The MSt in the main master's course in Classical literature and the one which the faculty recommends unless there are particular reasons for preferring the MPhil in Greek and/or Latin Languages and Literature.
The majority of students take the course as preparation for a research degree, and for such students it might offer, for instance, linguistic training; the opportunity to become acquainted with an ancillary discipline such as papyrology or palaeography; engagement with a particular author's texts at a deeper level; and a first introduction, via the dissertation, to extended research and the extended presentation of a scholarly argument.
You will undertake three modular options, one of which must be from lists B or C. Most students offer a dissertation (option D) as one of those three options, although this is not compulsory.
List A comprises a choice of options on genres, authors or groups of texts, eg historiography, Greek tragedy, comedy, Cicero, Ovid. You may also devise your own option, subject to approval of your set of texts. List B comprises a range of options on methods and techniques of scholarship, eg papyrology, palaeography, reception, linguistics, and textual criticism.
List C comprises language options in Ancient Greek and Latin, for those who have not studied both languages to a high level in the course of their first degree. Only one language option may be taken. Language classes are available in Greek and Latin at both elementary and intermediate levels. Option D comprises a dissertation of up to 10,000 words.
The scheduling of the options depends on the choices you make, but typically you will work particularly on your first two options in the first two terms and particularly on your dissertation in the third. See further on ‘Assessment’ below.’
There is the possibility of specialising in reception across the course, by choosing the reception module and by working on reception topics in the text option, though you will still sit a translation exam as detailed below.
All students attend a class on research techniques in Classical literature, extending over two to three terms. This looks at aspects of Classical scholarship and its history, and includes direct viewing of papyri, manuscripts, vases, and other resources in Oxford. In the second and third term considerable attention is paid to presentational skills, as the students deliver papers of their own to each other.
Though there are numerous classes and seminars, most of your time will be spent on self-directed study.
