Graduate Studies

Modern & Medieval Languages

Graduate Studies



MPhil in European Literature & Culture | Printable version of prospectus


Admission deadlines for 2012/13

Please note the following deadlines for applications to commence study in 2012/13:

date deadline
14 October 2011 US Applications for GATES funding
1 December 2011 all non-US applications for GATES, and all applications for CISS and CCT/COT funding
20 January 2012 Final deadline for all other applications


AHRC applications


Information on the 2012 competition will be available at the following link, later in the year: http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/gradstudies/ahrc.html


MPhil in European Literature & Culture Prospectus




"I would definitely recommend the MPhil course as a first step towards a research degree. Very good teaching and the opportunity to explore new ideas have given me much more confidence in my abilities, and the training in writing and research skills has been invaluable."
Joanna (Oxford), MPhil 1999

Introduction

The Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge is a large but closely-knit multi-departmental Faculty, offering teaching and research facilities in French, Occitan, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Medieval Latin, German, Dutch, Slavonic, Modern Greek, and Linguistics, among other areas such as comparative literature and film. We offer four MPhil courses, including and MPhil in Linguistics. A wide range of expertise is available within the Faculty for supervising research: see the staff lists under each Department webpage (/depts/). The Modern and Medieval Languages Faculty Library has a very good collection of literary and critical texts, and the University Library is a research library of international renown. Most volumes are on open access and available for borrowing. There is also a Language Centre which services the entire University, and which houses an extensive collection of European and World Cinema on video tape.

The Faculty has a Graduate Centre with computing, study, seminar and social areas. The facilities include extensive IT, printing, and copying resources, tv, video and dvd. The Centre is the venue for the MML Graduate Training Programme. A Media Centre, with film facilities, was added in 2006.

This prospectus describes the one-year MPhil course in European Literature & Culture offered by the Cambridge University Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages. The course provides the opportunity to make a self-contained, in-depth study of specific aspects of European Literature and Critical Theory, and to write a short thesis on a topic of personal interest, but it is also designed to serve as the first year of study for students who intend to continue with research at Cambridge for a PhD. in any area of European literature. All students wishing to undertake research in the field of European literature and culture should consider applying for the MPhil in the first instance. Full information on all postgraduate studies at Cambridge, including the PhD., is published in the University's Graduate Studies Prospectus, available from the Board of Graduate Studies, 4 Mill Lane, Cambridge CB2 1RZ, or for download at: Board of Graduate Studies: How to Apply.


The College System

All students at the University must belong to a College. Each of the 31 Colleges forms a separate community and its members represent most of the academic subjects. Colleges are independent of the University faculties and departments. The College fulfils a number of roles for any student, including providing a social structure, (non-academic) tutorial care, and frequently accommodation.

All postgraduate students must be admitted to a College. The postgraduate application form for the MPhil or PhD lists the Colleges and asks applicants to express a preference for two. An offer of admission by the University does not automatically guarantee a place at a College but in practice acceptance by a College is largely a formality. The choice of College is entirely a matter for the applicant, though members of the Department of German will be happy to give advice. Applicants new to Cambridge may wish to bear in mind that some Colleges admit only postgraduate students (Clare Hall, Darwin, Hughes Hall, St. Edmund's; Wolfson College admits mainly graduate students) and some admit only women (New Hall, Newnham; Lucy Cavendish admits only women aged over 21 who are returning to higher education). For further information please consult the University of Cambridge Graduate Studies Prospectus.


"The MPhil in European Literature has helped me to consolidate and extend my knowledge in my specific area of interest. During the year I was getting all the support I needed to produce a coherent thesis and decide whether I wanted to do a PhD."
Astrid (Konstanz), MPhil 1998
(awarded a Jebb literature scholarship and the Howard Research Scholarship at Sidney Sussex for doctoral research)


Course Structure

MPhil students will study three courses of equal weight: a 'core course' in Critical Theory, and a choice of two 'modules' in European literature and culture. The Critical Theory course provides an essential background to European critical thought and its philosophical bases, with an emphasis on how it relates to analysis of literature. The two modules are selected from a list which covers a variety of specialist and interdisciplinary options from a wide spectrum of European literature. During the first two terms, Michaelmas (October - December) and Lent (January - March), there will be a full programme of lectures and seminars covering the core course and modules, leaving the Easter term (April - June) free for work on the thesis. During the third term each student will write a thesis, whose field may be (but does not have to be) derived from the fields of the core course and modules. The thesis provides the opportunity for a substantial exercise in independent research. Students will choose topics which reflect their personal interests, but they will have the guidance of a supervisor who is interested in the same field and will advise them on defining their title and conducting their research. Students who hope to progress to a PhD after the MPhil may use the MPhil thesis to lay the foundations of their doctoral research, and present it as the basis for a PhD proposal. The Director of the MPhil, currently Dr Nick Hammond, will be available in the Faculty at regular times to discuss any aspect of the course with students.


Assessment

The taught elements of the MPhil (core course plus two modules) will be assessed by course work comprising three 4,500-word essays, one at the end of the first term, and two at the end of the second. There is no unseen examination. The other part of the assessment is the thesis (of about 15,000 words). There will be an oral examination ('viva') on the thesis. Each element of the assessment is scrutinised independently by two examiners, and may be referred to the External Examiner, whose role is to act as moderator to the entire process of assessment.


"The MPhil is an excellent way to bridge the gap between an undergraduate degree and doctoral research. It's intellectually demanding at the same time as being very sociable and supportive."
Ben (Cambridge), MPhil 2000
(awarded three-year Arts & Humanities Research Board studentship for doctoral research)


Applicants

The course is designed to appeal to students whose undergraduate studies have given them insight into some aspects of European literature, but who now wish to develop interests in greater depth, and explore their theoretical foundations and implications. Applicants will normally be expected to have a First Class or a high 2.1 B.A. Honours degree (or the equivalent) in a modern European language (other than English) related to at least one of the areas of study of the M.Phil., although applicants with good degrees in other subjects will be considered on their merits, as long as they have a high level of knowledge and fluency in at least one of the relevant foreign language areas. Applicants have to submit an extended essay (c. 2-4000 words), in English, on a topic relevant to the areas covered by the course, and complete this research proposal. Teaching for the M.Phil is not restricted to comparative studies, nor do applicants have to be proficient in more than one foreign language; they will, however, be able to work in more than one language area should they wish and they should be willing to consider the interdisciplinary implications of their chosen fields of study. No formal linguistic instruction is offered, but students may use the Faculty's Computer-Assisted Language Learning facility and the extensive audio-visual resources of the University Language Centre for self-instruction and improvement in any language. Students may also attend any University lectures they wish, whether offered by Modern and Medieval Languages or any other Faculty.

Alumni
Claire(Durham) - MPhil 1994 - Lecturer in Portuguese at the University of Newcastle 1997/98.
Victoria (Cambridge) - MPhil 1994 - Lecturer in French at St John's College, Cambridge.
Elena (Minsk) - MPhil 1995 - working in Boston and London for international reinsurance company.
Farhad (Buckingham) - MPhil 1995 - Senior Lecturer in English, University of Mauritius.
Zeljka (Zagreb) - MPhil 1996 - awarded Eastern European Bursary and Senior Scholarship by Trinity College, Cambridge, for doctoral research.

Finance

A comprehensive guide to Fees and Funding for current and prospective graduate students can be found on the Faculty's Fees and Funding webpages, and also on the Board of Graduate Studies webpages: www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/gradstud/funding/

Course Content (Core course and Modules)

"The breadth, flexibility and focus upon individual freedom of this course are its great merits. Anything you want to study you can - a brilliant advantage for comparatists and adventurous thinkers."
Ashley (Cambridge), MPhil 2000

CORE COURSE (obligatory)

The areas of study consist of a Core Course in Critical Theory and a series of Modules.

Critical Theory
The course offers an overview of central aspects of modern literary/cultural theory together with the chance to study in depth the work of two theorists or movements. The overview is provided in the form of a series of eight lectures running throughout the first term which aims to introduce the major issues and show how they can be applied to the reading of literature, whilst the in-depth view takes the form of eight mini seminar courses, four in the first half of term and four in the second half, from which students choose one for each half of term.

The overview course covers the following areas: Structuralist Linguistics and Literary Theory; Russian Formalism and Bakhtin; Psychoanalysis; Deconstruction; Feminism; Queer Theory; Postcolonialism/Postmodernism. (see www.mml.cam.ac.uk/gradstudies/eurolit/current/cc_lectures.html

The in-depth seminar courses available in 2004/05 are: Postmodern theories of translation; Nietzsche; Feminism; Subjectivity and Subjectivation; Lacan; Foucault and de Certeau; Umberto Eco and Postcolonial Theory. (see www.mml.cam.ac.uk/gradstudies/eurolit/current/cc_seminars.html

MODULES (any two to be chosen):

Interdisciplinary
- The History of the Book, 1450 - 1650
- Marginality in the Nineteenth Century
- The Modern City

French
- Vision and Illusion in French medieval texts
- Knowledge and Experience: from Rabelais to Rousseau
- Cultural History and 19th-Century French Literature
- Modern and Contemporary French and Francophone Culture: Articulations of the Real
link to French 'Pathway'

German
- The literature of courtliness: instruction, institution, ideology
- The Concept of Enlightenment: History and Theory from Leibniz to Habermas
- Memory and Subjectivity in the German Novel

Greek
- Myth and history in Modern Greek literature

Hispanic
- Gender, Sexuality and Society in Iberian and Latin-American Culture
- Authority and Text in the Iberian Peninsula
- The Cinema of Pedro Almod�var

Latin America
- Topics in Latin American Culture
- Latin American Film (and Visual Arts)

Italian
- Dante: Experiment and Exegesis
- Women and Writing in Italy - 1530-1650
- Narrative, history and Representation in Modern Italian Culture
- New Commitments: Italian Film and Ideology from Pasolini to Marco Tullio Giordana


Student Guide

See the list of closing dates for applications at the top of this page. Prospective students should check funding deadlines, however and ensure that applications reach the Board of Graduate Studies in good time.

Contacts

Academic queries should be directed to the Course Director for the MPhil Dr Ian James

Administrative queries on the course, general information or admissions enquiries should be directed to the Graduate Studies Administrator, Ms Siobhán Carew

tel: +44 (0)1223 335044 | fax: +44 (0)1223 335062

Please choose the Contacts link on the main gradstudies navigation bar for greater detail on graduate contacts at MML.

 

 

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