Nov 24, 2024  
2019-2020 Graduate Bulletin 
    
2019-2020 Graduate Bulletin [ARCHIVED BULLETIN]

English Language and Literature, M.A.


Return to the Department of English Language and Literature 

The faculty of English offers a flexible program leading to the Master of Arts (M.A.) degree, providing both opportunities for creative expression and professional preparation for teaching and for doctoral study and scholarly research. Coursework is offered in the full range of subjects defined by our faculty’s expertise and by our internationally renowned archival holdings of manuscripts and books in McFarlin Library. Specific clusters of study that carry the advantage of faculty depth and the potential for original research are: (1) Victorian and Modern British and Irish literature; (2) American studies, cultural and gender studies, African American literature, and women’s literature; and (3) Early Modern, Restoration, and Eighteenth-Century British Literature. The department also offers seminars in critical theory, in the pedagogy of composition, and in the creative writing of fiction and poetry. Each M.A. student works closely with the Director of Graduate Studies and the faculty to develop an area of emphasis suited to his/her particular interests and professional goals.

Admission


Applicants must hold a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with at least 18 hours, or the equivalent, of undergraduate work in literature and language (exclusive of basic composition and basic foreign language courses). A strong undergraduate grade point average and acceptable scores on the General Tests of the Graduate Record Examination must be presented.

General Requirements


The M.A. program requires 36 hours of graduate-level coursework, all of which is drawn from the full range of graduate offerings (7000- and 8000-level). The M.A. is a non-thesis program: in place of a thesis each student elects, in his/her final term, an independent research project, defined by the student in consultation with the graduate director and a member of the faculty. These projects are meant to build upon the student’s individual interests and program of courses, and so range widely in subject and approach.