This programme allows you to engage with texts and writers from across the 20th and 21st century as well as the cultural, critical, conceptual and political contexts that have shaped them. You’ll have the chance to study major canonical and lesser-known authors as well as popular literature and film adaptation, engaging with some of the defining and urgent cultural issues and legacies of this period. This may include literary Modernism, psychoanalysis, post-war writing, postcolonial literatures, mass and popular culture and eco-criticism and the environment. You could even select modules from other periods to broaden your knowledge. At the same time, you’ll develop your understanding of research methods in literary studies, preparing for further study or a career in a range of different sectors. Taught by leading researchers and using our impressive library resources and Special Collections, you’ll explore how writers have responded to the complexities of the modern world. You’ll learn in a stimulating environment with access to excellent resources for your research. The world-class Brotherton Library has extensive holdings to support the highest levels of academic study of the literatures of these periods, and our Special Collections are full of archive and manuscript material as well as correspondence, notes, lectures and other papers from writers and poets from canonical twentieth century writers, from Simon Armitage to Tony Harrison, Geoffrey Hill to Stan Barstow, Sophie Hannah to Arthur Ransome and the critic George Wilson-Knight. The University Library offers full training to help you make the most of them, equipping you with valuable skills in the process.