MA English & Literary Media

at Bournemouth University

Core units:
 

• Narrating Identities: Self, Text & the World: This unit aims to provide you with a sophisticated knowledge and understanding of cultural and critical influences on a range of texts and literary media, exploring how literary, philosophical, and aesthetic movements have been used to define, construct and represent the self across the 20th and 21st centuries.

• Markets & Audiences: A sociological approach to studying the cultural industries and their audiences, exploring marketing and promotion of cultural texts. You'll consider how para texts and extra textual materials contribute to audience expectations and experiences, and how they reflect cultural and political differences.

• Interactive Storytelling: Investigate and understand the art of storytelling in digital-interactive media. Starting with a brief pre-history, this unit will come to grips with contemporary traits thrown up at the intersection between digitalisation and interactivity. There will be a rigorous scholarly framework for your existing digital literacy and you'll have space to reflect on and improve your competence with interactive digital media.

• Publishing Cultures and Materialities: From the eras of Cuneiform to Kindle, you'll study public writing as material objects, which have an economy, history and culture. Publishing as we’ve known it stems from a specific iteration of those conditions and is now shifting into the online new. To take advantage of the opportunities and challenges this development affords, you'll therefore look at fiction from this material sociological perspective.

• Culture & Controversy: You'll explore definitions of free speech, freedom of expression, censorship and public interest in the context of public cultural controversies. For example, D.H Lawrence’s 'Lady Chatterley’s Lover' might be studied as a literary text, whilst you'll also study the historical context of attempts to censor and suppress the novel and debates over that suppression in the print and broadcast media.

• Mediating the Nation: The relationship between cultural production and a series of changing historical and political contexts in contemporary Britain. More specifically, you'll consider cultural constructions of Britain, Britons and Britishness. By analysing a range of literary and cultural forms, you'll explore how these things have been constructed and legitimised through culture historically. This unit will also look at how two historical developments have had a significant impact on how British ness has been culturally constructed: the transition away from imperialism and political devolution across the United Kingdom.

• Dissertation (academic) OR Major Project (creative): An opportunity to develop and show your critical, analytical and research skills by completing a significant piece of academic or creative work. You'll finish your studies and work with a degree of independence not previously experienced in your coursework, focusing on topics that interest you the most. You'll hone your strengths and establish curiosity to take with you into future careers.

Programme specification

Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. 

General entry requirements

The normal requirements for embarking upon a postgraduate taught degree are:
 

• A Bachelors Honours degree with 2:2 or equivalent in any subject.

International entry requirements

Please see below some examples of the qualifications for entry:
 

• India: Bachelor’s degree (4 years) from a recognised HE institution with a minimum overall result of 55%

• Nigeria:  Bachelor's degree from a recognised institution with a minimum classification of 2:2

• Thailand:  Thai Bachelor's (Honours) degree from a recognised higher education institution with a minimum GPA of 2.5/4.0

• Turkey: Bachelor’s degree (Lisans Diplomasi - four years) with a minimum overall GPA of 2.3/4.0

• Vietnam:  Bachelor's degree/Bang tot nghiep dai hoc with an average score of 6.5/10, or a Master’s degree/Thac si.

All applications will be subject to a minimum grade and your degree may need to be in a relevant subject area.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language, you will need to provide evidence that you understand English to a satisfactory level. English language requirements for this course are normally:
 

• IELTS (Academic) 7.0 with minimum 6.5 in writing and 5.5 in speaking, listening and reading, or equivalent.

Annual tuition fees:
 

• £8,500 (UK, ROI & CI)

• £15,000 (Int'l)

Roles our graduates have taken on include:
 

• Scriptwriting

• Print journalism

• Radio production

• Corporate communications.