MA Pathway Special Subject

This module is designed to give you both the freedom to negotiate and agree, with an assigned tutor, your own area of study and/or writing within the perimeters of the particular MA pathway you have chosen. This study can be pursued either alone or with other students and takes the form of a structured series of tutorials with a member of the MA team. You will share, with the tutor, the responsibility for designing the course of study and/or writing.

The topic for study and/or writing is entirely open. If creative, it could take the form of a sequence of poems, short story, or the opening of a novel, along with a piece of reflective writing. If critical, it could, for example, take the form of a study of a single author (e.g. Emily Dickinson); a particular period, movement or moment (e.g. Decadence); the literature of a particular nation or region (e.g. North Africa); or a specific literary theme (e.g. revolutions). Alternatively, it could be linked to a Research Centre and/or special library collection and/or department reading group and/or conference hosted at Lancaster, and/or series of guest seminars given by a visiting scholar or writer. Recent examples include: the seminars given here by Terry Eagleton and the Ruskin Seminars.

You will meet your tutor for a series of tutorials and plan the work on a mutually agreed time-scale. Since this module is assessed in the same way as other MA modules the module will occupy one term.