Course Overview

Our MA in Modern and Contemporary Writing combines criticism and creativity. It’s a unique opportunity to study contemporary literature where it's being made and where modernism is alive in the present.

Here a world-leading group of scholars in 20th- and 21st-century literature is intertwined with Europe’s most prestigious department of Creative Writing, and with the British Centre for Literary Translation. Here leading writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Angela Carter, W.G. Sebald, Ian McEwan, and Malcolm Bradbury taught and studied alongside pioneering critics such as Lorna Sage and Clive Scott.

The MA is very flexible. You’ll study classics of modernism, while choosing from optional modules in modern and contemporary literature. You can also take modules in creative writing, and modules bridging creative writing and criticism. We lead the discipline in the new field of the ‘creative-critical’. And you can also take modules in neighbouring disciplines such as gender studies, race studies, and film. You’ll also have opportunities to develop your interests in translation and in neighbouring disciplines such as philosophy, film, anthropology, and American studies.neighbouring disciplines such as philosophy, film, anthropology, and American studies.

At UEA, you ’ll be part of a vibrant literary world. Based in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing (by the way, you can follow us on Instagram!), you’ll’ be able to attend readings and author visits at UEA Live, volunteer with the UEA Publishing Project and visit the renowned British Archive for Contemporary Writing. Norwich is a UNESCO World City of Literature and host to the National Centre for Writing.

As a postgraduate here, you’ll be part of a vibrant mix of MA and PhD students who are engaged in modern and contemporary literature in a variety of ways, whether it be through producing critical studies of novels, poetry or plays, or through writing their own. Our students progress to careers in publishing, teaching, media, academia, journalism, marketing, and more. Many have progressed to do a PhD or gone on to publish their creative, critical, and scholarly work.