Course summary

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2023). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas. The MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation is a nine-month, interdisciplinary course designed to give you critical, theoretical and research expertise in the intersecting fields of comparative and world literature and translation studies. To take the course, you must be able to work with two languages and literatures, out of Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, modern Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish, Turkish, and Urdu. If you are interested in studying two European languages comparatively, you may also wish to apply for the MSt in Modern Languages. The MSt is attached to Oxford’s research centre in Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT) and builds on the recent growth in scholarly awareness of the importance of translation to comparative and world literary study. This is what is meant by ‘critical translation’: not translator training, but rather an interest in the role played by translation and re-writing in literary history, and an alertness to the uses of translation in critical practice. You will be able to participate in the rich research culture of OCCT. This includes the lively postgraduate-led discussion group, regular research seminars and workshops, the public events of Oxford Translation Day, and lectures by the Weidenfeld Visiting Professor in Comparative European Literature (recent incumbents have included Javier Cercas, Ali Smith, Mario Vargas Llosa, Elif Shafak and Umberto Eco). Course structure The MSt is comprised of a core course, two option courses and a dissertation. Alongside the weekly teaching sessions for the core and option courses, you should expect to undertake approximately 30 hours of self-directed study each week. Core course The core course will introduce you to key topics in comparative and world literature and translation studies, and give you the skills needed to develop your own arguments and pursue original research. It is taught by a weekly lecture and seminar in weeks one through six of Michaelmas (autumn) and Hilary (spring) terms. You will give presentations in the seminars (usually twice each term), and write a short practice essay at the end of Michaelmas term: these formative assignments will not affect your degree result. The list below provides an indication of the topics covered in the core course, though please note that it may vary from year to year: histories of comparison theories of comparison worlds of comparison figures genres and forms migration, travel and encounter translation studies and comparative literatures translation and transmediality translation and circulation translingual and multilingual texts untranslatables and universals translational critical practices. For the full description, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas