Course description
Masters course
Our course offers the opportunity for students to develop and follow their own academic interests while at the same time providing the research training skills necessary for further study, such as that leading to a PhD. We also deliver an unparalleled introduction to all aspects of medieval and renaissance study through the core course. The University of Glasgow has remarkable strengths in medieval and renaissance studies and can offer a range of subjects very rarely studied at this level in other universities. We are particularly proud of the unparalleled range of languages on offer, including medieval Latin, Old English, Old Icelandic, medieval Welsh, Old Irish, Old French and Occitan as well as a host of modern languages. We also have outstanding strengths in English, French, Celtic and Scottish studies. We offer specialised training in medieval palaeography and early modern palaeography complemented by viewing sessions of manuscripts in the University’s Special Collections Department. We are also engaged in the study and application of new critical methods for assessing different aspects of medieval cultural production.
How our course works
Our MLitt course is divided into four components. The total weighting for the course is 180 credits, divided as follows:
Study options: 2 x 40 credits
Dissertation: 60 credits
Language: 20 credits
Palaeography: 20 credits
Core course
In the first term, students attend a twice-weekly progamme of lectures and seminars with some occasional extra classes to examine original illuminated manuscripts and incunabula in the Special Collections Department. These sessions are designed to introduce students to key developments in a variety of disciplines within medieval and renaissance studies and to help them select individual study options. In the second term, a variety of lectures and workshops are held focusing on practical aspects of academic discourse, such as research and documentation methods, essay writing, and presentational skills.
Optional courses
Option essays may be taken in subject areas offered by contributing departments following consultation with the MLitt convener and the potential supervisor just before the Christmas vacation. The work for the study option essays is conducted in the second term. One option essay is combined with an oral presentation element.
We can offer expert supervision in a very wide range of subjects. To illustrate this, we have included a selection of essay and dissertation titles from the previous two years’ intake:
“Th’end is every tales strengthe”: unfinished narrative in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
A Lacanian approach to medieval masculinity
A study of court life in Béroul’s Tristan et Iseut and Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialum
Allusion to illusion: discerning emblems in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta
An analysis of Carolingian and Ottonian relations with the Church
An analysis of Dhuoda’s Liber manualis in relation to religion, education, and aristrocratic family roles in Carolingian Europe
Developments in Old English textbook production and their influence on student learners
Getting under the skin of Suibhne Geilt: Shape, skin and surface in Buile Suibhne
Hieronymus Bosch and the reinvention of the hellish
Hunting Caravaggio’s feminine forms: “The Martyrdom of St Ursula”
Language and national identity in Havelok and Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild
Romanitas in the kingdom of the Britons at Dumbarton Rock
Saracens in C. S. Lewis: comprehending Muslim stereotypes in The Chronicles of Narnia
Select emblems from Alciato’s Emblemata and their connection with Emperor Charles V
Within bounds: the medieval urban house
Palaeography
Students may choose either medieval palaeography or early modern palaeography. The medieval course, taught by colleagues from across the Faculty, provides an introduction to and overview of scripts and documents across the medieval period together with individual transcription sessions to match individual student’s research interests. The early modern course focuses on the ‘secretarial hand’ of Tudor England, but Scottish and Irish hands, ‘court hand’ and various legal hands are also considered. This course is complemented by a session on descriptive bibliography, covering such matters as basic descriptive practices and relationship to textual scholarship and other disciplines.
Language
Students may select a modern, medieval or ancient language to fit best with their own interests. They may join either beginners’ or more advanced classes in Latin or Greek as well as a range of modern languages, and, depending on staff availability, it is normally possible to arrange tuition in a variety of medieval languages including medieval Latin, Old English, Old Icelandic, Old Irish, Old French, Occitan and Old Irish.
Dissertation
Students choose their dissertation topic by the end of the second semester in a subject area offered by contributing departments following detailed consultation with the programme director and the potential supervisor. The dissertation, which is to be submitted by the middle of September, is a piece of work around 12,000–15,000 words in length.
