Richard J. Lane, Rod Mengham and Philip Tew (eds.), Contemporary British Fiction (Polity, 2002)
James English (ed.), A Concise Companion to British Fiction (Blackwell, 2005)
Lynne Wells, Allegories of Telling: Self-Referential Narrative in Contemporary British Fiction (Rodopi, 2003)

The Portfolio will consist of:
Two short pieces on individual texts (500 words each) [Learning Outcomes 1-2]
A longer piece of work covering broader issues (1,000 words) [Learning Outcome 3]

Library
Internet
VTR and DVD playback

There will be a programme of lectures/workshops and seminars related to the texts selected for study; the programme will be illustrated, where appropriate, by film and music extracts. It will be the intention to engage students with recent and current political and cultural concerns related to the literature of the module, and to that end, discussion will be guided partly by student-led investigation into (for example) the debate about multiculturalism and ethnic identity.

This module introduces students to a wide range of British writing and cultural forms (including fiction, poetry, drama and television/ film) from the 1970s to the present. The module will introduce students to a broad range of themes in their cultural contexts (such as Thatcherism, multi-culturalism, urban culture and postcolonialism). It will equip students with a strong historical basis and will also raise key questions about how to define the contemporary. Authors might include: Hanif Kureishi, Salman Rushdie, Monica Ali and Will Self.