MA Comparative Literature

The dissertation is a core component of all Masters programmes at SOAS. The supervised dissertation research requires the ability to work independently on an original piece of research, to demonstrate familiarity with the relevant literature and present the resulting dissertation in a clear and organised format. The research and writing of the Masters dissertation is a crucial component of Research-based Masters training. The dissertation has a 10,000 word limit and counts for 33% of the overall degree. For details on presentation and submission dates, see the Postgraduate Taught Masters Handbook.

This module aims to introduce students to the major debates and topics in the fields of Comparative Literature. It aims to develop critical understandings of the field and its place alongside other theoretical approaches to the study of literature.

This module will continue the work from Comparative Literature: Methodology and Critique, although it is its own free-standing module. In this term, the focus will be on the various cutting edges of the field. To accommodate this, the module will be updated every year, but example topics might include themes such as: decolonization, queer theory; intermediality; and digital humanities.

This module outlines the development of African Philosophy in the 20th century, a discourse that hinges on the following questions: does philosophy exist in Africa? What are the specific qualities that distinguish it from Western philosophy? We will survey the trends in African philosophical thought classified under the rubrics of ethnophilosophy", "nationalist-ideological philosophy", "sage philosophy", and "professional philosophy", and discuss specific concepts with philosophical reference or resonance, such as race, time, but also development or art. Several classes will be devoted to influential contemporary philosophers, in particular Paulin Hountondji, Kwame Anthony Appiah, V.-Y. Mudimbe, Henry Odera Oruka, and Kwasi Wiredu."

This module will introduce students to postcolonial literary studies through two key conceptions of identity: race and gender. The module will engage with the contemporary postcolonial novel (to be updated yearly), as it engenders critical insight into race and racism, gender and sexual identity and their intersections. It will introduce students to the vocabulary of critical race and gender theories as well as intersectionality as part of the development of literary analytic and critical reading skills. At the end of the module, students will be proficient in literary analysis and have a familiarity with key concepts in postcolonial studies.

The module gives students a good general introduction to Contemporary African Literature(s) and to demonstrate to them some of the ways in which creative writing in the form of prose narratives, the novel, poetry, drama, etc help create an understanding of the socio-cultural, economic and political issues that define life and existence on the African continent and its diaspora. The module is also meant to help encourage students develop critical and analytical skills that move away from dominant Eurocentric and Western perspectives and to present the teaching, researching, understanding and analysis of Africa from African-centred perspectives.

This module discusses the question how language is related to the conceptions of identity and society in the African context. The module offers different perspectives on the relation between language and identity, and on the dynamics of language use in Africa.

This course offers an exploration of the formation of diasporas and their cultural politics. It looks at how diasporic subjectivities are formed through gendered aesthetic practices and performances, which can take on and signify religious, cultural, political meanings, which are in turn constantly negotiated, hybridised and re-fashioned across bodies, times and spaces.

How might we understand art as a site of politics?  In this module we consider how visual artists and art collectives have taken positions on political change in Africa since the early twentieth century, spanning from anti-colonial resistance and the struggle against apartheid to the Arab Spring and Rhodes Must Fall movement.  Through case studies ranging from early portrait photography in West Africa to recent live art protests, we think through aesthetic approaches to the political.

This module introduces history, theory and methodology in the study of Taiwan cinema through examining key works by major filmmakers from Taiwan and the Chinese diaspora as well as the socio-cultural condition of their production, distribution, exhibition and consumption. Special attention will be paid to issues such as the construction of local and national identities through film, national film historiography, as well as mainstream and alternative film practices.

This module offers a textual and contextual survey of modern Chinese literature, exploring seminal literary works in connection with key political movements.

The module is designed to offer a critical overview of Chinese cinema, and its progression from the beginning to the present day. It will be looking at how actors and directors are involved in the industry.

This module will introduce students to the growing field of world literature. It will broadly survey contemporary theoretical discussions in the field through two major entry points: language and translation and movement and identity.

This module offers a thorough grounding in the origins and development of Cultural Studies as a field, as well as an exploration of the various methodologies employed in the study of cultural production, the media, and the construction of every-day life. The works of key thinkers and practitioners in the field will be examined, alongside their use of critical lenses including identity, race, ideology, power, class, and representation, as well as questions of institutionalisation and disciplinarity. The module aims to test the applicability of these theories and approaches in the contexts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as well as diasporic situations.

This module builds on the insights gained in Cultural Studies: Origins, Development, Methodologies, by focusing explicitly on the ongoing development of Cultural Studies as a field in specifically non-Western contexts. It investigates the evolution of the field's critical mission and its originary focus on the cultural distribution of power, and the ethical, moral and political questions raised by that focus. It does so by offering a series of key case studies drawing on cutting-edge work in, from and on the cultures of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as their diasporas around the world, and invites students to work and learn collaboratively and experientially, putting their analytical insights to use in novel and ground-breaking ways.

This module explores in an interdisciplinary fashion theoretical interrogations of relationships of power, domination and resistance in the context of imperialism and colonialism in the modern period (late nineteenth-century to the present). A range of literary and filmic works from Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, the Caribbean and diaspora will inform engagement with postcolonial theoretical texts relevant to the concepts underpinning colonial and decolonial representation and practice, such as empire, colony, nation, race, indigeneity, class, gender, sexuality, and the 'sublatern'. These will address the intersection between epistomology and structures and power, and how this is manifest in literary and cultural expressions, representations of colonialism and decolonisation, neo-colonialism, allowing us to explore the heterogeneous meanings, intersections and strategies of analysis that have emerged with reference to postcolonial studies.

This module examines themes and notions of 'modernity' in the Korean cultural context, through a syllabus which considers issues surrounding representation, identity, landscape and memory in Korean literature and film. It aims to provide students with the skills to read, analyse and understand Korean literary works and films against past and present socio-historical contexts and critical discourses.

The module examines modern and contemporary Japanese fictional works across literature and popular culture. The texts and audiovisual sources (manga, anime) selected all offer alternative visions of Japan, challenging notions of a supposedly homogeneous and monolithic modern country. Through careful analyses of primary sources, the module reflects on fictional representations of peripheral identities in literature, such as rural communities, social, ethnic, and cultural minorities, but also on the representations and consumptions of popular media related to so-called “subcultures”, including manga and animation as well as their fandom.

This module introduces students to some of the most prominent themes of East Asian mythology. From mythical culture bearers and warring monkey kings to mischievous fox spirits and perfidy sensing goats, we will examine the origins of various myths, their sources and evolution over time, as well as their historical and cultural significance.

The module is designed to offer a critical overview of Japanese cinema, and its progression from the beginning to the present day. It will look at how actors and directors are involved in the industry.

In this module, selections of Palestinian writings in different genres will be read and analysed as exemplars of literary responses to a situation of alienation and displacement, with particular focus on tradition and innovation, the construction and maintenance of identity, coping strategies and the evolving social function of literature in the context of the current conflict.

The module is a supervised independent study in a language of study which is taught in the School of Languages Cultures and Linguistics. Students with advanced language skills will have the opportunity to explore readings in a language based on a specific area of interest (e.g. literature, history, film, linguistics, culture). Students will be asked to choose and develop an independent study in their language of study with the help of a supervisor. At the end of the module, student will gain a deeper knowledge of their chosen subject as well as hone and develop their language skill. This module requires students to have intermediate to advanced level language skills in one of the department’s languages. A suitable programme of readings in the relevant language will be agreed in consultation between the supervisor and the student to match the interests and abilities of the student. Anyone wishing to take a Directed Readings module should contact the relevant convenor and identify a potential supervisor well in advance to discuss the feasibility of their proposed topic.

The module will offer a survey of films from the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, and Israel, as well as an overview of the historical development of film in the region and a grounding in the socio-cultural contexts in which films have been produced. Films will be analysed aesthetically, with an awareness of multiple aspects of film technique, and meanings will be interrogated through a number of interdisciplinary and theoretical prisms.

This is a course on culture in contemporary South Asia that highlights the multiple forms, languages, and avenues of cultural production; the relationship between local, national, and transnational/global domains; and the remix and reuse of older repertoires and forms in contemporary situations. During the first half of the term the course will introduce key elements of cultural theory and their application to South Asian contexts and materials and problematise the notion of national culture, while noting the ways in which nation-states in South Asia produce and broadcast particular cultural models. During the second half of the term the course will focus on challenges to and complications of these models through instances of cultural and political activism, changing concepts of 'legitimate language', and non-state media production.

The module will examine an array of examples and forms of resistance literature from South Asia, and may include anticolonial, Dalit, feminist and LGBTQ narratives, political satire and protest literatures, across both prose and poetry.

This module will examine the key issues pertaining to the representation of war, revolution and independence in a selection of literary works in English translation by South East Asian authors. The module will encourage the critical appreciation of literary works, which range from poetry to novels and short stories.

The module will examine key issues pertaining to the representation of genders and sexualities in a selection of films made by South East Asian filmmakers.

The module is a supervised independent study in a language of study which is taught in the School of Languages Cultures and Linguistics. Students with advanced language skills will have the opportunity to explore readings in a language based on a specific area of interest (e.g. literature, history, film, linguistics, culture). Students will be asked to choose and develop an independent study in their language of study with the help of a supervisor. At the end of the module, student will gain a deeper knowledge of their chosen subject as well as hone and develop their language skill. This module requires students to have intermediate to advanced level language skills in one of the department’s languages. A suitable programme of readings in the relevant language will be agreed in consultation between the supervisor and the student to match the interests and abilities of the student. Anyone wishing to take a Directed Readings module should contact the relevant convenor and identify a potential supervisor well in advance to discuss the feasibility of their proposed topic.

This module will introduce students to postcolonial literary studies through two key conceptions of identity: race and gender. The module will engage with the contemporary postcolonial novel (to be updated yearly), as it engenders critical insight into race and racism, gender and sexual identity and their intersections. It will introduce students to the vocabulary of critical race and gender theories as well as intersectionality as part of the development of literary analytic and critical reading skills. At the end of the module, students will be proficient in literary analysis and have a familiarity with key concepts in postcolonial studies.

This module will introduce students to the growing field of world literature. It will broadly survey contemporary theoretical discussions in the field through two major entry points: language and translation and movement and identity.