My Oxford Finals Papers
Hello! Here’s a much requested run-down of the papers I took for my finals! There are 2 streams you can choose between after your first year of Oxford English - Course 1 and Course 2. I went for Course 2 - chosen far less than Course 1 but I found it to be incredibly rewarding!
Paper 1 - Literature in English, 650-1100 (Old English)
- Exam in Trinity Term (3rd and final term), 3rd year, 3 essays in 3 hours
- College taught in Michaelmas Term (1st term) of 2nd year and then revisited for revision
- Focus: Cynewulf's runic signatures concluding his female saints' lives (Juliana and Elene), Ælfric's Catholic Homilies (particular focus on his life of Cuthbert), Old English metrical charms (particularly those found in the margins of MS CCCC 41)
- I LOVE OLD ENGLISH!!!! That is all I have to say about this one, I looooove it
Paper 2 - Medieval English and Related Literatures, 1066-1550 (Romance)
- Exam in Trinity Term, 3rd year, 2 essays in 3 hours
- Faculty taught in Hilary term (2nd term), 2nd year, and then revisited for revision
- Focus: Magic and the supernatural in the First Branch of the Mabinogi (medieval welsh), Marie de France's Lais (particularly Lanval and Milun; medieval French) and Walter Map's King Herla (Latin); The flexibility of the Middle English Sir Gowther in its varying manuscript contexts
- This paper was a challenge because it’s completely unlike anything I’ve done before. Because it was 2 essays in 3 hours (rather than the usual 3), topics had to be much broader and explored in greater depth. You’re also handling different languages too (although you can work with them in translation, but that does make the way you approach analysis different to the way it would be approached if you’re working with the original) and it’s a genre (rather than time period) paper. This is one of the reasons that I really liked Course 2 - while with Course 1 all the papers are time period ones, Course 2 spices things up a bit and I think that enables you to develop a broader skillset.
Paper 3 - Literature in English, 1350-1550 (Middle English)
- Exam in Trinity Term, 3rd year, 2 essays and 1 commentary in 3 hours
- College taught in Michaelmas and Hilary Term, 2nd year and then revisited for revision
- Focus: Authority and translation in Robert Henryson's Morall Fabillis, Gavin Douglas' Eneados and David Lindsay's 'The Testament and Complaynt of Our Soverane Lordis Papyngo'; Affective piety in Middle English Marian lyrics and related material culture; Set commentary passage from Chaucer's ‘Troilus and Criseyde’
- The topics I explored for this paper were really interesting - I thoroughly enjoyed it. I messed up my timing in the exam but hey ho, these things happen!
Paper 4 - The History of the English Language to c1800
- Coursework, submitted Trinity Term, 2nd year
- An essay and a commentary, both 2000-2500
- Formatted like a 'take-home exam' - questions are released and you choose 2 and have about 2.5 weeks to write and submit
- Faculty taught in Hilary and Trinity Term, 2nd year
- Chosen Questions:
Essay - In historical research, there are no 'bad documents' (HIPPOLYTE TAINE). Discuss.
Commentary - 'Nothing reveals the deficiencies of a language more surely than translating into it' (CHRISTIAN KAY). Provide a close analysis of the language of TWO texts which seem to you to reveal or contest that claim.
- Similar to the Romance paper, this one was unlike anything I’ve done before! It was a bloody challenge at first because of it being such an enormous leap up, especially having never done any linguistics before. In the end though, I loved it and I explored some really interesting topics!
Paper 5 - The Material Text
- Coursework, submitted Hilary Term, 3rd year
- A commentary and an essay, both 2000-2500 words
- Formatted in the same way as the English Language paper, but they're considering changing this to be more like your standard coursework
- Faculty taught in Trinity Term, 2nd year, and Michaelmas Term, 3rd year
- Chosen commentary folio:
- Chosen essay question: 'The introduction of error into the transmitted text is often regarded as a random and unpredictable phenomenon related to human frailty' (L. NEIDORF). What other alternatives are there? Give specific examples.
- I loved this paper (are you spotting a pattern here? haha) - getting to see so many real manuscripts up close was fascinating and I feel so lucky to have gotten to see some of the collection in Oxford! Perhaps controversially I chose this option over Shakespeare (!) but I’m so glad I did. I figured I could go back to Shakespeare at any time during my life, but seeing these manuscripts was a one-time opportunity.
Paper 6 - Special Options: Writing Lives
- Coursework, submitted Michaelmas Term, 3rd year
- A 6000 word essay
- Taught by 2 tutors running this specific option (there were a bunch of options released and you had to submit your top 5 - you’d then hopefully be given your 1st choice)
- Focus: The extent to which a writer's temporal moment affects the way they approach writing about mental health. Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk; Thomas Hoccleve's Complaint and Dialogue
- Ironically, my own mental health went a bit haywire during the term in which I took this paper which was a shame, but hey ho, ya win some ya lose some, and I really enjoyed the texts we got to read for it. I kind of wish I’d chosen a more medieval option but I did manage to incorporate some medieval stuff in there with Hoccleve. The teaching and submission all being in 1 term is a bit ridiculous in my opinion too.
Paper 7 - Dissertation
- Coursework, submitted Hilary Term, 3rd year
- An 8000 word essay
- Undertaken from the end of 2nd year
- Abstract: 'For my dissertation, I will be examining twelfth-century texts (such as Instructions for Christians and the First Worcester Fragment) that speak back to those from the Anglo-Saxon past, considering inheritance from the poetic and homiletic traditions. Building on and developing from the work of Hugh Magennis, I will look at the way light imagery in such late Old English and Post-Conquest texts functions both literally and metaphorically, and how these two functions intersect. I will also consider how such texts engage in dialogue with material culture, examining artefacts such as The Gloucester Candlestick.'
- It was cool being able to research my own topic and produce something from that research. My supervisor was amazing too!
Overall, I really enjoyed the course. My tutoring, especially from my Balliol tutor, was outstanding - she really did go above and beyond for me. I didn't enjoy the writing of the longer pieces so much but I did enjoy the texts I looked at and it's definitely worthwhile to develop the skill of writing longer pieces I think. I loved the rest of my papers, especially Old English! On the whole it was a great course!
If you have any questions about any of this, feel free to ask!