Studying Modern English Literature first of all entails plenty of reading. This includes drama from Shakespeare to Shaw or Kane, novels from Defoe to Joyce or Zadie Smith as well as poetry from Wyatt to Yeats or Dylan Thomas. In particular seminars you also get an insight into other media such as films, songs and essays. What we focus on are stylistic features as well as the literary era, the structure of genres and last but not least the various socio-cultural contexts including views on technology, politics and an increasingly globalized world. While we focus on the works and their contexts we do not want to lose sight of their socio-political relevance by embedding them in an interdisciplinary discussion within contemporary literary and cultural theories. The key qualifications you will gain are amongst others analytic precision, aesthetic awareness, argumentative ability as well as intellectual independence and critical reflection.
