Critical Methodologies

Course detail Description

Our interdisciplinary course in Critical Methodology is built around a required module in critical theory. This will introduce you to the main debates in current critical theory through the exploration of a series of key texts. It explores theories and practices of reading, from Formalism and Structuralism through Barthes and textuality to queer theory, psychoanalysis, materialist and postcolonial theories. In addition to this required module, you will be able to choose from a list of modules linked to critical theory in a range of subjects. You will investigate and write a dissertation on a topic that links the required module to the material of one or more of your optional modules. This course is ideally suited to you if you have a humanities degree and are looking to prepare for PhD study, or if you want to pursue a career in teaching, journalism, the media and the arts.

Further literature

Course format and assessment

Teaching
If you are a full-time student, we will provide six hours of teaching each week through lectures and seminars, and we will expect you to undertake 34 hours of independent study.

If you are a part-time student, we will provide two to four hours of teaching through lectures and seminars each week, and we will expect you to undertake between 16 and 18 hours of independent study.

For your dissertation we will organise a workshop and provide you with an additional four hours of supervision.

Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Assessment
We assess the majority of our modules through coursework, typically a 4,000-5,000-word essay for every 20 credits. We will assess your dissertation through an oral presentation (10%) and a 12,000-word essay.

Regulating body
King’s College London is regulated by the Office for Students.

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Structure

Year 1 Courses are divided into modules. You will normally take modules totalling 180 credits. Required Modules

You are required to take:

• Research Methodology: Reading Practice/Reading Theory (40 credits)
• Dissertation (60 credits)

Optional Modules

In addition, you are required to take 80 credits from a range of optional modules, which may typically include:

• Cinema & the City (20 credits)
• Text, Image, Object & Gesture in Twentieth- Century French Writing (20 credits)
• The Moving Image in Art (20 credits)
• Reconfiguring Film Theories & Philosophies: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (20 credits)
• Biopower: The Fate of an Idea (20 credits)
• Theorizing Literature across Cultures: Contemporary Debates (20 credits)
• Culture, Dissent & the Arab Spring (20 credits)
• Perversion: Theory, Literature, Film (20 credits)
• Modernity & the City (20 credits)
• Thinking Cinema: Theory, Philosophy, Ethics (20 credits)
• On Speed: Accelerating Culture Since the 19th Century (20 credits)
• Surrealism & Visuality (20 credits)Illness Narrative as Life Writing (20 credits)Experimental Film & Philosophy (20 credits)
• Thinking the Contemporary: Fiction & Theory after 1999 (20 credits)
• A language module from King’s Modern Language Centre (20 credits) subject to approvals

If you are a part-time student, you will take Research Methodology: Reading Practice/Reading Theory, along with 40 credits of optional modules from the list above in your first year. In your second year you will take your dissertation module and a further 40 credits of optional modules.

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on the course finder on our website for updates.