Edinburgh
My year at the University of Edinburgh
Master in Comparative Literature at the University of Edinburgh
September 2018 - August 2019
After my Bachelor's degree in English Studies in the University of Luxembourg, I have decided to apply for a Master's programme in the University of Edinburgh. This university has a very prestigious literature programme and Comparative Literature encompasses many of the things I have done before and puts them in a new context.
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Completing my Master's degree in Edinburgh was an amazing experience that enabled me to work more on the topics that inspire me, sch as film and Japanese culture and to finally develop these topics into essays and my final project.
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The topic of my Master's dissertation was a comparative study between the depiction of the post-atomic bomb Japan in Western and Japanese literary works. I fcused on comparing Kazuo Ishiguro's two novels, A Pale View of Hills (1982) and An Artist of the Floating World (1986) with two short stories from the Japanese author and poet Tamiki Hara, who experienced the Hiroshima atomic bomb first hand.
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The courses I have taken this year are:
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Theories and Methods of Literary Study
Intermediality, translingualism, postcolonial theory, queer theory, biopolitics, Russian formalism, Derrida and deconstruction
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Semester 1 essay topic: Intermediality and film adaptation: Does the Remediation Process Change the Story of Cloud Atlas?
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Semester 2 essay topic: Russian Formalism: Defamiliarization in Nikolay Gogol’s short story The Nose (1836)
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Poetry, Music and Translation (PMT)
Hungarian, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese poetry
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Final essay: Kassà k Lajos's "My Poetry" / "Költészetem"
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Exploring Japanese Fiction
Genji monogatari, haiku, nikki bungaku, junbungaku, I-novel, publication, reception and background of contemporary Japanese literature, challenges of translating Japanese literature
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Final essay: The Alienated Self in the Japanese Urban Environment in Yoshimoto Banana’s Kitchen (1987) and Hiromi Kawakami’s The Nakano Thrift Shop (2005)
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Audited courses:
Contemporary Japanese Cinema
Nakashima Tetsuya, Confessions; Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Tokyo Sonata
Kore'eda Hirokazu, Nobody Knows
Jun Ichikawa,Tony Takutani
Mori Tatsuya, A
Hideo Nakata, Ringu
Yuya Ishii, Sawako Decides
Satoshi Kon, Perfect Blue
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Other activites
Course representative:
Throughout my year in Edinburgh I was the course representative of the MSc Comparative Literature course. I was the contact person between the academic staff and my peers and was responsible to communicate the students' needs to the academic staff. For my efforts, I was rewardd with the Edinburgh Award for Representing Students
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Volunteering:
Volunteering for various initiatives and events allowed me to connect with the Edinburgh community and to donae my time for causes that I believe in, such as sustainability initatives and cultural events, such as the Edinburgh Spanish and the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Talbot Rice Gallery. For my efforts, I have been awarded with the Edinburgh Award for Volunteering.
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Summer School on Museums, Galleries and Libraries
For a week during the summer, I had the opportunity to participate in the University of Edinburgh's centre for Research Collection summer school. This week long summer school was filled with insights about the museum, galleries and library sector, management and career opportunities. It allowed me to have a hands-on experience and learn about the behind the scene operations of museums, galleries and libraries, such as archiving, digitising, documenting, storing and purchasing.
As a final project, with a team, I drew up a proposition on how to manage a visual wall and which content would best fit the visual wall format in order to develop the best user experience.
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My experience in the University of Edinburgh not only allowed me to develop my academic interests further and to develop my skills through various evetns and activities; living in Edinburgh also taught me how to live together with people that I don't know an to connect with people from differet cultures. Embarking on this adventure alone, I had the opportunity to chalenge myself and to develop my social skills. Through my efforts to communicate and reach out to people, I made friends for life both in my course and in my student accommodation.
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Edinburgh as a city will always be close to my heart and it was an amazing expereince to immerse myself into Edinburgh's Scottish and truly international community.
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I also had the opportunity to travel outside of Edinburgh, to the lovely city of St. Andrews and the wild Highlands.
