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.

Key Information Set Data:
16% scheduled learning and teaching activities
84% guided independent learning

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)

Multiple choice class test 20% (Learning Outcomes 1)
An e-learning exercise 20% (600-word essay and bibliography [Learning Outcomes 2, 3)
Coursework essay or Creative Writing, 2000 words 60% (Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 4 & 5)
Key Information Set Data
100% Coursework

This module introduces students to a wide range of British writing and cultural forms (including fiction, poetry, drama and television/ film) from 1945 to the present. The module will introduce students to a broad range of themes in their cultural contexts (such as the Windrush Generation, 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.

The creative pathway assignment will offer the chance to adopt different styles and types of plots based on dramatic and real-life situations. The selected texts will be studied by means of a programme of workshops and tutorials, and further tutorial time will be provided to support individual students' writing. Some workshop time will be devoted to the discussion and critical analysis by students of their own work.

1. DEMONSTRATE KNOWLEDGE OF A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT LITERARY GENRES.
Knowledge & Understanding

2. INTERPRET CONTEMPORARY LITERARY AND CULTURAL CONCEPTS DERIVED FROM CLOSE READING OF TEXTS WHICH RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT ISSUES SUCH GENDER, POSTCOLONIALISM AND SEXUALTITY.
Analysis

3. DEMONSTRATE UNDERSTANDING OF SOME OF THE CULTURAL, POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXTS OF CONTEMPORARY TEXTS STUDIED ON THE MODULE
Enquiry

4. DEVELOP A WELL- INFORMED, CONCEPTUALLY RIGOROUS, AND REFLECTIVE LITERARY CRITICAL OR CREATIVE RESPONSE TO ONE SET TEXT
Communication

5. DEVELOP CRITICAL OR CREATIVE METHODS FOR SOLVING PROBLEMS OF INTERPRETATION IN ONE LITERARY TEXT BY CRITICALLY ANALYZING A SPECIFIC HISTORICAL CONTEXT OR THEORETICAL APPROACH.
Problem Solving

VLE, Library.