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Popular Literatures – (M.A.)
Liverpool Hope University
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
| Location: | Liverpool / United Kingdom / View location on map ▾ Hide location on map ▴ | ||
| Duration: | 12 months | Start Date: | January, September |
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| Credits (ECTS): | 180 | ||
| Languages: | English | ||
Location of Liverpool Hope University
This exciting new programme offers students the opportunity to specialize in the study of popular literature within a number of genres – including, for example, early modern drama, the eighteenth century novel, twentieth century detective fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and the graphic novel. It offers the opportunity to analyse texts from both literary and linguistic perspectives. It also includes the possibility of examining the language of advertising, print journalism and magazines. The programme is distinctive in its focus on popular literature within the context of its historical development as well as on the cutting-edge study of contemporary forms.
The English Department at Liverpool Hope University forms a small, tightly knitted community. We are committed to limiting our intake so that we are able to provide a friendly and supportive atmosphere for our students at all levels of study. In an environment of lively enquiry and debate, the wide range of research interests and expertise make for an intellectually stimulating atmosphere. Liverpool Hope offers students the opportunity to work with staff who specialize in the study of popular literatures, working at international levels, and within a vibrant research context.
The learning and teaching environment means that students benefit from individual attention in class and a strong base of tutorial support. Students experience a range of modes of learning: lecture input, participation in seminars, seminar presentations, discussion with other students, and individual tutorials where appropriate. As a postgraduate degree, it is of course expected that students will undertake a high level of independent research and reading of primary and secondary texts.
Liverpool was granted the status of European Capital of Culture in 2008, and as a city, offers a rich cultural context in which to undertake this degree. There are many opportunities to relate the study of popular literatures to popular culture more broadly – in, for example, the fields of local history, music, theatre and art.
Future Career Opportunities
The MA in Popular Literatures can act as a foundation for further postgraduate work including doctoral research. It also fosters a range of transferable skills valued in professional contexts, such as critical and lateral thinking, the ability to formulate arguments, the capacity to work independently, the presentation of research findings and information management. It develops students’ ability to interpret and analyse cultural products. Teachers may follow this course in order to enhance their subject knowledge.
Contents
The programme consists of taught modules (including three compulsory modules) and research dissertation. Assessment is through coursework, primarily in essay format. Full-time students normally attend two intensive classes each week, backed up by time for wider reading, seminar preparation and assignment completion.
Core modules
* Approaching Popular Literature (compulsory – 15 credits): The module introduces students to the range of theoretical issues involved in the analysis and contextualisation of popular literature. The very idea of the ‘popular’ is interrogated, as is the way a popular literary genre is defined. The complex relationship between author and reader is examined in relation to audience expectations, authorial transgressions and innovations in form and coverage. The importance of historical context is explored. The usefulness of critical frameworks that privilege gender and/or ideology is assessed.
* Popular Literature: Theories and Contexts (compulsory – 15 credits): The module introduces students to the complex dynamics of popular literature: in relation to the social, cultural and intellectual context; to the material aspects of production and marketing; and to reader expectations that inform and are informed by reception. The interactions between popular literature and other media will be examined. The inter-textual dynamics of texts will be explored, including the ways in which the implicit values that underpin particular narrative strategies and conventions are reinforced, subverted, or repositioned. The theoretical problems associated with the study of popular literature will be explored.
* Dissertation Preparation (compulsory – 15 credits): This module prepares students to design and write a Dissertation proposal; it is undertaken as independent learning under the supervision of a tutor. It will introduce students to the nature of Master’s dissertations, and important skills such as the articulation of thesis statements, and the identification and evaluation of appropriate methodologies, theories and philosophies. The area of study should fall clearly into the remit of the student’s programme, and be approved by the Award Co-ordinator.
Optional modules
* The Rise of the Novel (elective – 15 credits): The eighteenth century is usually described as the period which saw the birth of the novel in English. This module will explore the origins of the English novel as a form of popular literature, tracing the innovations in novelistic prose writing which took place between the late seventeenth and mid eighteenth centuries. It will explore the cultural and historical climate which shaped these works, examine the interaction between the novel and other forms of literary production such as life-writing and travel writing, and discuss the long tradition of critical and theoretical writing on the rise of the novel itself.
* The Art of the Graphic Novel (elective – 15 credits): The later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have seen the growth and rapid maturity of the graphic novel, an artistic form that straddles the region between the popular and the literary. The genre described by graphic novel auteur Art Speigelman as ‘writing with pictures’, has developed an aesthetic which displays a sophisticated approach to narrative storytelling. This module explores the emergence of this major new contemporary form and presents an opportunity for detailed close reading of a selection of important and influential texts.
* Science Fiction and Fantasy (elective – 15 credits): This module examines the nature of science fiction and fantasy, paying attention to issues of style, theme, ideology, philosophy and the debated question of generic boundaries. It will explore the relationship between speculative fictions and cultural contexts. It will also examine how conventions for characterization can tend towards the stereotypical while at the same time these genres offer potential for alternative and potentially subversive extrapolations.
* Gothic Fictions (elective – 15 credits): Covering primarily eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Gothic prose fiction, this course focuses on current debates in Gothic studies. By focusing on the development of the genre it considers issues of adaptation and cultural context as well as the relationship between canonicity and popular fiction.
* Twentieth Century Detective Fiction: A Gendered Genre? (elective – 15 credits): This is a seminar course exploring the construction of the gendered detective figure in detective mystery and crime literature. Female Detective fiction is approached as a fictional “rehearsal” for subversion, resistance and activism. The module focuses on the feminist readings of the texts and will explore the body as a site of abjection.
* African American Literature (elective – 15 credits): This module provides an overview of African American Literature. Texts may be drawn from the eighteenth century through to the contemporary period. Coverage may include novels, poetry, drama, autobiography, slave narratives, essays and polemical writing. Texts will be contextualised in relation to the social, intellectual, and cultural forces that shaped the period in which they were produced and read. The issue of the universality of literature will be explored in relation to the construction of race, class, gender, and nation. The politics of the formal constructions employed in the literature will also be examined.
* Popular Culture and Stereotypes (elective – 15 credits): This module will explore the way stereotypes are used, and sometimes interrogated, within popular literature. The extent to which stereotypic characters are enabled, supported, and necessitated by generic conventions will be examined as will the use of stereotypic characters in the production of humour and in parody. The problematic ways in which stereotypes reinforce particular social values, judgements, and agendas will be examined.
* Print Journalism and Magazines (elective – 15 credits): This module presents an opportunity to investigate the characteristics of a range of written forms within the global media; particularly the magazine genre, including the deployment of visual images. An historical perspective will be taken to examine magazine production processes and to establish how text producers linguistically construct gender and sexual identities for readers. Magazines will be considered as a discourse type and methodological approaches will include the application of Critical Discourse Analysis with a view to revealing the underlying ideologies. Consideration will be given to Audience Reception Theory in order to establish the effects of magazines on their target audiences.
* South Asian Popular Culture (elective – 15 credits): This module provides a holistic representation of South Asian culture with particular reference to popular culture. The ever increasing population of people from South Asian origin and the growing popularity of Bollywood films have created a renewed interest in Europe and America towards a better understanding of the region and its culture, which represents a delicate blend of a pluralist society transcending the boundaries of religion and native culture. This module covers a wide spectrum of cultural discourse in South Asia in multiple genres, which include history, religion, language, literature, music, and cinema through interactive lectures, seminars and workshops.
* Advertising (elective – 15 credits): This module will cover the theories and practice of advertising by exploring the relationship between media, culture and society. Students will be exposed to different advertising genres and will critically examine multimodal texts and semiotic elements used in contemporary advertising. The relationship between producers and audiences will be examined through audience response analyses. Students will also analyse contemporary issues of identity in the media, and will explore fully the potential of new media. In-depth analyses of advertising research will be a key element of the course.
Research Phase
* Research Dissertation (compulsory – 60 credits): The dissertation provides students with the opportunity to explore in depth an issue or question relevant to the programme, under the supervision of one of the department’s academic team. It comprises an independently completed thesis of 15,000 words in an appropriate area of the student’s own choosing.
IELTS
You are normally required to take an English Proficiency Test.
Most European Universities recognise the IELTS test.
Take testRequirements
Normally an Honours degree (minimum 2.1) in a humanities subject. For Popular Literatures, relevant subjects would include Literature and Language.
Other backgrounds which might be appropriate include Film, Media or Theatre Studies. You should have a keen interest in the subjects, and a willingness to engage in wide reading around the topic areas.
The programme is taught in English. Students whose first language is not English are normally required to have an IELTS 6.5 (reading 6, writing 6), TOEFL paper based 560, TOEFL ibt 83 or other equivalent recognised English language qualification.
Additional Requirements
| Minimal degree required: | Bachelor's degree |
| Minimal amount of work experience | Not specified |
Language Proficiency
| IELTS Band: | 6.5 |
| Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE): | Grade C (Score: 60) |
| TOEFL Paper-based: | 560 |
| TOEFL Internet-based: | 83 |
Accreditation
Liverpool Hope University is a recognised body with degree awarding powers as sworn in by the UK Government.
Quality of UK universities is measured through the official Government agencies, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) which consistently judged Liverpool Hope University to be of highest quality.
Liverpool Hope University's Business School, that was ranked top quality, having secured a maximum excellent rating (24 out of 24) in the UK Governments QAA inspection.
In the last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which is the official evaluation of the quality of research undertaken within UK higher education institutions, subject areas of Theology & Religious Studies, and Social Work & Social Policy, included work which ranked as of 4-star ‘world leading’. The subject areas of Computer Science and Informatics, Psychology, Education, English, and Music included work which ranked as 3-star ‘internationally recognised’, as was Politics and International Studies (including submissions from Business) and Drama ranked as 2*. For information on Liverpool Hope University’s RAE submission, go to
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