Sam Goodman

School: College of Humanities
Department: English.

I completed my Undergraduate degree at Canterbury in English Literature and Film before heading to Southampton to study for my PGCE in Further/Post-Compulsory Education. After this, I taught for three years at Bournemouth & Poole College of Further Education's English Language Support Department, beginning in 2004 as temporary staff before then successfully interviewing for Head of Department in 2005.

Seeking a new challenge, I left Bournemouth in 2007 to pursue my Masters Degree in Twentieth Century Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London. My studies there focused on a range of twentieth-century authors and theorists, during which time I developed my taste for faintly elitist poetry and the dry, depressive literature of the post-war period. My MA thesis concerned the formation of 'The Movement' school of poetry and was entitled 'Controlled Reactions: Modernism, Antimodernism and The Movement in post-war British Literature'.

I came to Exeter in 2008 to begin my PhD. My doctoral thesis concerns a similar period to my MA dissertation, 1945-79, but instead of poetry concentrates on the popular prose fiction of Ian Fleming, Graham Greene and John le Carré. My thesis examines the production of space as a means of creating national identity and sovereign dominance throughout espionage fiction.

Aside from my studies at Exeter, I also work part-time in the Music Department of Exeter College where I am involved in practical composition and performance management.