The oral examination is taken after the student has fulfilled all basic requirements prescribed by their individual study plan, and precedes the examination of the dissertation. It lasts approximately one hour and is examined by a board of examiners. Students are required to pass the examination by the end of their fourth year of study.

The examination tests the range of the student’s knowledge as well as independent critical reflection and assessment of secondary sources. The following problem areas are regarded as particularly vital:

1. Periodization.
   The boundaries of important periods in the literary history of Anglophone countries, the role of important works or personalities in establishing these boundaries, the importance of centres of literary life, etc.
2. History of genres, styles, schools, movements.
   The value of some traditional terms: e.g., “war novel”, “lost generation”, “angry young men”, “non-fiction”.
3. Literature and cultural history.
   E.g. gender and literary history, multiculturalism and ethnicity in literature, the American South as a cultural region, Anglo-Saxon poetry and the spread of Christianity, literary utopias and the development of technology, modern British drama and politics, colonialism in US fiction, etc.
4. Representative works of literary & cultural studies.

The exam question is assigned in areas related to but not directly overlapping with the topic of the student’s dissertation, testing their ability to prepare an academic presentation at relatively short notice.

Procedure

The student receives the exam question two days (48 hours) in advance of the examination and is asked to prepare a 30-min presentation to be delivered before the examination board. Their presentation is followed by 30 minutes for questions from the examination board and a general discussion; questions from the floor may also be asked (the examination is public). In case the student has not displayed a satisfactory grasp of the subject during the examination, the board may choose to examine them further. While there is no set reading list for either literary history or theory for the exam, it is expected that the student’s knowledge exceeds the required reading for the MA final examination.