On this course, students will be encouraged to develop a critical and methodological framework, and to pursue questions relating to literary and cultural production alongside an individual research project. Within a flexible framework, students will be able to study particular areas in depth or explore topics broadly relevant to intended research. Each student works closely with a member of the Faculty on his or her chosen dissertation topic while participating in collaborative seminars and classes. The required elements of the course consist of two seminars in both Michaelmas and Lent term selected from the course-options offered. In Michaelmas Term students must take the core course. Students may substitute one of the two courses required per term from another M.Phil. in the English Faculty or from another Faculty subject to the approval of the convenor. Where possible, courses may also be taken from other MPhils by special arrangement. In addition to the two taught seminars students will be expected to attend the Pre-Dissertation Workshop in Lent Term, followed by the student-facilitated Dissertation-Writing Groups in Easter Term. Students will also be expected to attend training sessions provided by the University Library on bibliographical and library skills, along with sessions on electronic resources such as LION and the MLA bibliography. Students are required to attend a minimum of ten sessions a year of any of the following fortnightly Graduate Research Seminars: the Criticism and Culture Graduate Seminar (a speaker series); the Postcolonial Graduate Seminar, and the Twentieth Century Graduate Seminar. By the end of the course students should have: developed a deeper knowledge of contemporary literary criticism and literary and cultural theory in general, and of their chosen area of research in particular and developed an understanding of critical debates which allows the evaluation of current research in their dissertation field.