MPhil in Literature, Culture and Thought (Taught)

This MPhil provides students with the critical, theoretical and methodological tools to enable them to undertake an in-depth study of specific aspects of European literatures and cultures and/or Latin American and Francophone contexts. The course introduces students to a broad range of critical-theoretical concepts, allows for in-depth study of specific cultures and contexts, and includes writing a dissertation based on original research.

The MPhil is offered by the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL) as a full-time programme and introduces students to research skills and specialist knowledge of specific cultural areas.

The course aims:

• to offer students with relevant experience at degree level a self-contained 9-month course in which they have the opportunity for in-depth study of specific aspects of European literatures and cultures (and in some cases film, history, and the visual arts) and critical theory

• to provide foundations for continuation to PhD research

These aims are achieved by:

• offering an overview of central aspects of modern literary/cultural theory and critical approaches to develop a general understanding of the field

• offering an opportunity for in-depth study of two areas in critical theory and methodologies and for the development of skills to write on theory and to use theory or palaeographical and bibliographical techniques as a tool in the study of literary or other cultural texts

• offering an opportunity for expanding knowledge of the literature and culture of specific periods and language areas beyond the undergraduate level

• offering an opportunity for in-depth and sustained work on the individual oral presentation, essay, and dissertation topics

• offering the opportunity either to specialise in one European language area or to continue work in several languages (in the latter case, offering guidance in developing comparative research projects)

• offering an opportunity to give seminar papers to a specialist audience in order to develop skills in presenting work and discussing the issues that arise from it with other MPhil students and senior members of the Faculty

• offering an opportunity to learn to work to tight deadlines (time management)

• offering an opportunity to develop oral presentation skills

• offering practice in writing shorter essays with a strict deadline (4,500 words)

• offering experience in independent research and training in developing a realistic research project and writing it up as a dissertation (15,000 words) within a limited period of time

• offering an opportunity to develop bibliographical, editorial and other research skills

• offering an opportunity to work under the supervision of specialists in relevant areas

• offering the opportunity to participate in the research culture of the Faculty and to attend postgraduate seminars and reading groups

In addition to these subject-specific skills, the following general transferable skills are also acquired:

• the relatively intense timetable of the MPhil demands that students develop exemplary time-management skills

• they work in collaboration with their supervisors to devise appropriate plans of study and have to ensure that they meet all deadlines, both formal and informal.

• Students are expected to make regular presentations in seminar settings to develop their oral presentation skills.

Assessed work is evaluated on the basis of a demonstration of scholarly research and critical analysis. That is, students are expected to present a lucid, coherent and carefully substantiated exposition of a critical viewpoint. Writing must be in clear, grammatically correct, continuous prose, and must function as a single, comprehensible, persuasive, cumulative demonstration, not as a series of disconnected insights. The organisation of the argument of the essay or dissertation and its prose style are of crucial importance.