Course description
Programme description
- Expertise in Greek literature from the 12th century to the present, in a national and an international perspective; modern Greek sociolinguistics; modern Greek history, and the construction of modern Greek identities.
- The holdings of King’s Burrows Library of Modern Greek Studies (at the Maughan Library) are among the strongest outside Greece
- Top rated research (5* in RAE 2001) and teaching (24/24 in QAA Subject Review 2001)
The programme comprises three taught modules and a dissertation of up to 10,000 words. Modules may be chosen from the following, subject to availability: Advanced Modern Greek; Language, Identity & Culture; Linguistic Analysis of Modern Greek Narrative; Linguistic Approaches to Narrative Analysis; Practical Criticism; Greek Poetry in the 20th Century; Cavafy Reader and Read; The Greek Novel & its Influence, 1st to 21st Centuries; From Unification to Integration: Greece, 1910-1940; Greece in the 1940s: a Nation in Crisis.
Subject to the approval of your tutor and the teaching staff concerned, any one of the above may be replaced by one of:
-A module from the Late Antique & Byzantine Studies MA;
-A module in modern Balkan or Ottoman history or anthropology at the School of Slavonic & East European Studies, the School of Oriental & African Studies or Birkbeck College;
-A module from another MA degree taught on the credit system at King's, subject to the requirement of academic coherence.
Pathways
Students may opt to specialise in: Language & Linguistics; Literature; History.
Programme format and assessment
Three taught and optional modules assessed by coursework and/or examination plus a compulsory dissertation which accounts for 25 per cent of the total marks.
Programme modules for MA Modern Greek Studies
Advanced Modern Greek
The module aims to enhance the linguistic skills of intermediate-to-advanced learners, especially their responsiveness to texts in different registers; comprehension; and the theory and practice of translation from Greek to English. It involves practical translation work combined with presentation and discussion of aspects of Greek-English contrastive analysis.
Dissertation
A dissertation on an approved topic to be chosen by the student, of approximately 10,000 words in length. A dissertation supervisor will be assigned according to the topic.
From unification to integration: Greece, c.1910-40
The module examines in detail the completion of the national unification process and key political, economic and social issues of inter-war Greece in the context of the National Schism and the integration of new lands and populations.
Greece in the 1940s: A nation in crisis
The module examines in detail the political, social and economic history of Greece from the outbreak of the Second World War to the conclusion of the Greek civil war in late 1949.
Greek Poetry in the 20th century
The module will examine in depth both shorter and longer poems written between 1900 and the 1990s, with particular reference to the constraints and possibilities which arise from a) the historical and political context and b) poetic form. All texts will be studied in the original language.
Greek Prose Fiction since the 1830s
The history and development of the novel and the short story in Greece, from the early years of independence to the present, are examined through a variety of fictional texts. Themes include literary history, the controversy over the Greek language; national identity; the implicit 'poetics' and practical techniques of writing.
Practical Criticism
The course offers an introduction to the close reading of a wide range of Modern Greek literary texts, including verse and prose, evenly distributed between the periods before and after 1922, with a view to cultivating the student's openness, alertness, accuracy, and discrimination in literary criticism.
Duration
One year FT, two years PT, September to September.
