Goldsmiths, University of London

MPhil/PhD Literary and Critical Theory

The Department of English and Comparative Literature offers a stimulating environment for undertaking postgraduate research in critical theory and, more broadly, the relationship between philosophy, literature, and other cultural forms.

Originally designating a group of thinkers associated with the Frankfurt School, "critical theory" has expanded to encompass a range of approaches committed to reflecting on the premises and categories employed in disciplines ranging from literary studies and political science to history and film studies. By nature interdisciplinary, critical theory has become an integral part of literary theory and cultural analysis, as well as the study of philosophy and political thought.

The MPhil/PhD Pathway in Literary and Critical Theory enables postgraduate researchers to explore topics in any aspect of critical theory, from its emergence in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the work of Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche, to the critiques of modern capitalism and fascism developed in the twentieth century by the Frankfurt School and others, to contemporary modes of critical theory including critical race theory, postcolonial theory, feminist theory, gender studies and queer theory, eco-criticism, psychoanalysis, and various approaches developing out of structuralism and post-structuralism.

Undertaking research in critical theory at Goldsmiths enables postgraduate researchers to take advantage of the unique resources available in the Department of English and Comparative as well as in the College at large.