MODERN GREEKAT OXFORD UNIVERSITY

You can find further information on our website: www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk Here you will find details of all our courses, as well as informationon the admissions process and frequently asked questions. Youmay wish to contact the Modern Languages Faculty directly withan enquiry, or to request a copy of the University’s UndergraduateProspectus and the Faculty’s Modern Languages brochure: Faculty of Medieval & Modern Languages 41 & 47 Wellington Square Oxford OX1 2JF Tel. 01865 270750 Email. office@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk

The sub-faculty of Byzantine and ModernGreek at Oxford is unique in that it is theonly department in Britain which offersMedieval and Modern Greek as a majorcomponent of a BA degree. Led by a closecommunity of students, researchers andtutors, the life in the department weavesundergraduate teaching with runninggraduate seminars, workshops,conferences, film screenings and culturalevents open to the public, making the sub-faculty a dynamic hub for Modern Greekand Byzantine Studies.

Further information and contacts

You may also wish to attend one of the many OpenDays organized by the colleges and the University(details on our website), to direct specific enquiriesto the admissions office of a college you areinterested in, or check out the modern languagesSchools Blog, Adventures on the Bookshelf, athttp://bookshelf.mml.ox.ac.uk.

The Taylor Institution Library

Image credits: Nikos Engonopoulos,

Poet and Muse1938 / CC BY-SA

Cavafy Manuscript. CC BY-SA 4.0

Cavafy Archive Onassis Foundation

LANGUAGE THEATRE ART POLITICS CINEMA POETRY PHILOSOPHY LITERATURE SOCIETY HISTORY >>>

The language education is highly personalised andwell-paced.

I love how much freedom I have to delve intowhichever authors and literary movements I want. A unique aspect is the bond Greece has with its classicalcivilisation. The literature often has echoes of ancienthistory, but is brought to the surface by the living,tangible, and far more anarchic voices of the present.

Languages as subjects are far more than simplyspeaking and writing, and it has been hugely enjoyableto have studied the literary and cinematic works whichthe language offers as well as attending seminars on awide range of issues within Greek culture and society.

GABRIEL, UNDERGRADUATE IN MODERN GREEK & GERMAN

You are constantlyencouraged to delve furtherinto a subject, push yourselfand expand your thinking.

LARA, UNDERGRADUATE IN MODERN GREEK

Year Abroad The year abroad is one of the most exciting parts of a languagedegree at Oxford, offering you an opportunity to be immersedin the culture(s) of the languages that you are studying. If youare studying Modern Greek in combination with anotherlanguage offered by the Faculty of Medieval and ModernLanguages, you will usually spend half of your third year inAthens or another Greek city, studying at a Greek university orworking as a paid language assistant in a school abroad.

OXFORD is the longest-standing centre for the studyof Medieval and Modern Greekliterature and culture outsideGreece, with a history ofteaching Modern Greek since1908 and the officialestablishment of the Bywaterand Sotheby Professorship ofByzantine and Modern GreekLanguage and Literature in1915. Currently specialisingin the Medieval, Early Modernand Modern periods, ourteaching and research covertopics ranging from Byzantinepoetry and CretanRenaissance drama, to C.P.Cavafy, Nikos Kazantzakis,Yannis Ritsos and GeorgeSeferis. From the Greek folksongs to the poems of KikiDimoula and KaterinaAnghelaki-Rooke, and fromErotokritos to Lanthimos, ourcourses combine the literaryand cultural study of Greeceover the centuries, and include 

dedicated surveys of contemporary history, popularmusic, theatre and cinema. Housed in the TaylorInstitution Library and themain Bodleian Library, theOxford University ModernGreek collection and itsarchival annex (which includesthe important collection ofR.M. Dawkins; 1871–1955),alongside the materials housed by the Orientalinstitute, the Sackler Libraries and the libraries of other faculties and colleges, makeOxford one of the most comprehensive researchcollections in Modern Greeklanguage, culture and historyoutside Greece.

Modern Greek at OxfordModern Greek is offered aspart of a joint BA programme,meaning that undergraduatesare required to study Greek incombination with a secondlanguage or another subject.These programmes areideal for applicants looking toincorporate cultural anddisciplinary diversity into theirstudies and/or who areintrigued by how different fields intersect and conversewith one another. Oxfordoffers a broad range ofoptions which can becombined with Medieval andModern Greek, namely:another European or MiddleEastern language, English,Classics, Linguistics, History orPhilosophy.  In the sub-faculty ofByzantine and Modern Greek,your timetable will balancepractical language training withclasses and tutorials onModern Greek literature, aswell as with classes andlectures on the history andculture of Greece. Applicants who do not holdan A-Level or equivalentknowledge of Modern Greekare able to study the languagefrom scratch. Each year thedepartment of Medieval andModern Greek receivesapplications from candidateswith diverse backgrounds, andwhose incentives to study the

language, literature andCulture of Greece stem from arange of interests andencounters. In your first year, languagewill be taught in small-groupclasses. The literature syllabuswill provide you with a broadintroduction to nineteenth andtwentieth-century Greekpoetry, prose works and othercultural texts, which will equipyou with a range of analyticalskills to approach genre, formand context.  In the second year, alongwith the continued study oflanguage, you will work on arange of literary and culturalmovements (Romanticism,Demoticism, Modernism,Surrealism etc.) and focuson specific areas of interest inconsultation with your tutor(including Medieval and EarlyModern Greek language andliterature, historical linguistics,translation theory, the work ofindividual authors, Greekcinema, and genderand/in literature). These interests can be further pursued in your final year, which also offers the option of writing an Extended Essay onan approved topic of your choice.

Undergraduate Studies: Degree Structure

Greek is one of the longest living and most influential languages in the world. An official language

in Greece, Cyprus and the EU, Modern Greek is also spoken by heritage speakers in the US,

Australia, eastern Europe, as well as a growing number of new learners.

ANDREAS, UNDERGRADUATE IN MODERN GREEK & CLASSICS

PHOEBE, UNDERGRADUATE IN MODERN GREEK & PHILOSOPHY

Nikos Engonopoulos (1907-1985), The Poet and the Muse (detail)Manuscript of the poem "Ithaka"

by C.P. Cavafy (1863-1933)

Maria Polydouri,

poet (1902-1930)