7AAGM205 Guided Reading & Research Module
Module credits: 20 credits
Module tutor: Professor Robert Weninger
Supervisors: Various
This module is intended to allow students to pursue guided independent research in an area of their choosing and that is not covered in the options in the MA in German and Comparative Literature.
The educational objectives of the module are to guide students in the acquisition of the skills, theoretical frameworks and methodologies for independent research at graduate level.
It is particularly aimed at students who wish to embark on a new area of study, or combine this with knowledge and skills already acquired. Students who aim to continue to PhD research will be guided in research skills, which will be further complemented by their dissertation. Unlike the dissertation, this module is taught through weekly meetings with an assigned tutor. These one-to-one tutorials based on the student’s reading and research will provide the means of developing strong skills of written and oral presentation of their work; they will also encourage an analytical and self-critical approach, as well as a willingness to look at a wide range of sources for the understanding of German literature within a comparative literary context. Written work (one unassessed essay and one assessed essay) will provide training in the scholarly presentation of their work. Students will also be expected to present their work to the German Department’s Research Seminar as a means of developing skills in the presentation of their research to a wider audience.
The area of study will be chosen in consultation with the Postgraduate Tutor and the supervisor, and will be approved by the Board of Examiners for the MA/MRes in German and Comparative Literature. Subjects chosen might include such comparative topics as:
-
Archi-Textures of Modernity: The Great City in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature
-
Concrete Poetry and/as Visual Art from the Baroque to Modernity
-
The Postmodern Novel
-
The Third Reich: Its Aftermath in European Literature
-
Poems–Poets–Poetics: Poetry and Poets’ Theories of Poetry from 1800 to the Present
Students will be provided with a preliminary bibliography, but it will be the responsibility of the student to create an up-to-date bibliography of primary and secondary sources, and - in the course of the module and with the guidance of the supervisor - of relevant theoretical readings.