Methodology for the Literature- and Language-based MAs (2c) *

Module Code:

TBA

When taught:

Michaelmas (residential students)

Credit points:

10

Method of Assessment:

1 x 2,500 word assignment

Teaching Methods:

Seminars (residential students) or module pack (distance students)

Availability:

Residential and distance students

Lecturers:

M. Plantinga, O. Hodkinson

Contact hours (for residential students):

10

Syllabus:

This module will build upon the skills acquired by students in the general Methodology module (1) and aims to provide students with the practical training needed to read and interpret texts successfully.  Through close literary analysis of a number of texts, students are introduced to some of the problems associated with the reading of classical texts.  The module consists of ten separate units and covers topics such as the use of commentaries, style, rhetoric, genre, allusion, character, gender, and a number of modern literary theories.  At the end of the module students will be asked to write a literary analysis or a commentary of a passage chosen in consultation with one of the module tutors.

Learning outcomes:  

• To develop further students’ literary skills.
• To enable students to assess critically modern scholarship.
• To introduce students to modern literary theories.

Transferable and other skills involved:  

Academic writing and oral presentation skills (the latter only for residential students).

Main recommended texts:  

Students will be required to consult a variety of primary and secondary material.  Essential texts and extracts will be provided in a reader for distance students.

Evaluation (including student evaluation):  

Students will be asked to complete a questionnaire at the end of the module. This will be used by the Department in its annual review of all its teaching to help evaluate the module’s success. The external examiner will also have the opportunity to make comments and results of the questionnaires will be discussed in the SSCC