The Contemporary Novel: Practice as Research - PhD 36 months PHD Programme By University of Kent |TopUniversities

The Contemporary Novel: Practice as Research - PhD

Subject Ranking

# 101-150QS Subject Rankings

Programme Duration

36 monthsProgramme duration

Tuitionfee

18,600 GBPTuition Fee/year

Application Deadline

31 Jul, 2025Application Deadline

Programme overview

Main Subject

English Language and Literature

Degree

PhD

Study Level

PHD

Study Mode

On Campus

This is an innovative and exciting programme in which you focus on writing a full-length, literary novel of between 90,000 and 150,000 words.


Overview

While the aims and objectives remain the same as on any other PhD programme in the humanities, for example, you are expected to contribute new knowledge of some sort, and to explore original, contemporary research questions, you are expected to achieve almost all of this in the novel itself. There is no long critical piece attached to this PhD programme. Instead, you produce a 3-5,000-word essay that works like a preface to your project, linking your concerns with others’, demonstrating your awareness of theme and locating your work within/without one or more traditions etc. You also need to produce a full bibliography.


All UK universities and relevant funding councils and bodies (including REF panels) now support the idea that literary novels are research outputs in their own right and in themselves make significant contributions to knowledge. The idea that a novel might ‘know’ something about war that a piece of historical research could not know (in the case of Art Spiegelman’s MAUS, for example), or that philosophy can be undertaken in fiction (as in the work of Borges) is one that we have been embracing at Kent for several years now.


Our PhD programme brings us right up-to-date with the ways in which novelists function in universities. You need to do a lot of critical thinking, reading and research and then turn it into contemporary fiction. You have a supervisory team to read your work and help you with thinking, research, plotting, editing, characterisation, pace, dialogue and so on.


You meet regularly with your supervisor and have the opportunity to take part in informal reading groups and research seminars to which students, staff and visiting speakers contribute papers. You also benefit from a series of research skills seminars that run in the spring term, which gives you a chance to share the research expertise of staff and postdoctoral members of the department.


As a basis for advanced research, you must also take research methods programmes.

Programme overview

Main Subject

English Language and Literature

Degree

PhD

Study Level

PHD

Study Mode

On Campus

This is an innovative and exciting programme in which you focus on writing a full-length, literary novel of between 90,000 and 150,000 words.


Overview

While the aims and objectives remain the same as on any other PhD programme in the humanities, for example, you are expected to contribute new knowledge of some sort, and to explore original, contemporary research questions, you are expected to achieve almost all of this in the novel itself. There is no long critical piece attached to this PhD programme. Instead, you produce a 3-5,000-word essay that works like a preface to your project, linking your concerns with others’, demonstrating your awareness of theme and locating your work within/without one or more traditions etc. You also need to produce a full bibliography.


All UK universities and relevant funding councils and bodies (including REF panels) now support the idea that literary novels are research outputs in their own right and in themselves make significant contributions to knowledge. The idea that a novel might ‘know’ something about war that a piece of historical research could not know (in the case of Art Spiegelman’s MAUS, for example), or that philosophy can be undertaken in fiction (as in the work of Borges) is one that we have been embracing at Kent for several years now.


Our PhD programme brings us right up-to-date with the ways in which novelists function in universities. You need to do a lot of critical thinking, reading and research and then turn it into contemporary fiction. You have a supervisory team to read your work and help you with thinking, research, plotting, editing, characterisation, pace, dialogue and so on.


You meet regularly with your supervisor and have the opportunity to take part in informal reading groups and research seminars to which students, staff and visiting speakers contribute papers. You also benefit from a series of research skills seminars that run in the spring term, which gives you a chance to share the research expertise of staff and postdoctoral members of the department.


As a basis for advanced research, you must also take research methods programmes.

Admission Requirements

76+
185+
95+
3.3+
7+
  • A first or upper-second class honours degree in a relevant subject (or equivalent) and, normally, a taught MA qualification of an excellent standard (Distinction or high Merit).
  • All applicants are considered on an individual basis and additional qualifications, professional qualifications and relevant experience may also be taken into account when considering applications.

31 Jul 2025
3 Years
Jan
May

International
18,600 GBP

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