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Programme first year courses cycle 36
The course "Theories and Methods in Literary and Cultural Studies" aims to provide the theoretical and methodological tools necessary for study and research in the field of literature and culture, with particular attention to the concepts of text, narrative and narrativity, poetic structures and forms, and literary genres. Part of the course will of course be devoted to critical theories, with particular emphasis on those that are most relevant today in the English-speaking world, from New Historicism to post-colonial criticism, from theories of multiculturalism to reflection on the intertwining of the study of national literatures and the category of "world literature". Finally, some lectures in the course will focus on the nature and impact of Digital Humanities on the study of literary and cultural phenomena. On the other hand, the course "Theories and Methods in Linguistics and Translation Studies" covers the other major thematic and disciplinary area of the PhD and aims to provide PhD students with a reflection on the following critical and methodological practices: Discourse analysis, Critical discourse analysis, Stylistic approaches to the variety of textual typologies and Linguistic analysis of the literary text: the course also offers reflection on diachronic paths: history of the English language, historical pragmatics, sociolinguistics, dialectal varieties of the English language in synchronic and diachronic perspective, translation studies: translation theory and practice (applied to various text types, literary and non-literary, audiovisual, specialist), translation history. The seminar "Writing the research paper; writing an advanced dissertation proposal" is intended to give PhD students the opportunity to improve their writing skills in English, both in terms of relatively short papers (research paper, conference paper proposal) and in terms of rewriting their dissertation proposal. The course will also provide information on how to make better use of IT tools both for your own research and to improve the quality, fluency and formal accuracy of your papers.
Method of choosing the subject of the thesis
The proposal drawn up by the doctoral student during admission to the course is the subject of repeated meetings with the tutors from Sapienza and the partner university, who are assigned to the doctorate as soon as its admission has been formalised. At the end of the first year, the project is submitted to the entire college, which will have the right to approve it, or approve it with reservations, requesting the appropriate changes.
Admission to the second year
In addition to the updated drafting of the thesis project (see above) and to passing with an average grade of B+ (using the evaluation grid in use in the Anglo-Saxon world: A for Excellent, B+ for Very Good; B for Good, C+ Fair; C Sufficient) the planned courses, the doctoral student will have to pass a Qualifying Exam on a list of both primary and secondary texts, considered fundamental both for his/her training in general and, in particular, for the proposed research project
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