University of Edinburgh

Students develop a knowledge and understanding of contemporary approaches to critical theory, taken to include both theoretical and methodological reflection on the object, nature and forms of literary study, and broader questions about the relationship between aesthetic and social enquiry. Applicants deepen their knowledge and understanding of selected themes and topics in a way that enables them to select and execute an independent piece of research; develop a familiarity with a range of approaches to the theory of criticism, along with an informed understanding of some of the ways in which such approaches have been conceptualised and practiced by scholars, past and present; gain a grasp of the methodological issues and problems of literary and cultural research and analysis.