Comparative Literature, _MLitt

Compulsory Courses

• (LI5002) Comparative Literary Studies (30 Credit Points)

Getting Started at the University of Aberdeen (PD5006)

This course, which is prescribed for all taught postgraduate students, is studied entirely online, takes approximately 5-6 hours to complete and can be taken in one sitting, or spread across a number of weeks.

Topics include orientation overview, equality and diversity, health, safety and cyber security and how to make the most of your time at university in relation to careers and employability.

Successful completion of this course will be recorded on your Enhanced Transcript as ‘Achieved’.

Detailed course information

Optional Courses

Choose ONE of the following:

Locations and Dislocations: the Role of Place in Literature (EL50C1)

30 Credit Points

This course examines the social, political and cultural construction of place in literary texts. The imaginative co-ordinates of places such as ‘Scotland’, or ‘England’ exist in a constant state of flux, refusing to yield an essential, authentic image. Using core texts from the early modern period paired with more recent literary responses we explore the idea of place in its various forms. Key themes and issues to be discussed will include the rural and urban divide; literature and nationhood; the nature of community; the significance of emigration, and displacement; walking texts, metropolitan literature, and ideas of the “new world”

Detailed course information

The Novel: Environments and Encounters (EL50C5)

30 Credit Points

This module explores how the evolution of the novel form has allowed, and required, authors to find new ways of depicting spaces, places and interactions (between characters in particular environments, but also between characters and their environment). This chronologically wide-ranging course moves from the early days of the novel form through to contemporary fiction, allowing for an opportunity to study the many literary tactics that authors have employed to create the settings for their works – from vast historical backdrops, to natural spaces, to urban environments, to smaller domestic and private places. It also us to consider how different cultural moments have prompted authors to rethink how they represent characters’ encounters with the world around them, and with the other cultures, races, species and genders that inhabit that world. As well as narrative theories, students will have the chance to study canonical and less well-known texts from angles informed by current critical approaches such as ecocriticism, animal studies, postcolonial and queer theory.

Detailed course information

Fundamentals of English Language (EL50D2)

30 Credit Points

This core course introduces students to advanced study of the English language. Three key aspects of the structure of English are introduced: the sound patterns of English (phonology); the structure of English words (morphology) and the structure of sentences (syntax). We then consider the relationship between the semantic meaning of linguistic constructions and their pragmatic implications. The course will enable students to refer confidently to the structure and use of the English language in their own research projects, whether the focus is literary or linguistic.

Detailed course information

Research Methods in Film and Visual Culture (FS5022)

30 Credit Points

This team-taught course will introduce students to key research methods in the field of film and visual culture as utilised in the research and practice of faculty members in the department. Each week students will engage with a range of written and visual materials relating to a specific approach to the study and/or production of visual culture. These may include: approaches to working with living artists and documents of ephemeral art; theories of the animal gaze; approaches to practice-as-research; documentary; memory and memorialisation; the relationship between film, art and history; close reading; bricolage; walking; intermediality; and projects in art and science among others. Throughout the course students will explore important theoretical concepts and artistic paradigms in these areas, applying them in weekly exercises and seminar preparations, and ultimately using one (or more) of them in their assessed work.

Detailed course information

Key Concepts and Methods in Translation Studies (LN5009)

30 Credit Points

The course introduces and critically evaluates some of the major concepts in translation theory, focusing on their application to translation practice. It analyses translation as a social and cultural phenomenon. Students will develop the skills necessary to reflect critically on their own translation practice in order to enhance its breadth and sophistication. In the second semester, the course will also provide training in research methodology in preparation for the dissertation.

Detailed course information

Compulsory Courses

• (LI5503) Specialist Literary Study 1 (15 credits) AND (LI5504) Specialist Literary Study 2 (15 credits)

Optional Courses

Choose ONE 30 Credit Course or TWO 15 Credit Courses from the following:

• LN5513 Literary Translation (15 credit points)

Writing the Self (EL55C2)

30 Credit Points

What is at stake in writing autobiographical texts? What are the forms writers have used to write themselves? Is autobiography simply, as Oscar Wilde states, the lowest form of criticism? Looking at a range of texts from the Medieval period to the present, with a special focus on women’s writing, this course examines the formal, ethical, political, and aesthetic choices writers make when writing themselves.

Detailed course information

Infinite Scotlands: Scotland and the Literary Imagination (EL55C7)

30 Credit Points

This course explores the ways in which place is negotiated in a range of Scottish texts. Looking at a selection of texts about rural, urban, and diasporic experience across the centuries, and including both canonical and lesser-known works, this course will acquaint students with key debates in the study of regional and national fiction. Place in these texts is something to be praised and scorned, embraced and abandoned, but always remains central in any discussion of individual and communal identities. Major themes and issues to be discussed include: the idea of ‘home’; the role of nostalgia and longing in Scottish fiction; the nature of community; the significance of emigration and displacement.

Detailed course information

Approaching English Language and Literature (EL55D1)

30 Credit Points

This core module takes a chronological approach to the development of English literary language (placing this within the context of language as a whole). Four canonical authors in English are used to facilitate the introduction of key concepts and terminology from across stylistics, sociolinguistics and literary studies. It is intended to equip students from the MLitt in English Language and Literature with the knowledge of these disciplines needed to produce a summer research project on their chosen topic. 

Detailed course information

Places and Environments: Critical Dialogues (EL55D3)

30 Credit Points

This course introduces students to a range of critical, theoretical, and philosophical approaches to environment and place, as well as aligned research methods. Students will read key works of ecocriticism, ecofeminism, environmental philosophy, cultural geography, and related areas. Close reading and discussion of central texts will provide a foundation for further research, including the dissertation. Students will have the opportunity to discuss these ideas in relation to both literary and social contexts. This course is restricted to students on the MLitt Literatures, Environments, and Places, or by permission of the School.

Detailed course information

Additional Language - Specific Translation Portfolio (LN5512)

15 Credit Points

This course is based on supervision of practical experience. Students and supervisors will select texts to be translated and discuss approaches and other practical issues. The remainder of the course is dedicated to self-directed study, in which students compile a portfolio of work. Feedback on the portfolio is discussed in detail with the supervisor. Additional translations are set beyond the portfolio itself, giving students the opportunity to enhance and polish their skills with a wider range of materials. Students will normally be translating one document per week and will receive oral feedback.

Detailed course information

Compulsory Courses

• (LI5901) Dissertation in Comparative Literature (60 Credit Points)