MA Medieval and Renaissance Studies: The University of Manchester

MA Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Pathway of MA European Languages & Cultures)

Course description

The MA Medieval and Renaissance European Studies pathway offers students with a first degree in a modern European language or languages the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of medieval and renaissance languages and cultures, encompassing French, Spanish, and Italian cultures.

Through taught courses and directed reading course units, it offers specialist training in manuscript studies, vernacular languages, Romance lyric and epic forms, as well as specific study of Islamic Spain, Dante, and Cervantes. The opportunity also exist to explore the relationship between modern literary and cultural theories and medieval and renaissance literature.

The MA provides a thorough grounding in key critical and theoretical approaches common to literary and cultural studies, and makes students conversant with the methods of scholarly research in the humanities, and with the resources necessary for that research.

Module details

The MA comprises:

• Research Methods I and II (30 credits)
• Optional course units (90 credits)
• a dissertation (60 credits)

Students on the MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies will normally include Critical Concepts I and Critical Concepts II among their options.

Optional course units typically include:

• The Medieval Saint: Iberia 600-1500
• Bodies of Mystery and Imagination: Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Medieval and Renaissance France
• Sex, Lies and Rhetoric: the Book of Celestina
• Dante: Morality, Politics, Justice
• Reading Troilus and Criseyde: Text and Textual Afterlives
• Boccaccio's Decameron and Medieval Meaning Making
• Material and Textual Cultures

Entry requirements

Entry qualification overview: The normal requirement for admission to the MA is an Upper Second class Honours degree, or higher, or its overseas equivalent, in a suitable Humanities discipline.

English language: Students whose first language is not English require an overall IELTS score of 7.0 with 7.0 in the writing component or TOEFL 600 (paper-based test), 250 (computer-based test) or 100 (internet-based test).