Contact
Biography
BA, MSt: University of Oxford
PhD: University of Cambridge
I joined the School of English in 2017. Prior to this I was a Lecturer at the Open University and a Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Expertise Summary
My most recent book is The Flitting: A Memoir of Fathers, Sons and Butterflies (Granta, 2024), which is a blend of memoir, nature writing, literary biography and cultural history. My next book, which is publishing with Granta in January 2027, is called The Lit Pack: Amis, Barnes, McEwan, their Circle and me. It is a hybrid of literary biography, memoir and autofiction. I have also published a novel called Noughties (Penguin/Hamish Hamitlon, 2012).
My literary journalism and articles have appeared in the Guardian, Observer, Times, New York Times, Times Literary Supplement and Literary Review, and I have discussed my work on BBC Radio and at international literary festivals.
My scholarly research encompasses prose writing from the nineteenth century to the present day, with a particular focus on the long post-war to present period. I take a broad interest in aesthetics and am especially interested in the ethical and philosophical possibilities of style. My monograph, Novel Style: Ethics and Excess in English Fiction since the 1960s (Oxford University Press), examines the ethical affect of so-called excessive writing in the post-war to present period, with chapters on Anthony Burgess, Angela Carter, Martin Amis, Zadie Smith, Nicola Barker and David Mitchell, and addresses the ethical turn in contemporary literary criticism. I've also written on Ali Smith, H. G. Wells, Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan, among others.
Teaching Summary
I teach widely on modern and contemporary literature. Presently I contribute to the following modules:
Undergraduate:
Studying Literature; Victorian and Fin de Siecle Literature 1830-1910; Dark Futures, Tainted Pasts (Gothic and Dystopian Literature); Contemporary Fiction; Literature and Popular Culture; Modern and Contemporary Literature; Single Author Study (Zadie Smith); Academic Community.
Postgraduate:
Literary Histories; Literature in Britain post-1950; What is Literature?; Approaches to Text.
I welcome proposals from potential PhD students on fiction of the post-war to present day period, literary style, ethical criticism, and the relationships between creative and critical practice.
Research Summary
I am currently researching the socio-literary circle that emerged from the New Statesman, TLS, New Review and Observer (and associated publications) in the 1970s.
Recent Publications
BEN MASTERS, 2024. Granta.
BEN MASTERS, ed., 2021. 'Style', a special issue of Textual Practice 35(6).
BEN MASTERS, 2021. 'The New Stylism' Textual Practice. 35(6), 901-919
BEN MASTERS, 2021. 'Adjustment-Style: From H.G. Wells to Ali Smith and the Metamodern Novel' Textual Practice. 35(6), 967-995