Programme: MA (Creative Writing)

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Code Faculty Department
01250006 Faculty of Humanities Department: Unit for Creative Writing
Credits Duration NQF level
Minimum duration of study: 1 year Total credits: 180 NQF level:  09

Programme information

Closing date for applications: 31 January annually.

Admission requirements

  1. Relevant honours degree or relevant 4-year bachelor’s degree
  2. A portfolio of creative work

Additional requirements

Selection will take place. A portfolio of creative work for evaluation must be submitted to the Head, Unit for Creative Writing.

Other programme-specific information

  1. A student must work under the guidance of a supervisor for at least one academic year.
  2. A student who does not comply with the requirements for the degree within the second academic year, must obtain permission from the Director/Dean for each succeeding year of registration.

Degree consists of creative work and a mini-dissertation

Core modules

  • Module content:

    The dissertation should demonstrate creative achievement in one of the following genres:

    • poetry
    • drama and screenplay
    • prose (fiction),
    • prose (creative non-fiction: biography or autobiography), or 
    • literary translation/adaptation.

    The creative component should be complete work, or set of complete shorter works and should in substance be the equivalent of at least (in fiction) a short novel or a collection of short stories, or (in poetry) a book-length collection of poems, or (in drama) a full-length play or a collection of at least three one-act plays. 
    The theoretical component should be a scholarly/academic work on a related topic.
    *The language of tuition depends on the language in which the creative and theoretical components are written.

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