The acquisition of up-to-date critical and exploratory skills that will allow candidates to pursue specialized researches in the fields of English language and literatures as well as in those cultural and disciplinary areas that are connected to them; the acquisition of competences a) in regards to the history and the periodization of literature, with a specific focus of the problems related to its main epochs, including the contemporary scene; b) the analysis of texts, developed in light of critical methodologies, with a special emphasis on those from the English-language world; c) the connection with theories of literature, and other literatures; d) the investigation of linguistic problems, approached both from a specifically communicative perspective and from a literary and non-literary point of view, on the basis of the instruments of contemporary stylistics and discourse analysis; e) the investigation of theories, methods, and approaches developed within Translation and Adaptation Studies, and especially those of the last 30 years; f) the study of theories, methods and approaches connected to the history of the English language, with a specific focus on linguistics and historical pragmatics.  Research areas that will be pursue are the following: 1) Medieval English Literature 2) Shakespeare and dramatic language 3) Forms and objects of modern literary discourse 4) Contemporary voices 5) American Studies 6) Post-colonial Literatures 7) Comparative studies, including studies on the relation between the Bible and literary discourse 8) Translation Studies and literary translation 9) Adaptation Studies 10) History of the English Language 11) Historicalpragmatics and stylistics