STUDY

This module provides students with the main theoretical approaches and methodological frameworks that underpin the MA programme. In interactive seminars, students will be encouraged to reflect on the interconnected fields of creative writing and critical thinking and to develop their writing practice through the discussion of key concepts in critical theory. The module runs in semester 1 and semester 2 with alternating seminars in creative and critical writing respectively. The seminars in creative writing will be devoted to the study of specific fields and genres of contemporary writing, explicitly contextualising the themes and topics taught in the critical writing workshops.  

This module supports students in the preparation and submission of their Masters Project in Creative and Critical Writing. This assessment comprises of a 12,000-word writing project and a 3000-word reflective commentary. Students may use a multi-focussed approach to fiction/non-fiction or creative/critical writing. This might be either part of a longer project, such as a novel or screenplay, or a collection of shorter pieces, such as short stories or poems, critical essays, creative responses to critical thought or a combination of both. Students will develop rigorous editorial skills and work with established writers and supervisors to edit, draft and polish their work. 

Historical fiction is concerned with creative representations of the past, encompassing storytelling and history while engaging with questions of public and private memory, the role of the imagination, textual representations of experience, historiography and the nature of historical truth. In this module, students will consider ways of writing historical fiction, between what is known through experience, what can be known of the past, and what can be imaginatively created. Through close reading and discussion, the module aims to support students in their own historical fiction writing, providing individual consultation and expert guidance for creative projects. 

Children’s literature is a vibrant and rapidly growing field of academic study, bringing together scholarly perspectives from a diverse range of subjects and discipline backgrounds. On this module, students will be invited to explore a selection of children’s literature across the genre’s development, from the ‘golden age’ of nineteenth-century classics to contemporary examples from the twenty-first century. By focusing on the criticism and practice of writing prose for children in the areas of middle-grade (8-12 yrs) and young-adult fiction (12-18 yrs), students will expand their knowledge of current debates and have the opportunity to develop their own creative work in progress.  

Adaptations of literature have appeared on screens since the birth of cinema, but the practice has expanded considerably in twenty-first-century culture, with many adaptations also engaging with a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives to appropriate literary and non-literary source texts. This interdisciplinary module invites students to reflect on these critical and creative developments through a series of twenty-first-century case studies. As well as engaging with textual examples and scholarly approaches, students will have the opportunity to write their own critical and creative response to a selection of academic and literary source texts. 

Writing residences are increasingly becoming part of the writer’s professional working practice and occur in diverse settings including libraries, book festivals, county archives, schools, hospitals, prisons, and wildlife trusts. Residences offer exciting opportunities for writers to produce new work, respond creatively to and with communities, and build profile, audiences, and networks for further outreach work in the community. As a means to further knowledge and creative confidence in professional writing practice, this module aims to support students in the initiation and organisation of a writer residency of their own. 

This module provides students with the main theoretical approaches and methodological frameworks that underpin the MA programme. In interactive seminars, students will be encouraged to reflect on the interconnected fields of creative writing and critical thinking and to develop their writing practice through the discussion of key concepts in critical theory. The module runs in semester 1 and semester 2 with alternating seminars in creative and critical writing respectively. The seminars in creative writing will be devoted to the study of specific fields and genres of contemporary writing, explicitly contextualising the themes and topics taught in the critical writing workshops.  

This module supports students in the preparation and submission of their Masters Project in Creative and Critical Writing. This assessment comprises of a 12,000-word writing project and a 3000-word reflective commentary. Students may use a multi-focussed approach to fiction/non-fiction or creative/critical writing. This might be either part of a longer project, such as a novel or screenplay, or a collection of shorter pieces, such as short stories or poems, critical essays, creative responses to critical thought or a combination of both. Students will develop rigorous editorial skills and work with established writers and supervisors to edit, draft and polish their work. 

Historical fiction is concerned with creative representations of the past, encompassing storytelling and history while engaging with questions of public and private memory, the role of the imagination, textual representations of experience, historiography and the nature of historical truth. In this module, students will consider ways of writing historical fiction, between what is known through experience, what can be known of the past, and what can be imaginatively created. Through close reading and discussion, the module aims to support students in their own historical fiction writing, providing individual consultation and expert guidance for creative projects. 

Children’s literature is a vibrant and rapidly growing field of academic study, bringing together scholarly perspectives from a diverse range of subjects and discipline backgrounds. On this module, students will be invited to explore a selection of children’s literature across the genre’s development, from the ‘golden age’ of nineteenth-century classics to contemporary examples from the twenty-first century. By focusing on the criticism and practice of writing prose for children in the areas of middle-grade (8-12 yrs) and young-adult fiction (12-18 yrs), students will expand their knowledge of current debates and have the opportunity to develop their own creative work in progress.  

Adaptations of literature have appeared on screens since the birth of cinema, but the practice has expanded considerably in twenty-first-century culture, with many adaptations also engaging with a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives to appropriate literary and non-literary source texts. This interdisciplinary module invites students to reflect on these critical and creative developments through a series of twenty-first-century case studies. As well as engaging with textual examples and scholarly approaches, students will have the opportunity to write their own critical and creative response to a selection of academic and literary source texts. 

Writing residences are increasingly becoming part of the writer’s professional working practice and occur in diverse settings including libraries, book festivals, county archives, schools, hospitals, prisons, and wildlife trusts. Residences offer exciting opportunities for writers to produce new work, respond creatively to and with communities, and build profile, audiences, and networks for further outreach work in the community. As a means to further knowledge and creative confidence in professional writing practice, this module aims to support students in the initiation and organisation of a writer residency of their own.