The course consists of three obligatory modules.
Module
1.
Degree Thesis, 15 ECTS-credits
The course starts with a study of the literary research process, including the choice of topic, research question, methodology or theoretical approach, search for secondary sources, outline and the actual craft of academic writing. The student then carries out an independent literary study of a well-defined and limited problem area which is directly connected to English literature in English. The study is presented in the form of an independently written essay of about 20-25 pages (5,000-6,000 words). The course also consists of practice in the oral presentation and defence of the student’s own results and arguments, as well as of analyses of other students’ work.
2.
Literature and Theory, 7.5 ECTS-credits
The course consists of a selection of contemporary literary works from the English-speaking world, which are studied from the perspective of number of modern and postmodern cultural and theoretical schools of thought, such as liberal humanism, structuralism, poststructuralism, deconstruction, postmodernism, feminism/gender theory, Marxism, psychoanalysis and ecocriticism.
3.
Irish Literature and Postcolonialism, 7.5 ECTS-credits
The course consists of the study of a selection of Irish literary and cultural texts from the 16th century to the 1940s. The texts will be read from the viewpoint of the historical and cultural context of their occurrence, and different post-colonial terms and theories will be used whenever they prove relevant to the interpretation of the literary texts.
