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"History is not the past, 

anymore than a birth certificate is a birth."

- Hilary Mantel, Reith Lectures (2017)

Module Description

This module interrogates how and why contemporary writers revisit texts from the past, as well how writers engage with and represent the very notion of the past itself. The module posits the relationship and between ‘then’ and ‘now’ as complex. 

You will be encouraged to complicate and develop your understanding of what the contemporary “means” and how it operates in ways that build upon and speak to concurrent Term 1 modules “Theorizing the Contemporary” and “Form and Genre Now”. 

This module will enable you to establish connections between pre-21st century contexts and forms (which you may have already encountered at undergraduate level) and more recent works that you will be studying on this programme at York St John University. Questions of continuity and change, appropriation, adaption, and periodization will be of central concern. 

You will also have the opportunity to extend, develop, and apply the critical skills you develop in their other Term 1 modules via a long essay, a style of assessment which in its focus on sustained and detailed argument, analysis, and research will help you prepare for the dissertation.

Click here to download the Module Summary Document 

Click here to view Module Information Slides