MA and MRes Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages)
This document outlines possible pathways and exit degrees available on Birkbeck’s MA/MRes Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages), including:
- MA/MRes Comparative Literature
- MA/MRes French Studies
- MA/MRes German Studies
- MA/MRes Iberian and Latin American Studies
- MA/MRes Italian Studies
- MA/MRes Japanese Studies
- MA/MRes Portuguese and Brazilian Studies
- MA/MRes Spanish and Latin American Studies.
You can read more about our particular areas of research and teaching and the academics who may be teaching and supervising you.
MA/MRes Comparative Literature
Comparative Literature at Birkbeck offers you the opportunity to engage critically with the study of French-, German-, Italian-, Japanese-, Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking cultures. We welcome students able to work in these languages, but you may work exclusively in English.
You will develop your understanding of key critical concepts associated with the comparative study of literature and cultures – eg literary history and the canon, genre, theme, influence, intertextuality and translation across genre and media– and consider historical developments affecting the way we think about literature in comparative terms – eg postcolonial reconfigurations of principles of comparativity. You will be given practical experience of working with these concepts and exploring the issues they raise. You will then examine questions of criticism and culture in a comparative context while focusing on the literature of one or more language-speaking areas.
In addition, you can also explore comparative literature in the context of a variety of different historical, philosophical or medial frameworks – eg in relation to comparative developments in the fields of film studies or in the visual arts.
The MA and MRes in Comparative Literature are offered as pathways of the MA Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages) and the MRes Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages). In order to be awarded a degree that reflects a specialisation in Comparative Literature, assessment for at least 90 credits of the degree must be related to the area reflected in the degree title.
Associated faculty:
Mari Paz Balibrea
Jean Braybrook
Damian Catani
Nicolette David
Peter Damrau
Carmen Fracchia
John Kraniauskas
Akane Kawakami
Joanne Leal
Ann Lewis
Luciana Martins
Eckard Michels
María Elena Placencia
Anna Richards
Patricia Sequeira Bras
Martin Shipway
Luís Trindade
John Walker
Alexander Weber
Nathalie Wourm.
MA/MRes French Studies
French Studies at Birkbeck range widely in terms of time (from the Renaissance to the present day and the extrême contemporain), space (colonialism and decolonisation in Asia and Africa, and Japan's relationship with French culture and literature are major concerns), genre (poetry of different periods, drama, text and image, film, photography, travel narratives and exoticism, official discourse, philosophical works, polemical writing, and contemporary fiction – including a monograph on Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano now in its second edition) and what one might term the emotional spectrum (from the humour of Noël du Fail and Louis-Ferdinand Céline on the one hand, to tears and sensibility on the other, encountering on the way questions of reception and reader-response), while moral concerns are always borne in mind (evil and ethics).
These diverse concerns feed into the Birkbeck Research in Aesthetics of Kinship and Community (BRAKC), which was co-founded and is co-directed by an academic in French studies. An innovative research centre, it focuses on kinship and community in the arts and humanities, generating international conferences, screenings and symposia and forging links with Denmark, France, Malta, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.
The founding director of a newer research centre, the Centre for Comparative Research in European Cultures and Identities (CRECI), is also a French expert. This centre is currently developing its agenda in response to the incessant metamorphoses of the European cultural space. In all areas of research, French studies at Birkbeck demonstrate a commitment to transcultural and interdisciplinary issues and acute historical, theoretical and ethical awareness.
The MA and MRes in French Studies are offered as pathways of the MA Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages) and the MRes Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages). In order to be awarded a degree that reflects a specialization in French Studies, assessment for at least 90 credits of the degree must be related to the area reflected in the degree title.
Associated faculty:
Jean Braybrook
Damian Catani
Akane Kawakami
Ann Lewis
Martin Shipway
Nathalie Wourm.
MA/MRes German Studies
German studies at Birkbeck range widely, encompassing the following strands: devotional literature of the seventeenth century and feminist approaches to women’s writing of the eighteenth century; philosophy, the history of ideas, rhetoric, theology and women’s writing from the eighteenth century to the present; critical theory, especially psychoanalysis and gender; cultural studies;nineteenth- and twentieth-century drama; the novel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the representation of significant social issues in the contemporary German novel, including migration, social exclusion and Islamophobia, as well as animals and animal rights in contemporary women's writing; German and Austrian modernism; Weimar culture; twentieth-century military and diplomatic German history; Franco-German cultural and political relations; film studies, with special emphasis on gender and sexuality in New German Cinema of the 1970s, as well as more recent cinematic developments.
The MA and MRes in German Studies are offered as pathways of the MA Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages) and the MRes Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages). In order to be awarded a degree that reflects a specialization in German Studies, assessment for at least 90 credits of the degree must be related to the area reflected in the degree title.
Associated faculty:
Nicolette David
Peter Damrau
Joanne Leal
Eckard Michels
Anna Richards
John Walker
Alexander Weber.
MA/MRes Iberian and Latin American Studies
Iberian and Latin American studies at Birkbeck offers advanced study in the histories of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American cultures in the light of contemporary theoretical developments in the fields of literature, linguistics, cultural studies, cultural geography, film, urban studies and the history of art and media. You will also consider key questions in cultural theory and criticism, interdisciplinary approaches to cultural forms and media (particularly literature, painting, film, photography, and urban spaces), intercultural communication and contemporary cultural politics with particular emphasis on state-forms.
The Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies, (CILAVS), is closely associated with the MA/MRes, offering you opportunities to participate in its research activities. You can specialise in either Spanish and Latin American Studies or Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, as well as in different historical periods and media, or combine your interests.
The MA and MRes in Iberian and Latin American Studies are offered as pathways of the MA Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages) and the MRes Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages). In order to be awarded a degree that reflects a specialization in Iberian and Latin American Studies, assessment for at least 90 credits of the degree must be related to the area reflected in the degree title.
Associated faculty:
Mari Paz Balibrea
Carmen Fracchia
John Kraniauskas
Luciana Martins
María Elena Placencia
Patricia Sequeira Bras
Luís Trindade.
MA/MRes Italian Studies
Italian studies at Birkbeck encompass two major strands: modern Italian culture and Dante from a psychoanalytic perspective. We are particularly focused on all aspects of modern Italian culture. Lecturers have expertise in Dante, nineteenth-century literature, the twentieth-century novel, the theatre of the absurd, the contemporary Italian novel, and Italian film, from neorealism to the work of contemporary filmmakers. Our research interests include critical theory, with a particular focus on psychoanalysis, gender and sexuality.
The MA and MRes in Italian Studies are offered as pathways of the MA Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages) and the MRes Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages). In order to be awarded a degree that reflects a specialization in Italian Studies, assessment for at least 90 credits of the degree must be related to the area reflected in the degree title.
Associated faculty:
Damian Catani
Nicolette David
Akane Kawakami
Joanne Leal.
MA/MRes Japanese Studies
Japanese studies at Birkbeck strongly focuses on contemporary Japanese culture and society and staff interests include performing and visual arts, manga, anime, film, and other forms of experimental and popular culture – we particularly welcome applications in these areas.
Alongside our modules, we regularly organise film screenings, conferences, workshops, and talks by internationally renowned scholars, artists, film-makers, art curators, professionals in creative industries, cultural entrepreneur and cultural/educational policymakers. In addition, our location in Bloomsbury, central London, means you can easily access Japanese-related exhibits and talks at world-famous institutions. Recently, our staff have spoken at theatre and film events at the Tate Modern and the Barbican Centre and at a manga event at the British Museum.
The MA and MRes in Japanese Studies are offered as pathways of the MA Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages) and the MRes Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages). In order to be awarded a degree that reflects a specialization in Japanese Studies, assessment for at least 90 credits of the degree must be related to the area reflected in the degree title.
MA/MRes Portuguese and Brazilian Studies
Portuguese and Brazilian studies at Birkbeck offer a unique approach, with a strong visual and historical focus including Portugal, Brazil and Portuguese-speaking Africa, as well as the intense cultural relations established between these areas and other parts of the world in different historical contexts. You can also combine the study of Hispanic and Lusophone cultures.
Portuguese studies have a strong focus on the relations between film, history and politics. Our approach privileges modern cinema – from the 1960s onwards – and analyses historical contexts through the evolution of film genres and formal innovation. Thus, you will have the opportunity to improve your skills in film analysis, to engage with Portuguese modern history – including colonial and postcolonial relations – and to reflect on the position and status of politics in film.
Postgraduate Brazilian studies at Birkbeck explore key features of the Brazilian image world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines the ways in which modern visual technologies supported the documentation of peoples and landscapes as they became increasingly enmeshed within the circuits of industrial capitalism. Thinking through image-making as a process of visual production within both national and international contexts provides you with a nuanced understanding of the nature of cultural cross-fertilization, the complexity of networks of contact and exchange, and the uneven global experience of modernity.
The Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS) is closely associated with the MA/MRes, offering you opportunities to participate in its research activities.
The MA and MRes in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies are offered as pathways of the MA Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages) and the MRes Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages). In order to be awarded a degree that reflects a specialization in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, assessment for at least 90 credits of the degree must be related to the area reflected in the degree title.
Associated faculty:
Luciana Martins
Patricia Sequeira Bras
Luís Trindade.
MA/MRes Spanish and Latin American Studies
Spanish and Latin American studies allow you to explore critical issues in Spanish and Latin American cultural histories, as well as to specialise in any one of the regions studied or in visual, literary or urban culture. You will also be introduced to key questions in cultural theory and criticism, interdisciplinary approaches to cultural forms and media (particularly literature, philosophy, painting, film and urban studies), intercultural communication and socio-pragmatics and contemporary cultural politics. You can also combine the study of Hispanic and Lusophone cultures.
The Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS)is closely associated with the MA/MRes, offering you opportunities to participate in its research activities.
The MA and MRes in Spanish and Latin American Studies are offered as pathways of the MA Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages) and the MRes Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages). In order to be awarded a degree that reflects a specialization in Spanish and Latin American Studies, assessment for at least 90 credits of the degree must be related to the area reflected in the degree title.
Associated faculty:
Mari Paz Balibrea
Carmen Fracchia
John Kraniauskas
María Elena Placencia.