Classical Studies & Comparative Literature

Course detail Description

This inter-departmental course looks at the comparative study of global literature, with particular attention to the literature and cultures of the classical world. You will research key areas of the topics, and study them from different viewpoints – you will have the opportunity to compare different approaches as well as literary genres, themes and contexts.

The Classical Studies & Comparative Literature BA degree is a three-year course that comprises of modules totalling 360 credits. Each year, you will take modules totalling 120 credits.

Your first year of study will consist of modules covering conceptions, methods and theoretical foundations of Comparative Literature; providing you with a rounded introduction to the subject; developing your analytical skills and introducing you to advanced historical theory and methodology. You will similarly be introduced to foundational concepts and methods in the area of Classical Studies, and will have the opportunity to take Greek and/or Latin language modules at a level appropriate to your prior knowledge.

In the second and third years, you will study further required and optional modules, giving you the freedom to develop a study pathway that reflects your interests. You will also have the opportunity to study abroad in the second semester of the second year or for the whole of your second year.

In your final year, you are required to complete a 10,000-word dissertation on an approved subject of your choice and emphasising self-directed research. The optional modules you will also study will reflect the current research and expertise of staff in the Department, providing you with the opportunity to study specialist subjects in-depth.

Teaching style

We use lectures, seminars and group tutorials to deliver most of the modules on the course. You will also be expected to undertake a significant amount of independent study. You will be assigned a personal tutor who will provide support and guidance for your studies.

Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Assessment

Your performance will be assessed through a combination of coursework and written/practical examinations. Forms of assessment may typically include coursework essays, written examinations and individual or group presentations. In your first year, you will be assessed by an approximately even combination of coursework essays and written examinations. In your second and third years, depending on your choice of modules you may experience more modules assessed by coursework or more modules assessed by written exams or an even mixture of both.

Location

The majority of learning for this degree takes place at the King's College London Strand Campus. Please note that locations are determined by where each module is taught and may vary depending on the optional modules you select.

Special notes

Greek Play

The King’s Greek Play has been an annual tradition since 1953 and it is the only production in the country to be performed every year in the original Greek. Students (with all levels of Greek) participate in the direction, production and performance of the play, bringing to the stage playwrights from Aeschylus to Aristophanes.

Rumble Fund

In 2013 the Department of Classics created the Rumble Fund following a generous donation by a former student. This fund is used each year to pay for a group of students to visit classical lands as part of their degree programme.

Classics Society

Students run the Classics Society, which publishes the Satyrica newsletter and organizes regular lectures, theatre outings, themed parties, private tours around museums, nights out and trips abroad – in recent years, group expeditions have been made to Italy and Turkey.

Iris Project

The department also promotes teaching Latin in disadvantaged primary schools through the Iris Project; this offers students a highly unusual experience that is both enriching and will impress future employers.

Study abroad
You also have the opportunity to study abroad for either the second semester of the second year or for the whole of the second year. Partner institutions currently include:

• University of Auckland
• University of Melbourne
• University of Toronto (Full year only)
• University of California
• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Up to five places exclusively available for Classics students)
• University of Sydney

Find out more about studying abroad

Our students also have opportunities to attend the annual summer schools at the British Schools in Athens and Rome, and participate in archaeological excavations in Greece and Italy, as well as further afield.

Read more

Structure

• Year 1
• Year 2
• Year 3

Year 1 Courses are divided into modules. Each year you will normally take modules totalling 120 credits. Required Modules

Classical Studies

There are no required modules for Classical Studies in Year 1.

Comparative Literature

You are required to take the following 15-credit modules:

• What is Comparative Literature? Conceptions & Methods (15 credits)
• Comparative Literature: Theoretical Foundations (15 credits)

Optional Modules

Classical Studies

You are required to take 60 credits from a wide range of Classics modules (of which up to 30 may be language modules) which may typically include:

• Greek Language 1 (30 credits)
• Greek Language 2 (30 credits)
• Greek Language 3 (30 credits)
• Latin Language 1 (30 credits)
• Latin Language 2 (30 credits)
• Latin Language 3 (30 credits)
• Art & Archaeology of Greece & Rome (30 credits)
• Introduction to Ancient History (c 1200 BC–AD 600) (30 credits)
• Greek & Latin Literature: An Introduction (30 credits)
• Introduction to Ancient Philosophy (30 credits)
• Working with Greek & Latin Literary Texts: An Introduction (30 credits)
• Introduction to Byzantium & Modern Greece: The Greek-Speaking World from 330 AD to Today (15 credits
• Receptions of the Past: The Hellenic World from Antiquity to Today (15 credits)

Comparative Literature

Additionally, you are required to take 30 credits from a range of optional Comparative Literature modules which may typically include:

• The Writer in the Text (15 credits)
• Forms of Shorter Narrative (15 credits)
• Genres of World Literature (15 credits)
• The Novel in 18th Century Europe (15 credits)
• Reading Modern Poetry Comparatively: Greek & English (15 credits)

Year 2 Required Modules

Classical Studies

There are no required modules for Classical Studies in Year 2.

Comparative Literature

You are required to take 30 credits from the following 15 credit modules:

• Literature & Empire (15 credits) and Ideas of Nation (15 credits)
• The Book in the Modern World (15 credits) and The Canon (15 credits)

Optional Modules

Classical Studies

You are required to take 60 credits from a wide range of Classics modules which may typically include:

• Greek Language 1 (30 credits)
• Greek Language 3A (30 credits)
• Latin Language 1 (30 credits)
• Latin Language 3A (30 credits)
• Roman Britain (30 credits)
• Art & Power in the Age of Alexander (Hellenistic Art I) (15 credits)
• Introductory Greek Texts: Prose (15 credits)
• From Sulla to Caesar: the Fall of the Roman Republic (15 credits)
• Early Greece from Troy to Marathon (15 credits)
• Pompeii: History & Society (15 credits)
• Introductory Latin Texts: Prose (15 credits)
• Homer (15 credits)
• Myth & Literature: Ancient Stories, Modern Meanings (15 credits)
• Death in Greek literature (15 credits)
• Virgil’s Aeneid (15 credits)
• The Art of Acquisition: Conquest, Collection & the Rise of Rome (Hellenistic Art II) (15 credits)
• Building Greece (15 credits)
• Constantinople: Imperial Capital – Medieval Metropolis (15 credits)
• Introductory Greek Texts: Verse (15 credits)
• Democracy, Empire & War: Greece 446–338 BC (15 credits)
• The Late Roman World, AD 337–425 (15 credits)
• Introductory Latin Texts: Verse (15 credits)
• Wisdom & the Divine: Ancient Greek Philosophy & Religion (15 credits)
• Ancient Sexuality I (15 credits)
• Ancient Sexuality II (15 credits)
• Latin Lyric Poetry (15 credits)
• The Novels of Nikos Kazantzakis & the Ancient World (15 credits)

Comparative Literature

In addition you are required to take at least 15 credits from a range of optional 15 credit Comparative Literature modules which may typically include:

• Literature & Empire (15 credits)
• Ideas of Nation (15 credits)
• Travel Writing (15 credits)
• The Book in the Modern World (15 credits)
• The Canon (15 credits)
• Writing Africa: Anglophone, Francophone (15 credits)
• Socialism & Literature in China & India in the Twentieth Century (15 credits)
• Palestinian & Israeli Literature (15 credits)
• The Faust Tradition: Dramatic Transformations (15 credits)
• The Promise of Poetry: What is Poetic Language? (15 credits)
• Forms of Discovery: Hardy, Cavafy & the Modern Short Poem (15 credits)

You may also take up to 30 credits from approved optional modules offered by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.

You also have the opportunity to study abroad for either the second semester of the second year or for the whole of the second year. Partner institutions currently include:

• University of Auckland
• University of Melbourne
• University of Toronto (Full year only)
• University of California
• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
• University of Sydney

Year 3 Required Modules

Classical Studies

There are no required modules for Classical Studies in Year 3.

Comparative Literature

You are required to take:

• Dissertation (10,000 words) (30 credits)

Optional Modules

Classical Studies

You are required to take at least 60 credits from a range of optional Classics modules which may typically include:

• Minoans & Mycenaeans (30 credits)
• The Classical Art of the Body: Greek Sculpture (30 credits)
• The Art of Making: Craft Production from Classical Antiquity to Today (30 credits)
• Augustus: Power & Propaganda (30 credits)
• The History & Theory of Ancient Slavery (30 credits)
• Greek Religion (30 credits)
• Pagans, Christians & Jews in the Roman Empire (30 credits)
• Streetwise: Narrating the City in Cassical Literature (30 credits)
• Neronian Literature & Culture (30 credits)
• Plato’s Myths: the Soul, Desire & the Beyond (30 credits)
• Living for Ever: Fame & Glory from Homeric Heroes to Roman Emperors (and Beyond) (30 credits)
• An Introduction to Classical Reception Studies in Sixteen Encounters (30 credits)
• Dissertation (30 credits)
• Greek Texts: Prose (15 credits)
• Persian Kings & their Territory in the Achaemenid Empire (15 credits)
• Latin Texts: Prose (15 credits)
• Descent to the Underworld: Transformations of a Myth (15 credits)
• Romanticism & Revolution: Byron, the Shelleys & Greece (15 credits)
• Origins of Nations & Nationalism: Identity in the Hellenic World (15 credits)
• Venice: History & Art (15 credits)
• Greek Texts: Poetry (15 credits)
• Latin Texts: Poetry (15 credits)

Comparative Literature

You are also required to take at least 15 credits from a range of optional 15-credit Comparative Literature modules which may typically include:

• Surrealism (15 credits)
• Imaginary Geographies (15 credits)
• From Opium to Maximum City: Narrating Political Economy in India & China (15 credits)
• The French Revolution Effect (15 credits)
• Listening Across the Channel: Sound & Literature (15 credits)
• Modern Arabic Literature (15 credits)
• Testimony: The Holocaust & Rwanda (15 credits)
• Literature, Solidarity & the Humanitarian Turn (15 credits)

You may also take up to 30 credits from approved optional modules offered by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis in order to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. The optional modules offered may therefore change.