Greek and/or Latin Languages and Literature (MPhil)

专业详情

The majority of students take the shorter MSt, which the faculty recommends as the default master’s choice in Greek and/or Latin languages and literature. However, the MPhil is often taken by two groups of students and designed with them in mind: those who feel that they would benefit from two more years of taught education in Classics before embarking on a doctorate; and those who have a clear idea of the topic that they hope to research eventually for their doctorate, and who wish to start extensive work on this topic already in their master’s dissertation.

Most students take the course as preparation for a research degree, and for such students it might offer, for instance, linguistic training; the opportunity to become acquainted with an ancillary discipline such as papyrology; engagement with a particular author’s texts at a deeper level; and/or textual criticism of Greek and/or Latin; or, reception studies. The MPhil also offers, through an obligatory dissertation, the first steps in actual research and the extended presentation of a scholarly argument.

You will study three options: a thesis and any two options from lists A and B. You will study one option in your first year and the other in your second year, and will work on your thesis across both years.

List A comprises major literary texts and genres – for example, historiography, lyric poetry, Cicero, Ovid. You may also devise your own option, subject to approval of your set of texts. The core of the teaching for these options is a series of, typically fortnightly, one-on-one sessions with a tutor.

List B comprises more technical subjects such as the textual criticism of Greek or Latin texts, papyrology, comparative philology and reception. These options are delivered in a variety of ways, often by (typically weekly) classes. Intermediate Ancient Greek or Latin may be taken if you have not studied both languages to a high level in the course of your first degree.

There is the possibility of specialising in reception across the course by choosing the Reception module option and working on reception topics in a text/genre option, though you will still sit a translation exam as detailed below.

All MPhil students have the opportunity to attend a wide range of lectures, seminars and talks by visiting speakers. In their first year, they also attend a class on research techniques in Classical literature, extending over two to three terms. This looks at aspects of Classical scholarship and its history, and includes direct viewing of papyri, manuscripts, vases, and other resources in Oxford. In the second and third term considerable attention is paid to presentational skills, as students deliver papers of their own to each other.