.   

The methods of summative assessment for this module are detailed in the table below.

Formative work to be submitted before each summative assessment: you can choose between submitting, as appropriate, an essay plan/structure, synopses of essay topic options (if undecided) or sample paragraph/s; for creative assignments, you can submit working drafts of parts of your composition, as arranged with the workshop convenor.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:
As with School policy, failed or unsubmitted assessments can be retaken during the August resit period.

Indicative Syllabus:

• Writing Englishness: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending (2011)
• #WritingEnglishness: Sam Byers, Perfidious Albion (2018)
• Time out: Ali Smith, Autumn (2016)
• Some perversions of pastoral: Niall Griffiths, Runt (2007)
• Writing Tiger Bay: Nadifa Mohamed, The Fortune Men (2021)
• Trouble/s: Anna Burns, Milkman (2018)
• Writing London: Zadie Smith, NW (2012)
• Unhomed: Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire (2017)

Content warning: please be aware that several of the books/topics discussed in this module deal with difficult themes (including physical, sexual, racial, terrorist and psychological violence), which some students may find distressing. If you have any concerns about this, please contact the module leader for advice.