The students of the Centre for British Studies, Berlin, get exposed to a number of agents in the literary fields in the UK and Germany. They also have to complete several creative tasks during the Master course, such as developing an idea for a book, writing blurbs and other marketing texts, designing book covers and pitching their ideas to the group.
As part of a Jane Austen-session, the students rewrote Pride and Prejudice for the 21st century. Based on the first chapter, they came up with different versions of Jane Austen’s novel, which was first published in 1813. This creative writing task was part of the students’ assessment.
Furthermore, the students are required to complete an internship in the UK to experience (work) life first hand. The institutions in the literary field range from publishing houses to literary heritage centres, literary agencies and museums. Some of the students’ articles about the institution to which they were attached can be found below.
- Sarah J. Singer’s poem “Domes”, published after a creative writing session at the Centre for British Studies with poet Frances Leviston (link to blog post)
- A map of the UK’s contemporary literary field created by Cordula Granderath, Wiebke Marie Meier, Renata Miranda, Sonya Permiakova, Sophie Plötz, Sina Samavati (link to pdf)
- Jeanne-Marie Gaebler’s rewriting of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (link to pdf)
- Artem Zaytsev’s rewriting of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (link to pdf)
- Renata Miranda’s cover design for a historical novel (link to pdf)
- Nora Hawich’s reports about the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden (link to pdf)