Literature and Philosophy (2013 entry)

MA, 1 year full time/2 years part time

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Subject overview

Sussex is ranked among the top 20 universities in the UK for English in The Times Good University Guide 2013 and among the top 30 in the UK in The Complete University Guide 2014.

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 95 per cent of our English research was rated as recognised internationally or higher, and over half rated as internationally excellent or higher.

English at Sussex has a well-established international reputation for producing research that develops and extends the boundaries of the subject.

English runs a wide range of innovative MA degrees, taught by faculty working at the forefront of English studies.

We support research centres such as the Centre for Modernist Studies and the Centre for Early Modern Studies, which focus on interdisciplinary research and teaching, and attract high-profile speakers from around the world.

We have a diverse and thriving community of postgraduate students who contribute to an outstanding research culture.

Programme outline

This MA provides an advanced programme of study for those interested in questions that arise at the intersection of the two disciplines. The core module addresses explicitly the question of the relationship between philosophy and literature in contemporary thought. Three further modules are chosen from a range of options reflecting the strong interdisciplinary character of the course.

This MA is distinctive because it brings together expertise from literature and philosophy in a genuinely collaborative context, encouraging you to approach study with an open frame of mind and equipping you with the knowledge and skills required to pursue further research.

This MA is associated with the Centre for Literature and Philosophy.

We continue to develop and update our modules for 2013 entry to ensure you have the best student experience. In addition to the course structure below, you may find it helpful to refer to the 2012 modules tab.

Autumn term: you take Explorations in Philosophy and Literature, and one option from a list that may include Analytic Aesthetics • Derrida • Kant • Modernist/Postmodernist Fiction in Britain • Phenomenology • Psychoanalysis and Creative Writing • Style: The Necessary Failure • Theory in Practice. 

Spring term: you take two options from a list that may include Continental Aesthetics • Creativity and Utopia • Deconstruction and Creative Writing • Frankfurt School and Critical Theory • Marxism and Creative Writing • Philosophy special subject • Psychoanalysis and the Image • The Politics of the Unconscious. 

Summer term: supervised work on the MA dissertation. 

Assessment 

You are assessed by four 5,000-word term papers and a dissertation of 15,000 words. 

Back to module list

Analytic Aesthetics

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This gives you a thorough grounding in certain central areas of aesthetics, approached from an analytic perspective, and fosters independent critical thinking about issues raised in these areas. Issues covered may include: the objectivity or otherwise of aesthetic judgement; the relation between the aesthetic properties of an object and its descriptive properties; what sort of thing an artwork is; definitions of art, both pre- and post-Wittgenstein; the relation between art and emotional expression; the relation between aesthetic and ethical value; the value of tragedy. Along the way, you will explore works both by major historical figures, and by important recent thinkers in contemporary analytic aesthetics.

Derrida

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module provides an introduction to the work of Jacques Derrida. This entails an engagement with a range of fields and discourses, including philosophy, politics, ethics, psychoanalysis, film and, above all perhaps, literature. Each seminar considers a particular topic or aspect of Derrida's work. In each session we will focus in depth on a specific text by or about Derrida plus, where appropriate, other texts (literary and non-literary).

Explorations in Philosophy and Literature

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

The study of the relation between philosophy and literature offers a unique opportunity to explore new perspectives on literary aesthetics and criticism, to examine disciplinary boundaries and traditions, and finally to address both the philosophy of literature and literary treatments of philosophy. By encouraging rigorous and in-depth engagement with a variety of perspectives and a range of authors, the module provides you with an environment for stimulating dialogue between philosophy and literature.

The Frankfurt School and Critical Theory

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module explores the origins, development and impact of the ideas of some of the major theorists of the Frankfurt School. The module begins by looking both at the early ideas of the Frankfurt School in 1930's that were influenced by Marx, and then proceeds to address the various ways in which the Frankfurt School theorists attempt to integrate various other aspects of thought in response to historical developments.

We will focus on texts by Benjamin, Habermas, Horkheimer, Kircheimer, Marcuse, Neumann and Adorno, but also look at the theorists that most influenced them such as Hegel, Marx and Lukcs. We will also look at certain key themes in Frankfurt School criticism such as, 'dialectic', 'negative dialectics', 'determinate negation', 'critique', 'immanent critique', 'positivism', 'instrumental reason' and 'Enlightenment'

Kant

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

Kant's metaphysics has shaped all later philosophy, in both the analytic and the continental traditions. His moral philosophy is of crucial importance to contemporary ethics, and to political philosophy from Hegel and Marx to Rawls. His aesthetic theory still has a continuing influence in all work in that field. The course will provide you with an advanced introduction to his work, concentrating on one or more of the central texts.

Modernist and Postmodernist Fiction

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module will explore the terms modernism and postmodernism, and the relationship between the two, by reading a range of novels which engage with issues of artistic form, subjectivity, and modernity. We'll ask a variety of questions including: How has the 20th and 21st century novel represented the attempt to delineate the shape of individual lives through 'portraits'? What changes to the novel's terrain have been effected by contemporary history, war, or historical trauma? How useful is the term postmodernism for describing contemporary writing? How have high and mass cultural forms, such as visual art, the cinema, the web, etc. influenced contemporary writing? How do recent novels portray the aesthetic? What different ideas of temporality do we find in modernist and postmodernist writing? What versions of borrowing from the past do we find in modernism and postmodernism and what purposes do these borrowings serve? Is there what the critic Andreas Huyssen has called a 'great divide' between modernism and postmodernism? What continuities might we find between modernism and postmodernism (if those terms are still useful)? Authors read will include Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, Virginia Woolf, Don DeLillo, J.M. Coetzee, Jonathan Coe and Marilynne Robinson.

Phenomenology

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module will examine works in the phenomenological tradition, which includes such philosophers as Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Levinas and Derrida. Usually the readings will be focused around a specific theme. Central questions include: how did phenomenologists after Husserl modify his phenomenological method? How does one best address the question of 'the other' phenomenologically? How do phenomenologists tackle issues of language, art and history?

Philosophy Special Subject

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

In exceptional circumstances, where you can demonstrate a specific need to work on an area of philosophy which is directly related to the current research of a faculty member, that faculty member may agree to supervise you on that topic for a term.

Psychoanalysis and Creative Writing

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

Psychoanalysis has exciting and major implications for all kinds of writing, not least that sort called 'creative'. This module will focus on some of the ways in which a close reading of psychoanalytic texts, especially those of Sigmund Freud himself, can be linked to the theory and practice of creative writing. We will look in particular detail at how Freud's work illuminates the question of literature (and vice versa) in relation to such topics as the uncanny, fantasy and day-dreaming, story-telling and the death drive, chance, humour, mourning and loss. Concentrating on detailed reading and discussion of a series of psychoanalytic, critical and literary texts, the module will lead you through to having an opportunity to submit a term-paper work that may (if you wish) include a creative writing as well as a critical component.

Psychoanalysis and the Image

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module turns to psychoanalysis as a powerful way of thinking about the idea of the image, and the politics of vision, in contemporary cultural life. You will read a selection of texts in psychoanalysis including Freud, Lacan, and Winnicott. This will help you to explore ideas of violence and spectacle, sexuality and power, identity and hatred, and to reflect on psychoanalytic understandings of vision and visuality.

Religion and Enlightenment

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Half a century ago, friends and foes of the Enlightenment were at least agreed that this phenomenon in European history was characterised by anti-clericalism and some degree of critical distance to religion. Today and for several years many scholars are defending an Enlightenment that is, if not a religious movement, at least intimately intertwined with religion. So while the concept of `Enlightenment values has retained its colloquial meaning in ordinary language, its basis in scholarship has been steadily eroded.

Those in need of a clear concept of Enlightenment that is serviceable for public debate may be excused for thinking that the state of scholarly work has become exceptionally divided and confusing, especially concerning the issue of religion. The scholarly discussion has been so intensive and complex, that often it can be hard to see the simpler and more basic issues, and one cannot help but get a feeling that scholars are talking past each other, because they try and fail to mean the same thing by Enlightenment and religion.

Much of the work that has been done has consisted in using the relationship between Enlightenment and religion to re-define the concept of either or of both. In fact, much of the discussion has been a succession of encounters between different kinds of history. More particularly, it has become a debate about the role of intellectual history in our understanding of the past, and since this form of history itself has undergone quite fundamental changes in the same period, it is hardly surprising that the outcome has been as unhelpful for the beating of drums as it has been encouraging for the necessary scepticism of scholarship.

This module examines the relationship between religion and enlightenment across the Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and radical Protestant worlds, in addition to scrutinising the relationship between enlightenment and Judaism, Islam, and the forms of religious practice in the Orthodox world. Traditional perspectives on the relationship between enlightenment and atheistic or anti-religious beliefs with also been examined.

Style: The Necessary Failure

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

Style is what draws us to works of art, but it is also something that we find very difficult to define or describe. It is understood variously as belonging to groups or to individuals; as being difficult or easy; as something superficial to the work of art, or else as the substance of its depths; as either apolitical, or as the sign and guarantor of political commitment. This module will pursue the problem of artistic style across a number of periods and artistic media, including literature, visual art, and cinema. Readings will include works of aesthetic theory and philosophy, film theory, literary theory and criticism, and art history. We will think about style as a historically shifting category of artistic experience by engaging a number of case studies in which style becomes an object of contention, controversy, or disagreement.

Theory in Practice: Readings in Contemporary Theory and Literature

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

What is 'theory'? Although it goes in and out of fashion with the speed of rising or plunging hemlines, the use of theory, literary theory, or literary criticism as a way to read literary texts is always useful. And contrary to popular opinion, it's not the application of an arcane or secret language to garner a secret knowledge. Rather, it is a self-conscious and informed method of analysing the presuppositions behind the apparently natural way we read; indeed, sometimes it's a method of reading in itself, derived from a philosophy or theory of language, as is the case with Bataille or Derrida. Theory sounds dull, but really it's a creative practice, as is reading, which Walter Benjamin likened to telepathy.

This module seeks, through a number of case studies, to address a number of critical paradigms that have proved significant in the post-war period. In particular, notions of materialism, materiality and historicity will be set in tension with ideas about relativism, deconstruction and 'play' as very different ways of construing some iconic American texts. Alongside the close reading of primary and secondary texts, discussions in class will be directed towards such subjects as: the construction/reflection of subjectivity in language and discourse; the relation of the literary text to sociality; the effects and efficacy of modernist/avant-garde/postmodern literary techniques; and the writing of race, gender and class.

Back to module list

Entry requirements

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in a relevant subject.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column A on the Overseas qualifications.

If you have any questions about your qualifications after consulting our overseas qualifications table, contact the University.
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

Visas and immigration

Find out more about Visas and immigration.

English language requirements

IELTS 7.0, with not less than 6.5 in each section. Internet TOEFL with 95 overall, with at least 22 in Listening, 23 in Reading, 23 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

For more information about the admissions process at Sussex

For pre-application enquiries:

Student Recruitment Services
T +44 (0)1273 876787
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

For post-application enquiries:

Postgraduate Admissions,
University of Sussex,
Sussex House, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RH, UK
T +44 (0)1273 877773
F +44 (0)1273 678545
E pg.applicants@sussex.ac.uk 

Fees and funding

Fees

Home UK/EU students: £5,5001
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £5,5002
Overseas students: £13,0003

1 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
2 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
3 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

To find out about your fee status, living expenses and other costs, visit further financial information.

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

To find out more about funding and part-time work, visit further financial information.

Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust for Postgraduate Study (2013)

Region: UK
Level: PG (taught), PG (research)
Application deadline: 1 October 2013

The Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust are offering bursaries to Postgraduate students following any postgraduate degree courses in any subject.

Sussex Graduate Scholarship (2013)

Region: UK, Europe (Non UK), International (Non UK/EU)
Level: PG (taught)
Application deadline: 16 August 2013

Open to final year Sussex students who graduate with a 1st or 2:1 degree and who are offered a F/T place on an eligible Masters course in 2013.

Faculty interests

Faculty research interests are described briefly below. For more detailed information, visit School of English: People and contacts.

The following list includes all the English faculty, and other contributors to English MA degrees.

The journals Renaissance Studies, Textual Practice, The Oxford Literary Review and The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory are edited within the School of English.

Dr Gavin Ashenden 20th-century myth and metaphysics; psychology, psychoanalysis and belief.

Dr Sara Jane Bailes Contemporary experimental theatre, live art and visual practices, ideology and performance.

Dr David Barnett Post-war European drama and theatre, post-Brechtian political theatre.

Professor Peter Boxall Modern and contemporary fiction and drama.

Dr Sara Crangle Co-Director of the Centre for Modernist Studies. 20th-century literature.

Professor Brian Cummings 16th- and 17th-century literature and history.

Dr Sue Currell American literature and culture 1890-1940, 20th-century mass culture.

Dr Alistair Davies Modernism and postmodernism, 20th-century English and American literature.

Dr Denise DeCaires Narain Postcolonialist writing; feminist cultural theory; contemporary women’s writing in English, especially poetry.

Dr Matthew Dimmock 16th- and 17th-century literature and history, national identity, Islam.

Professor Andrew Hadfield Renaissance literature and politics, Britishness, Shakespeare, Spenser, and national identity.

Dr Doug Haynes European and American modernism, postmodernism.

Dr Margaret Healy Renaissance literature and culture, the political stage, Shakespeare, Dekker, medicine and literature.

Professor Tom Healy Head of School. 16th- and 17th-century writing and cultural history.

Dr Vicky Lebeau The convergence of psychoanalysis, literature and cinema; and feminist theory.

Dr William McEvoy British playwriting and directing; theatre, writing and ethics.

Dr Daniel Kane 20th-century American literature, the avant-garde, poetry since the 1960s.

Dr Maria Lauret American feminist fiction and theory; race and ethnicity.

Professor Stephanie Newell West African literature and popular culture, postcolonial theory.

Dr Rachel O’Connell Late 19th- and early 20th-century British literature; gender, queer, and disability studies.

Dr Catherine Packham 18th-century literature and philosophy; political economy and moral philosophy in the Scottish Enlightenment.

Dr Jason Price Popular theatre histories and practices; politics and performance.

Dr Vincent Quinn Lesbian and gay studies, the history of sexuality, 18th-century studies, Irish studies, and the history and theory of biography.

Dr John David Rhodes Italian cinema, modernist and avant-garde cinemas of Europe and the US, queer art cinema.

Professor Nicholas Royle Modern literature and literary theory, especially deconstruction and psychoanalysis; the uncanny.

Martin Ryle 19th- and 20th-century fiction; the politics of ‘culture’, with especial reference to education; and topographical and travel writing.

Dr Minoli Salgado Postcolonial literature and theory, memory and migrant identity, the short story, Rushdie, and Ondaatje.

Professor Lindsay Smith 19th-century literature and painting; photography in Victorian culture.

Dr Keston Sutherland Contemporary and 20th-century English and American poetry; Marxism and Frankfurt School critical theory.

Professor Jenny Bourne Taylor 19th-century literature and culture; literature and science; illegitimacy and the family.

Dr Pamela Thurschwell Co-Director of the Centre for Modernist Studies. Psychoanalysis, 19th- and 20th-century interest in the supernatural.

Professor Norman Vance 19th-century literature, religion and society; Anglo-Irish literature.

Professor Marcus Wood Satire in the romantic period, the representation of slavery, and colonial and postcolonial literature and theory.

Careers and profiles

Our graduates have gone on to careers in teaching and education, publishing, website production and marketing, journalism and writing, the charity sector, and NGOs. A number of our graduates go on to further study and careers in academia.

Diana's student perspective

Diana Chamma

‘After graduating from a degree in visual communication I decided to follow my true ambition of working in a field that I love and applied for the MA in Literature and Philosophy at Sussex. I felt that this was the best choice in order to pursue higher education in a field that I’m passionate about and it turned out to be the most fruitful year of education of my life.

‘Developing my ability to work well under pressure, establishing common grounds in discourse, and incorporating creativity and structure simultaneously into my work are just some of the skills that I acquired while studying at Sussex. I found that I grew in many different respects through the environment, diversity, highly active student life, friendly staff and knowledgeable academics. It is all of this that makes education worth investing in.

‘The MA at Sussex helped me structure my ideas and work out the argument for my dissertation, but it also helped me realise what I wanted from my life. As a result, I’m hoping to return to the University as soon as possible in order to start a PhD.’

Diana Chamma
MA in Literature and Philosophy

Gabriel's student perspective

Gabriel Martin

‘The Sussex MA in Literature and Philosophy is very accommodating, enabling students whose interests and backgrounds are primarily in one of these disciplines to consider a particular or overlooked area of their field or to study it from a different perspective.

‘For those whose interests are divided between both disciplines, as mine were, the programme provides the opportunity to pursue truly interdisciplinary study. I was able to explore my interests with enough intellectual freedom to determine where my true passion lies. In my opinion this is one of the most important opportunities that comes from studying at postgraduate level.

‘I came to the MA with an interdisciplinary undergraduate degree and interests initially confined to the philosophy of literature, in which I did all my work during the first term. Just four short months later, I was working in more traditionally mainstream aspects of philosophy – something I’m pursuing in my PhD at Sussex. My dissertation supervisor, who I'm studying with now for my doctorate, was very supportive while giving me the freedom and confidence to research and write about what I found most interesting and felt most passionate about.’

Gabriel Martin
MA in Literature and Philosophy

For more information, visit Careers and alumni.

School and contacts

School of History, Art History and Philosophy

The School of History, Art History and Philosophy brings together staff and students from some of the University's most vibrant and successful departments, each of which is a locus of world-leading research and outstanding teaching. Our outlook places a premium on intellectual flexibility and the power of the imagination.

Dr Katerina Deligiorgi,
Arts A27,
University of Sussex, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9QN, UK
T +44 (0)1273 678932
E k.deligiorgi@sussex.ac.uk
Department of Philosophy

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