In this course we will look at a selection of the most exciting and moving new fiction, poetry and other writing from Britain and Ireland. There will be four novels: Hanif Kureshi’s The Buddha of Suburbia, Emma Donoghue’s Wonder, Colm Tobin’s Brooklyn, and Ian McEwan’s Saturday. There will also be a range of new poetry from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. We will also consider new forms of cross-over writing, from the use of literature in popular culture to the use of words in installation art. Topics will include: hyperrealism, historical fiction, fiction and emigration, trauma writing, writing and gender, writing capital, work and consumption, and the future of literature in the modern mediascape.