This course is designed as an advanced course of study intended to enable and to facilitate the development of a strong theoretical awareness on the part of the research student or graduate. It is designed to ensure that the student is aware of current major theoretical issues and of how those issues impinge on their work. The course takes the form of a term-long meditation on some general concept of theoretical importance whose value is that it allows for the introduction of work on advanced theory drawn from a number of different practices. The course varies in content from year to year, and each year the topic will form a focus determined by the research interests of the group of students as a whole. By the end of the course, the student will be aware of the particular ways in which theoretical work can enrich her or his scholarship, and will be able to bring theoretical considerations to bear on the content of the research and scholarship as appropriate.
Teaching is by lecture and seminar.
Basic preliminary information is imparted during the initial lectures, which are also thus used to gauge the level of theoretical awareness possessed by the constituency of students. Subsequent sessions begin from initial meditations by the teacher into which there will be an increasing insertion of work from the student body. Assessment is incorporated into the assessment of research work submitted as part of the School of English monitoring procedures for the progression of graduates.