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Voices in the Archives: Writing from History (944Q3A)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

This module looks at how creative writing connects with history, from practical research tips to big-picture ideas about storytelling. You'll get to develop your own creative writing while thinking critically about how stories bring the past to life.

We’ll explore how different types of writing—like novels and poetry—use history in their structure, storytelling, and language, focusing on the cultural impact of modern historical fiction. You’ll also get hands-on experience with old documents, newspapers, and photos at The Keep in Brighton, diving into how archives can inspire creative work.

Some authors we might study include:

• Ali Smith
• Virginia Woolf
• Sarah Waters
• Toni Morrison
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Angela Carter
• Charles Dickens.

Through workshops, you’ll practice research skills and experiment with using historical language to shape your writing. Discussions will include the challenges and ethics of writing about real events or people from history, and how today’s stories about the past often come with creative or political goals.

We’ll also look at how historical fiction interacts with other genres, like poetry and film, and study big ideas about memory and history from critics like Georg Lukács and Walter Benjamin.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 278 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.