MA in Creative Writing 2020-2021

This course booklet should be read in conjunction with the School of Humanities Postgraduate Taught Handbook, available here

MA Creative Writing: Introduction

The degree aims to provide a flexible and progressive structure in which you are enabled to practise the art of literary composition, to acquire advanced familiarity and fluency in using literary techniques, and to acquire an understanding of and appropriate skills relating to practice-based research. You will also develop the ability to reflect critically on your own practice.

The course also allows you to develop your work as a writer to a professional level, going beyond the personal to write with an engaged sense of literary culture, its social role and contemporary practices.The MA is designed for students with an established writing practice who are intending to develop their creative writing beyond first-degree level. It is also designed for those students wishing to proceed to MPhil or PhD.

You will take one of three distinct pathways: Fiction, Literary Non-Fiction or Poetry. While the pathways share a similar structure, they are taught separately so as to ensure students can work to a consistently high level. You cannot switch or combine pathways.

In addition to the workshop, you will take modules in Supplementary Discourses and Reading as a Writer, which will also be specific to your pathway. You will submit critical and creative coursework, and will undertake a final practical project and long essay.

Fiction You will learn how to structure and edit your prose to a publishable standard while also developing an expert sense of how best to draw on the personal, the actual and the imagination. We have no house style, and encourage both experiment and rigour. In developing your analytical and editorial skills, you will sharpen your self-criticism.

Literary Non-Fiction You will explore the range of possibilities that experimental and literary non-fiction have to offer from memoir to polemic, from the essay to the hybrid form. You will learn how to activate and deploy your material while developing your approach to research. You will learn how to draw on all these to develop original work of your own to a publishable standard.

Poetry This pathway is for writers of all kinds of poetry, who are focused on publication on the page or in page form. You will learn how to locate and refine your personal poetics, and how to develop a poem to its fullest potential. You will be taught how to revise and edit, how to sustain a writing practice, and how to locate your poetry within a broader literary context.

3 Location

The Creative Writing MA is taught at Royal Holloway’s central London campus in the heart of London’s Bloomsbury, at 11 Bedford Square or at Senate House.

Key Contacts

Administrative queries such as coursework submission, registration, extensions and deferrals, etc. The School of Humanities administrative team – [email protected]

Workshop and seminar content or planning queries, personal concerns – in the first instance, contact your module tutor. If this is not satisfactory or appropriate, contact the pathway convenor or your personal tutor. If this does not resolve the problem, contact the programme director.

Head of Department: Professor Ruth Livesey [email protected]

Department Postgraduate Taught Courses Lead: Dr Alastair Bennett [email protected]

Director of the MA Creative Writing: Professor Lavinia Greenlaw [email protected]

Student Services: [email protected]

IT Helpdesk: [email protected]

Wellbeing/pastoral support: [email protected]

International student support: [email protected].

PATHWAY CONVENORS

Fiction – Mr Matt Thorne [email protected]

Literary Non-Fiction – Dr Eley Williams [email protected]

Poetry – Dr Sean Borodale [email protected]

2020-21 MA Teaching Staff

Fiction Ms Nadifa Mohamed [email protected] Mr Matt Thorne [email protected] Dr Eley Williams [email protected] Dr Anna Whitwham [email protected]

Literary Non-Fiction Dr Sean Borodale: [email protected] Professor Lavinia Greenlaw: [email protected] Dr Eley Williams: [email protected]

Poetry Dr Sean Borodale: [email protected] Professor Lavinia Greenlaw: [email protected] Dr Eley Williams: [email protected]

Biographies

Dr Sean Borodale works as a poet and artist, making scriptive and documentary poems written on location. He was selected as a Granta New Poet in 2012. His debut collection Bee Journal (published by Jonathan Cape) was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize and the Costa Book Award in 2013. In 2014 he was selected as a PBS Next Generation Poet. Mighty Beast, a documentary poem for Radio 3, won the Radio Academy Gold Award in 2014 for Best Feature or Documentary. His topographical poem 'Notes for an Atlas' (Isinglass 2003) was recommended by Robert Macfarlane in the Guardian Summer Books 2005, and was adapted as a live theatre performance in 2007 at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, directed by Mark Rylance, as part of the first London Festival of Literature. His second collection, Human Work, was published in 2015, and his third collection Asylum, written under the ground, was published in 2018 and recently long-listed for the Laurel Prize. His fourth collection, Inmates, is to be published in 2020. From 2016-18 he was Artist/Writer-in- residence at Bluecoat in Liverpool, where he established ‘the lyrigraph sessions’, a voice lab to develop ways of performing his screen printed, situated texts called lyrigraphs. Other fellowships and residencies include Creative Fellow at Trinity College Cambridge, Northern Arts Fellow at the Wordsworth Trust, Oscar Wilde Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, Fellow of the Moore Institute, NUIGalway, and Guest Artist at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. From 2002-2007 he was a teaching fellow at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.

Professor Lavinia Greenlaw is a writer in a broad range of forms with research interests in the visual arts, scientific process and imperative, music, image making and interrupted perception. Her poetry, published by Faber, includes The Built Moment (2019), The Casual Perfect (2011) and A Double Sorrow: Troilus and Criseyde (2014). Her first novel, Mary George

5 of Allnorthover (Flamingo 2001), received France’s Prix du Premier Roman Etranger. Her third, In the City of Love’s Sleep, was published by Faber in 2018. Her works of experimental non-fiction are The Importance of Music to Girls (Faber 2007) and Questions of Travel: William Morris in Iceland (Notting Hill Editions 2011). Her short stories include We Are Watching Something Terrible Happening and The Darkest Place in England, both shortlisted for the National Short Story Award. Her immersive sound work, Audio Obscura, was commissioned in 2011 from Artangel and won the Ted Hughes Award. She was the first artist-in-residence at the Science Museum and, in 2013, one of the first two artists to receive a Wellcome Engagement Fellowship. In 2016, she wrote and directed a short film, The Sea is an Edge and an Ending, an exploration of dementia and the present tense. She taught at Goldsmiths College before becoming Professor of Poetry at UEA, and has held guest professorships at the Freieuniversitat Berlin and King’s College London. She has also written and directed drama for radio, and has written libretti for three operas. She was chair of judges for the inaugural Folio Prize and is chair of the 2020 TS Eliot Prize. She is a fellow and former trustee of the Royal Society of Literature and is also a former chair of the Poetry Society. She is writing a book about seeing and not seeing further.

Ms Nadifa Mohamed was born in Hargeisa in 1981 while Somalia was falling deeper into dictatorship. In 1986 she moved to London with her family in what she thought was a temporary move but a couple of years later it became permanent as war broke out in Somalia. She was educated in London and went to Oxford to study History and Politics. She finally returned to Hargeisa, now in the new Republic of Somaliland, in 2008. Her first novel, Black Mamba Boy, was longlisted for the Orange Prize; shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the PEN Open Book Award; and won the Betty Trask Prize. Her second novel, The Orchard of Lost Souls, was published in 2013 and Mohamed was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists in the same year. The Orchard of Lost Souls won the Somerset Maugham Prize, the Prix de l'Academie des Sciences d'Outre-mer, and was shortlisted for a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Nadifa lives in London and her next novel, The Fortune Men, is forthcoming in the UK from Viking.

Professor Redell Olsen (on leave till May 2o21) makes work in poetry, film and performance. She is currently the engaged on a project in collaboration with Opera North, The Tetley, Leeds and the National Science and Media Museum which responds to representations of the biodiversity of insects. Now Circa (1918): a film in response to the anniversary of 100 years of female suffrage in the UK was shortlisted for 'Best Research Film of the Year' in the AHRC Research in Film Awards in 2018. Her performance work, ‘Observation Judgement Action’ or (Foil, Jumping, Daisies)’ on the work of Josef and Anni Albers was shown in Cambridge, London and South Wales in 2018. Film Poems (Les Figues, 2014) collects the texts for her films and performances from 2007–2012. Selected publications of her poetry include: 'Punk Faun: a bar rock pastel' (Subpress, 2012), 'Secure Portable Space' (Reality Street, 2004), 'Book of the Fur' (rem press 2000), and, in collaboration with the bookartist Susan Johanknecht, 'Here Are My Instructions' (Gefn, 2004). She has published a number of bookworks: Smock and Mox Nox which have been shown in gallery contexts. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies such as Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets (Shearsman, 2010) and I’ll Drown My Book: 'Conceptual Writing by Women' (Les Figues Press, 2011). She has also published critical

6 essays on poetry and poetics. Her current research interests include: feminism, ecology, theory and the history and development of experimental textual practice in poetry, the novel and the visual arts. She is Director of the Poetics Research Centre at Royal Holloway.

Mr Matt Thorne is the author of six novels, including Eight Minutes Idle (which won an Encore Award) and Cherry, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. He has also written three children’s books, the 39 Castles series, published by Faber. Eight Minutes Idle was made into an award-winning film by BBC Films for which he co-wrote the screenplay. He has also co-edited two anthologies of short stories, All Hail the New Puritans and Croatian Nights. In 2012, he published a bestselling and critically admired biography of the pop star Prince which was seven years in the writing and has been acclaimed as “the definitive work” on the musician. His books have been translated into fifteen languages. His short stories have been published in numerous anthologies, newspapers and magazines in the UK and the US and broadcast on Radio 4. He reviews books for the national newspapers and frequently appears on radio. He is currently working in film and TV and has a new book under contract for publication by Orion in 2022.

Dr Anna Whitwham’s debut novel, Boxer Handsome, published by Chatto & Windus, focused on boxing communities in London. It was New Statesman and Guardian’s Book of the Year. Outstanding and compelling... Called to mind the prose of the great Nell Dunn and reminded me of the vital, good fighter that the novel form is. - Ali Smith/New Statesman. A genuinely impressive debut. Boxer Handsome does everything great fiction should, offering up characters who stay with the reader long after the end of the book.’ - The Guardian. She has spoken about pugilism and art on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4. Writing Men: The Burden of Masculinity is core module for Special Focus students in their final undergraduate year. It was informed by her debut novel Boxer Handsome, and her PhD, Writing Men: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary Literature. Her second novel, We The Mother, explores the language and definitions used around victimhood and examines the vulnerability and violence in motherhood. She has recently been a judge on the London Library Emerging Writer’s Programme and Aesthetica Magazine’s Creative Writing Award.

Dr Eley Williams' research focuses upon small press publishing, accessibility in the arts, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and the connections (both tenacious and tenuous) between theory, creative expression, readership, scholarship and enjoyment. Her critical and creative work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the TLS and the Guardian, and anthologised widely in publications including The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story, Liberating the Canon: An Anthology of Innovative Fiction, and Modern Queer Poets. She is the author of a collection of short stories (Attrib. and Other Stories, Influx Press 2017) and three chapbooks of prose and poetry. Her most recent work is a novel, The Liar's Dictionary (William Heinemann 2020). She is the recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for her fiction, and became a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018. She has contributed to a number of programmes on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and has worked on a number of national writing judges' panels including the RSL's Encore Award, the Republic of Consciousness Prize, Spread the Word's London Short Story Prize, the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize and the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize.

7 Course Content and Structure

Term Dates can be found on the College website.

Timetable

Your workshop and seminar will usually be taught on the same day. You can see your personal timetable here. Tutorials and supervisions are by arrangement.

Moodle You can access Moodle here. It provides course content, timetable amendments and further details of individual modules, including weekly reading. It is also where you may be asked to submit your material for workshop or participate in a module forum.

Core courses I. Workshop in Fiction, Literary Non-Fiction, Poetry (spring and autumn terms) II. Supplementary Discourses (autumn term) III. Reading as a Writer (spring term) IV. Creative Writing Project (supervisions in summer term) V. Long Essay (supervisions in summer term)

Part time students take the workshop only in their first year. In the second year, they take Supplementary Discourses and Reading as a Writer, and complete their Creative Writing Project and Long Essay.

Changing from part to full time or vice versa is possible but needs to be done by the end of teaching week 2 (9th October 2020).

EN5118: Fiction Workshop (40 credits) Teaching: Autumn and Spring, three hours per week Assessment: two pieces of fiction of 5,000 words each

Students will have an established writing practice and will be expected to embark on an advanced programme of writing and critical thinking through creative exploration and dialogue with the tutor and other members of the group. The content of the workshops will be dictated by the presentations of work in progress by the members of the group, and by the critical dialogue that develops from these presentations. The tutor will draw up a schedule for this and work will be circulated in advance. Students will read and annotate this work and come to class ready to discuss it. Reading of literary exempla and extracts will also feed into workshop discussions. The tutor may set exercises or additional advance reading.

EN5121: Literary Non-Fiction Workshop (40 credits) Teaching: Autumn and Spring, three hours per week Assessment: two pieces of non-fiction of 5,000 words or textual equivalent each

The workshop will include an exploration of the full range of approaches that non-fiction has to offer. We will encourage you to explore them all, and to draw freely on them in your own work, taking an interdisciplinary approach. We will also teach you how to use the tools and devices of fiction and poetry in the writing of non-fiction. The workshop is also where students present work in progress. You will receive intensive feedback supported by individual tutorials.

In the autumn term, students will have the opportunity to explore a range of literary non- fiction practices. Working with exempla, which will be read in advance and discussed in class, they will undertake writing exercises, imitation and invention. In the spring term, students will be presenting and critiquing their own creative work-in-progress while continuing to discuss other texts that cast light on the issues that arise.

EN5112: Poetry Workshop (40 credits) Teaching: Autumn and Spring, three hours per week Assessment: two portfolios of poetry of 12 pages each

EN5114: Supplementary Discourses (20 credits) Teaching: Autumn, 1.5 hours per week Assessment: one essay of 3000-4000 words

This seminar is taught within pathway groups and focuses on a broad range of critical texts by practising writers among others. It aims to provide students with the appropriate critical and theoretical skills for discussing their creative work. The course also aims to prepare students for the dissertation. Students will acquire a range of critical concepts and vocabulary, a range of critical and theoretical approaches, and the necessary skills to undertake sophisticated reflection and discourse.

EN5116 Reading as a Writer (20 credits) Teaching: Spring, 1.5 hours per week Assessment: one essay of 3000-4000 words

This seminar is taught within pathway groups. Students propose texts (and non-textual works) for this syllabus, which is then devised by the tutor. Students make a short presentation on one of their chosen works during the term. The seminar encourages students to think about what it means to read as a writer, how the writer constructs the

9 reader’s experience, and how this insight might inform the student’s own literary composition. It considers different approaches to reading, and the relationship between practice and theory. Students will learn how to demonstrate the ways in which reading contributes to their own developing practice as a writer. EN5113: Creative Writing Project (60 credits) Summer term – individual supervisions Assessment: A substantial piece of creative work of either 15,000 words of prose, or 24 pages of poetry or textual equivalent (to be agreed with the supervisor). This may develop work initiated in the relevant workshop but cannot contain work already submitted for assessment.

The Creative Writing Project arises out of work developed in the workshop. In all cases, this should be new work not included in previous coursework submissions however much it has been revised. It can be a different part, or parts, of the same body of work, such as a novel. An important dimension of the MA is to give students the opportunity to begin serious work on a major project that would prepare them for the submission of this work to a publisher or the basis for an application for a practice-based research of a PhD as applicable to the individual student. The Creative Writing Project is a crucial element in this preparation. It will be researched and written mainly in the third term and during the summer vacation. Students should draw on and develop the skills, and the critical and creative contexts, acquired in the first two terms. They should also seek to demonstrate independence, self-direction and originality in their approach to the project’s completion.

Poetry does not have to have a collective theme or be a sequence, though these are acceptable.

EN5117: Long Essay (40 credits) Summer term – individual supervisions Assessment: 8-10,000 word critical exploration of a topic relevant to their own work (excluding bibliography, appendices, etc) to be agreed with the supervisor.

An important dimension of the MA is to give students the opportunity to begin serious work on a major research project that relates to their practice. This could prepare them for an application for the practice-based PhD. The Long Essay is a crucial element in this preparation. It will be researched and written mainly in the third term and during the summer vacation. The principle aim of the Long Essay is to enable students to demonstrate their ability to reflect critically and theoretically, and to locate their practice in relation to contemporary writing practices. They should draw on and develop skills acquired in the first two terms. Work should be presented in accordance with the academic conventions of essay writing and follow the MHRA style guide or equivalent (See Postgraduate Taught handbook). The subject of the Long Essay is to be agreed with the supervisor.

Supervisions - Summer Term

10 Supervisors will be assigned at the beginning of the Summer term. In total you can expect to receive up to six supervisions for your dissertation and project combined and these will normally take place during the Summer term. The dates and times for these will be established and agreed with your supervisor. Please respect this timetable. Although they may comment on extracts from the drafts of your work (approx. 2000 - 3000 words or five pages of poetry), supervisors are not expected to comment on the whole submission and certainly not to edit or proofread it for you. It is your responsibility to attend and produce work for these supervisions at regular intervals and if you cancel them – especially at short notice - they may not be possible to rearrange. Your supervisor will stipulate how far in advance of each meeting you should submit your work.

Summer Programme During the summer term, students are offered weekly events designed to help them with their next steps. There are visits from editors and agents, talks about PhDs and other aspects of literary practice and development, and masterclasses from visiting writers.

Bedford Square Review This is our online anthology of student work which also acts as a permanent showcase. It is read by agents and editors, who are invited to the launch event. You will be invited to submit towards the end of your course. www.bedfordsquarereview.com

Assessment

Submission

Students should submit all written work online via Turnitin. All work submitted on Turnitin should be anonymous and submitted by candidate number only.

You should make your candidate number the title of the submission, along with confirmation which course you are submitting work for (eg, ‘1809678 Reading As a Writer’).

All work is due at midday.

Assessment Timelines

Deadlines for assessments will be released to students at the start of the year, and will be reflected on the online submission boxes on the relevant Moodle pages.

Portfolios of Creative Work (EN5112, EN5118, EN5125, EN5901) The first portfolio of fiction or non-fiction or poetry will be submitted for feedback at the beginning of the Spring Term. This is a formative submission which means that it is not formally graded. You will receive feedback and an indicative grade. Under the guidance of

11 your tutor, you then revise this work and resubmit it at the beginning of the Summer Term. It is then a summative submission and is formally assessed.

The second portfolio will be submitted for formal assessment, along with a revised first portfolio, at the beginning of the Summer Term.

Essays (EN5114, EN5117) The essay for Supplementary Discourses will be submitted for feedback at the beginning of the Spring Term. This is a formative submission which means that it is not formally graded. You will receive feedback and an indicative grade. Under the guidance of your tutor, you then revise this work and resubmit it at the beginning of the Summer Term. It is then a summative submission and is formally assessed.

The essay for Reading as a Writer will be submitted for summative assessment at the beginning of the of Summer Term.

Creative Writing Project and Long Essay The Creative Writing Project will be submitted in September 2021 together with the Dissertation.

Marking Criteria

Please refer to the PGT Handbook for the marking criteria for essays and the dissertation, and important regulations on the style and formatting of written work. For practical work (creative portfolios and the Creative Writing Project), see below.

Marking Criteria for Practical Work

The following is intended as a guide to the qualities typically exhibited by work assigned a mark or grade within one of the bands set out below. Its purpose is to outline the basic criteria employed the examiners in assessing essays and dissertations, and so give students both a clearer idea of what is expected of them and a means of measuring their progress. It should not be regarded as a complete or inflexible list of the qualities work is required to display in order to be placed in a given band.

The marking scheme sets the Pass mark at 50% and the mark for a Distinction at 70%.

For full details of criteria used to determine awards of Pass, Merit and Distinction, see below:

High Distinction 85-100%

 To award a high distinction, examiners will be looking for:  conformity with the requirements of the assignment (i.e. length, format, etc.)  publishable quality.  situates itself confidently alongside other work in a similar form/style.

12  formal elements such as rhythm, tone, structure, viewpoint, characterisation, dialogue, medium and form deployed with sophistication, control and complexity.  work that contains insights of originality, or presents familiar sights in a fresh manner.  takes bold or innovative risks in form and/or content and succeeds.  work that engages its reader at a complex, demanding and sophisticated level and demonstrates an overall understanding of the audience for this work.

Distinction 70-85% To award a distinction, examiners will be looking for:  conformity with the requirements of the assignment (i.e. length, format, etc.)  potentially publishable work  a clear relation to other work in the same form, style or genre.  formal elements such as rhythm, tone, structure, viewpoint, characterisation, dialogue, medium and form deployed with some degree of mastery, control and complexity.  work that contains insights of originality or presents familiar sights in a fresh manner.  bold, innovative risks in form and/or content which succeed to a significant degree.  a substantial engagement with the reader and understanding of potential audience for this work.

Merit 60-69% To award a merit, examiners will be looking for:  conformity with the requirements of the assignment (i.e. length, format, etc)  formal elements such as rhythm, tone, structure, viewpoint, characterisation, dialogue, materiality deployed with control and competence, sometimes at the level of a distinction.  work has some relation to work in the same style or genre.  some degree of originality  risks with form and/or content that may not be wholly successful or which are limited in scope.  work that attempts to engage with the reader and is largely successful, though this may be inconsistent

Pass 50-59% To award a pass mark, examiners will be looking for:  conformity with the requirements of the assignment (i.e. length, format, etc)  deployment of formal elements such as rhythm, tone, structure, viewpoint, characterisation, dialogue, materiality with hesitancy or inconsistency.  signs that the writer is not familiar with much or other work in the same form or style.  an understanding of the conventions and demands of the form and genre, though it may lack originality and tend toward the routine or derivative.  awareness of the need to engage with the reader, though this may not be successfully achieved.

13  work that is of an acceptable postgraduate standard

Marginal Fail 40-49%  Examiners will award a marginal fail if they find:  non-conformity with some of the requirements of the assignment  poorly developed work  a poor grasp of formal elements such as rhythm, tone, structure, viewpoint, characterisation, dialogue, materiality.  little evidence of originality  work contains errors and confusions  work that does not attempt to engage with its reader. Audience is not considered with sufficient depth or subtlety.  work that is slightly below an acceptable postgraduate standard

Fail 0-39% Examiners will award a failing mark if they find:  non-conformity with the requirements of the assignment  no grasp or a very poor grasp of formal elements such as rhythm, tone, structure, viewpoint, characterisation, dialogue, materiality.  no evidence of originality  incomplete or incoherent work  substantial errors and confusions  no attempt to engage with the reader. Audience considered inadequately or not at all.  work that is clearly below an acceptable postgraduate standard

Word Limits

Word limits are there for a reason, so please adhere to them. Work which exceeds the upper word limit set will be penalised. Please do not exceed the word count – precise details of penalties can be found in the PGT Handbook.

Workshop Etiquette

Preparation The workshop depends upon each of you as a committed and engaged reader and writer. Allow proper time to read and annotate your fellow students’ work, and circulate yours by the agreed deadline so that they have time to read it properly too.

14 Written feedback You should annotate the work throughout and add a minimum of half a page of summary at the end. Note what works as well as what doesn’t work. Do so in a respectful, considered but rigorous fashion. While you may add to your notes during the class discussion, ensure that you have prepared thorough feedback beforehand. Your tutor will guide you in terms of what is most helpful and pertinent.

Working on paper Your tutor will give you guidelines on how to circulate work for the group but in the classroom, we usually work on paper. You have access to printers in the basement of the building, and can pay with your student card, but allow time in case of a technical problem.

Email You are expected to use your Royal Holloway email as you will be receiving important information to that address and so you can be reached via the directory.

Food and drink There will be a break halfway through the workshop. You can bring drinks into the classroom but not food.

Absence If you are unable to attend the workshop, let your tutor know as soon as you can. If you know in advance that you are likely to miss a seminar, please complete the Notification of Absence form, available here.

Confidentiality The workshop is a confidential space. You are not permitted to share other peoples’ comments or writing or any part of the discussion on social media or online or in any other public forum in any way. This also applies to tutors’ comments, written or verbal, in workshop, tutorial, seminar or any other context.

Ethics

It is important to be mindful of the fundamental ethics of your work both with regards to its reception and production. You should consider this with regards to your seminar group but also the wider community.

During the course you may encounter a wide range of viewpoints that are not necessarily the same as your own. We hope that your own writing and reading of other writers, including any commentary that you make on that of your peers, will be able to take into account views which are not necessarily shared by you. Conversely, you should be mindful of asserting any one view or ideological perspective.

One of the most important areas for development on the MA is your relationship with your intended audience / readers. While we want you to explore a range of experiences through your own writing we ask you to be mindful of any distress that certain subjects might cause to the readers of your work on the MA. If you have any questions about this in relation to

15 your work then please raise this with your seminar leader in advance of the seminar.

We fully support the principles of the right to free speech but will not tolerate hate speech towards any group and you should be mindful of this in the writing that you submit for discussion and in your comments on the work of others.

Further Information

If you have any questions, please contact the School of Humanities administrative team – [email protected]

Disclaimer

This document was published in September 2020 and was correct at that time. The Department reserves the right to modify any statement if necessary, make variations to the content or methods of delivery of programmes of study, to discontinue programmes, or merge or combine programmes if such actions are reasonably considered to be necessary by the College. Every effort will be made to keep disruption to a minimum, and to give as much notice as possible.