Honour School of Classics and Modern Languages

Differences from 2018/19 to 2019/20

(These regulations are for students starting the Honour School of Classics and Modern Languages in Trinity term 2020 or Michaelmas term 2020. Students starting the Honour School of Classics and Modern Languages in Trinity term 2019 or Michaelmas term 2019 should refer to the 2018-19 edition of the regulations.) 

A

  • 1. The subjects of the examination in the Honour School of Classics and Modern Languages shall be (a) the Greek and Latin languages and literatures and the thought and civilisation of the Ancient World and (b) those modern European languages and literatures studied in the Honour School of Modern Languages.

  • 2. No candidate shall be admitted to the examination in this School unless he or she has either passed or been exempted from the First Public Examination.

  • 3. The examiners shall indicate in the lists issued by them the language offered by each candidate obtaining honours or satisfying the examiners under the appropriate regulation.

  • 4. The examination in the Honour School shall be under the joint supervision of the Boards of the Faculties of Classics and of Modern Languages, which shall appoint a standing joint committee to make, and to submit to the two boards, proposals for regulations concerning the examination.

  • 5. (i) The Public Examiners for Classics in this school shall be such of the Public Examiners in the Honour School of Literae Humaniores as may be required, together with one or two additional examiners, if required, who shall be nominated by the committee for the nomination of Public Examiners in the Honour School of Literae Humaniores; those for Modern Languages shall be such of the Public Examiners in the Honour School of Modern Languages as shall be required.

  • (ii) It shall be the duty of the chair of the Public Examiners in the Honour School of Modern Languages to designate such of their number as may be required for Modern Languages in the Honour School of Classics and Modern Languages, and when this has been done, and the examiners for Classics have been nominated, the number of the examiners in Classics and Modern Languages shall be deemed to be complete.

B

Candidates will be examined in accordance with the examination regulations set out below.

They will also be required to spend, after their matriculation, a year of residence in an appropriate country or countries, and to provide on their entry form for the examination a certificate that they have done this, signed by the Head or by a tutor of their society. Candidates wishing to be dispensed from the requirement to undertake a year of residence abroad must apply in writing to the Chair of the Medieval and Modern Languages Board, 41 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JF, stating their reasons for requesting dispensation and enclosing a letter of support from their society.

Candidates should during this year abroad undertake a programme of activity acceptable to their college or society.  They will also be expected to carry out during this year abroadperiod such academic work as their society may require. It is strongly recommended that candidates should apply through the Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges for an Assistantship, where these are available, and should accept one if offered. Candidates who are not able to obtain an Assistantship should during their year abroad follow a course or courses in an institution or institutions approved by their society, or should spend their time in such other circumstances as are acceptable to their society.   Candidates will agree with their College Tutor in advance of their year abroad an independent course of study to be followed during that period.

Except in a Special Subject or an alternative to a Special Subject, a candidate shall offer one modern language and its literature only except that candidates offering Ancient Greek may offer the subject Modern Greek Poetry, and all candidates may offer the subject Byzantine Literature as specified in the regulations below, if and only if they are not offering Medieval and Modern Greek as their modern language.

Any candidate may be examined viva voce.

Oral Examination: as specified for the Honour School of Modern Languages.

In every case where, under the regulations for the school, candidates have any choice between one or more papers or subjects, every candidate shall give notice to the Registrar not later than the Friday in the fourth week of Michaelmas Full Term preceding the examination of all the papers and subjects being so offered.

Candidates offering two papers both of which involve the study of the same author or authors, may not make the same text or texts the principal subject of an answer in both the papers.

All candidates must offer eight subjects as specified below and may also offer an Additional Subject as specified at no.9.

  • 1. Honour School of Modern Languages, Paper I.

  • 2. Honour School of Modern Languages, Papers IIA and IIB.

  • 3. Honour School of Modern Languages, one paper chosen from Papers VI, VII, or VIII.

  • 4. Honour School of Modern Languages, one paper chosen from Papers IV, V, IX, X, XI, or XII.

  • 5, 6, 7. Three subjects chosen from (a)-(h) below.

  • Subjects 401-14, 501-69 and 601-5 below will be set in accordance with the regulations for the Honour School of Literae Humaniores. For each subject, a detailed specification and prescribed texts will be given in the Greats Handbook applicable to the relevant year of examination. The handbook will be published by Monday of Week 5 of the Hilary Term two years preceding the examination.

  • Subjects in Philosophy under (c) will be set in accordance with the regulations on Philosophy in all Honour Schools including Philosophy

  • Note 1: It cannot be guaranteed that university lectures or classes or college teaching will be available on all subjects in every academic year. Candidates are advised to consult their tutors about the availability of teaching when selecting their subjects.

  • Note 2: Any candidate whose native language is not English may bring a bilingual (native language to English) dictionary for use in any examination paper where candidates are required to translate Ancient Greek and/or Latin texts into English, and any examination paper involving Greek or Latin prose composition.

  • All candidates must offer one text-based subject in Greek and Latin literature from (a) 501-13, 515 and 524. Candidates not offering Second Classical Language must also offer a second subject chosen from (a) 501-13, 515, 517, 524-5 and 581 or (b) 551 and 552.

  • In the list of subjects below, numbers in parentheses after the title of a subject indicate other subjects with which it may not be combined.

  • (a) Greek and Latin Literature

    • Subjects 501: Greek Core and 502: Latin Core will be examined in one three-hour paper (commentary and essay) and an additional one-and-a-half-hour paper (translation). See (h) below regarding the possibility of candidates offering these subjects as non-text-based (subjects 521 and 522) in combination with Second Classical Language.

    • Each of subjects 503: Historiography, 504: Lyric Poetry and 507: Comedy will be examined by an extended essay of up to 6,000 words and a one-and-a-half-hour translation paper. For each of these subjects, version (a) (as specified for the Honour School of Literae Humaniores) is the only version available to candidates who have satisfied the Moderators in Course IA, IB, or IC of Honour Moderations in Classics or of the Preliminary Examination in Classics, or who offered both Ancient Greek and Latin in the Preliminary Examination for Modern Languages.

    • All other subjects in Greek and Latin Literature will be examined in one three-hour paper.

    • Note: University classes will be given for only one of subjects 515: Catullus and 524: Seneca, Medea, and for only one of subjects 512: Neronian Literature and 525: Latin Literature from Titus to Trajan each year. 

      • 501: Greek Core

      • 502: Latin Core

      • 503: Historiography (504, 507)

      • 504: Lyric Poetry (503, 507)

      • 505: Early Greek Hexameter Poetry

      • 506: Greek Tragedy (582, 583)

      • 507: Comedy (503, 504)

      • 508: Hellenistic Poetry

      • 509: Cicero the Orator

      • 510: Ovid

      • 511: Latin Didactic

      • 512: Neronian Literature (525)

      • 513: Euripides, Orestes: papyri, manuscripts, text

      • 515: Catullus: manuscripts, text, interpretation (524)

      • 524: Seneca, Medea: manuscripts, text, interpretation (515)

      • 525: Latin Literature from Titus to Trajan (512)

      • 517: Byzantine Literature (518, 581). This subject is not available to candidates offering Medieval and Modern Greek as their modern language.

      • 581: The Latin Works of Petrarch (517). A detailed specification and prescribed texts will be given in the Classics & Modern Languages handbook applicable to the relevant year of examination.

  • (b) Linguistics and Philology

    • Candidates may offer no more than two of subjects 551-4. Each subject will be examined in one three-hour paper.

      • 551: Greek Historical Linguistics

      • 552: Latin Historical Linguistics

      • 553: General Linguistics and Comparative Philology. Candidates offering section (a), General Linguistics, may not also offer the Modern Languages Special Subject General Linguistics.

      • 554: Comparative Philology: Indo-European, Greek and Latin. This subject may not be offered by candidates who offered paper VI F(1) Historical Linguistics and Comparative Philology in Honour Moderations in Classics or in the Preliminary Examination in Classics.

  • (c) Ancient and Medieval Philosophy

    • Candidates may offer no more than one of these subjects. All subjects will be examined in one three-hour paper, as specified in the Regulations for Philosophy in all Honour Schools including Philosophy.

      • 110: Aquinas (111)

      • 111: Duns Scotus, Ockham (110)

      • 115: Plato, Republic (in translation) (130)

      • 116: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (in translation) (132)

      • 130: Plato, Republic (in Greek) (115)

      • 131: Plato on Knowledge, Language, & Reality in the Theaetetus and Sophist (in Greek) (137)

      • 132: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (in Greek) (116)

      • 133: Aristotle on Nature, Life and Mind (in Greek) (138)

      • 134: Knowledge and Scepticism in Hellenistic Philosophy (in Greek) (136, 139)

      • 135: Latin Philosophy (in Latin)

      • 136: Knowledge and Scepticism in Hellenistic Philosophy (in Latin) (134, 139)

      • 137: Plato on Knowledge, Language, & Reality in the Theaetetus and Sophist (in translation) (131)

      • 138: Aristotle on Nature, Life and Mind (in translation) (133)

      • 139: Knowledge and Scepticism in Hellenistic Philosophy (in translation) (134, 136)

  • (d) Ancient History

    • Candidates may offer no more than one of these subjects. Each of subjects 401-6 will be examined in a three-hour essay paper and a one-and-a-half hour paper comprising passages for translation and comment from the prescribed texts, as specified for the Honour School of Literae Humaniores. All other subjects in Ancient History will be examined in one three-hour paper.

      • 401: Archaic Greek History: c.750 to 479 BC

      • 402: Thucydides and the Greek World: 479 to 403 BC

      • 403: The End of the Peloponnesian War to the Death of Philip II of Macedon: 403 to 336 BC

      • 404: Polybius, Rome and the Mediterranean: 241-146 BC

      • 405: Republic in Crisis: 146-46 BC

      • 406: Rome, Italy and Empire from Caesar to Claudius: 46 BC to AD 54

      • 407: Athenian Democracy in the Classical Age

      • 408: Alexander the Great and his Early Successors (336 BC-302 BC)

      • 409: The Hellenistic World: Societies and Cultures c.300-100 BC

      • 410: Cicero: Politics and Thought in the Late Republic

      • 411: Politics, Society and Culture from Nero to Hadrian

      • 412: Religions in the Greek and Roman World, c.31 BC-AD 312

      • 413: Sexuality and Gender in Greece and Rome

      • 414: The Conversion of Augustine

  • (e) Classical Archaeology

    • Candidates may offer no more than one of these subjects. All subjects will be examined in one three-hour paper.

      • 601: The Greeks and the Mediterranean World c.950-500 BC

      • 602: Greek Art and Archaeology c.500-300 BC

      • 603: Hellenistic Art and Archaeology, 330-30 BC

      • 604: Art under the Roman Empire, AD 14-337

      • 605: Roman Archaeology: Cities and Settlement under the Empire

  • (f) 518: Modern Greek Poetry (517, 566/8, 567/9)

    • This subject will be examined in one three-hour paper. It is not available to candidates who are offering Medieval and Modern Greek as their modern language.

  • (g) Thesis

    • Any candidate may offer a thesis in Classics, or in a subject linking Classics and Modern Languages, in accordance with the Regulation on Theses in the regulations for the Honour School of Literae Humaniores.

  • (h) Second Classical Language

    • Second Classical Language will be examined in two three-hour papers and counts as two subjects. Candidates who offer it must take either both subjects in Greek (566/568) or both subjects in Latin (567/569). It may not be offered by candidates who have satisfied the Moderators in Course IA, IB, or IC of Honour Moderations in Classics or of the Preliminary Examination in Classics, or who offered both Greek and Latin in the Preliminary Examination for Modern Languages. Candidates may not offer either subject in the same language as they offered in Course IIA or IIB of Honour Moderations or the Preliminary Examination in Classics or in the Preliminary Examination for Modern Languages.

    • Candidates taking Second Classical Language must also offer at least one of the subjects from 5, 6, 7 (a)–(e) above under 8 or 9 (see below). Those offering it in Greek may if they wish offer Literae Humaniores subject 521 (Greek Core, non-text-based) at this point; those offering it in Latin may offer Literae Humaniores subject 522 (Latin Core, non-text-based).

  • 8. One of the following:

    • (i) A second subject chosen from those listed under 4 above, OR XIV Dissertation.

      (ii) A third subject chosen from those listed under 5, 6, 7 above, subject to the groupings there set out and the restrictions there placed upon choice of subjects.

      (iii) 582: Ancient and French Classical Tragedy (not to be offered in combination with any of the following: 506: Greek Tragedy; Racine [Honour School of Modern Languages, paper X(5)]; Dramatic Theory and Practice in France 1605-60 with special reference to Corneille [Honour School of Modern Languages, paper XII Special Subject]).  A detailed specification and prescribed texts will be given in the Classics & Modern Languages handbook applicable to the relevant year of examination.

    • (iv) 583: The Creative Reception of Greek Tragedy in German A detailed specification and prescribed texts will be given in the Classics & Modern Languages handbook applicable to the relevant year of examination.

  • 9. Additional Subject.

    • Good performance in such subjects will be taken in account in allocating all classes. Candidates wishing to offer an Additional Subject may offer one of the following.

      • (i) A further subject chosen from the list prescribed under 4 above.

        (ii) A further subject chosen from the list prescribed under 5, 6, 7 (a)-(f) above, subject to the groupings there set out and the restrictions there placed upon choice of subjects.

        (iii) 584: Greek Prose Composition. This subject may not be offered by candidates who have satisfied the Moderators in Course IA or IC of Honour Moderations in Classics.

        (iv) 585: Latin Prose Composition. This subject may not be offered by candidates who have satisfied the Moderators in Course IA or IB of Honour Moderations in Classics.

        (v) An extended essay on a topic in the modern language or combining the modern language and Classics (to be examined under the regulations for the Honour School of Modern Languages).

        (vi) A Special Thesis on a topic in Classics (to be examined under the regulations for the Honour School of Literae Humaniores).

        Candidates shall upload their thesis not later than noon on Friday of the week before the Trinity Full Term to the University approved online assessment platform.