Graduate Calendar Archives: 2003 / 2004

English Language and Literature

The Department

Chair of the Department: R. Holton

Departmental Supervisor of Graduate Studies: L. T. R. McDonald

The Department of English Language and Literature offers programs of study leading to the M.A. degree in English language and literature. Additional information may be obtained by consulting the departmental supervisor of graduate studies.

Qualifying-Year Program

Applicants who hold a general (3-year) B.A. degree with at least a high honours standing (normally B+), with a major in English language and literature, may be admitted to the qualifying-year program. Normally, these students will be required to complete 4.0 or 5.0 credits in English, as determined by the department, and to maintain a high honours standing (normally B+) before being considered for admission into the master's program. For more information regarding the qualifying year, see the General Regulations section of this Calendar.

Master of Arts

Admission Requirements

The minimum admission requirement for the master's program is a B.A. (Honours) (or the equivalent) in English language and literature, with at least a high honours standing (normally B+ or better).

Possession of the minimum entrance standing is not in itself, however, an assurance of admission into the program.

Program Requirements

Each candidate will select one of the following program patterns:

2.0 credits in English, selected from those at the 5000-level (excluding ENGL 5908), plus ENGL 5005, and a master's thesis; an oral examination on the thesis will be required. A prospectus for the thesis must be submitted to the graduate committee by December 1 after registration in September, or at the end of three months for any other registration

3.0 credits in English selected from those at the 5000-level (excluding ENGL 5909), plus ENGL 5005, and a research essay; an oral examination on the research essay will be required

Each program is designed to be completed within the three-term academic year. Each program is of equal status.

Guidelines for Completion of Master's Degree

Full-time master's candidates are expected to complete all requirements in twelve months or three terms of registered full-time study. Part-time master's candidates are expected to complete their degree requirements within an elapsed period of six calendar years after the date of initial registration.

All candidates are required to demonstrate a reading knowledge of one language other than English, approved by the Department.

Academic Standing

A standing of B- or better must be obtained in each credit counted towards the master's degree.

Graduate Courses

Course Designation System

Carleton's course designation system has been restructured. The first entry of each course description below is the new alphanumeric Carleton course code, followed by its credit value in brackets. The old Carleton course number (in parentheses) is included for reference, where applicable.

Not all of the following courses are offered in a given year. For an up-to-date statement of course offerings for 2003-2004 and to determine the term of offering, consult the Registration Instructions and Class Schedule booklet, published in the summer and also available online at www.carleton.ca/cu/programs/sched_dates/

ENGL 5000 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.500)

Literary Criticism

A study of specific topics or particular areas of literary criticism. (Also listed as CLST 5002.)

ENGL 5002 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.502)

Contemporary Literary Theory

Contemporary approaches to theory and literary studies. Topics vary from year to year and may include Marxism, feminism, hermeneutics, narrative theory, psychoanalysis, or postcolonialism.

ENGL 5003 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.503)

Feminism/s: The Literary Dimension

This course examines a range of topics in feminist and gender theory. Topics vary from year to year and may include women and mass media, gender panics, female spectacles and specularization.

ENGL 5004 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.504)

Literature, Contact, and Empire in Colonial and Post-Colonial Societies

Topics in colonial, postcolonial, native and diasporic literature and theory. Topics vary from year to year.

ENGL 5005 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.505)

Bibliography and Scholarly Methods

An introduction to analytical and descriptive bibliography, editing, research methodology, and professional concerns. The course is graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.

ENGL 5108 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.518)

Old Norse

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5208 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.528)

Middle-English Studies

Topics in the literature and culture of the Middle English period. Topics vary from year to year and may include Chaucer, Piers Plowman, Arthurian literature, medieval drama, medieval romance, 15th Century Literature, religious and mystical texts. Also may be offered at the undergraduate level, with different requirements, as ENGL 4208, for which additional credit is precluded.

ENGL 5301 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.531)

Renaissance Poetry

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5302 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.532)

Seventeenth-Century Poetry

A study of selected seventeenth-century poets.

ENGL 5304 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.534)

Renaissance Drama

Topics vary from year to year and may include a focus on specific dramatists, themes, or genres.

ENGL 5307 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.537)

Renaissance Authors

A study of selected Renaissance authors.

ENGL 5308 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.538)

Renaissance Studies

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5402 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.542)

Eighteenth-Century Studies

Eighteenth-century cultural concerns such as: literature and the marketplace; gender, authorship and genre; the literary periodical; literature and the public sphere; literature and nationalism; literature and science.

ENGL 5408 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.548)

Studies in Romanticism

Selected texts of Romantic literature and culture. Topics vary from year to year and may be organised by theme, author or genre.

ENGL 5501 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.551)

Nineteenth-Century Studies

A study of works written between 1830 and 1870 in terms of gender representation in relation to generic modalities, exploring the thesis that poets of the period - Tennyson, the Brownings, the Rossettis, Arnold, Clough - confronted a crisis in gender ideology that problematized the lyric.

ENGL 5503 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.553)

Nineteenth-Century Fiction

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5508 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.558)

Nineteenth-Century Literature

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5601 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.561)

Twentieth-Century Poetry

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5603 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.563)

Twentieth-Century Fiction

A study of selected twentieth-century writers.

ENGL 5604 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.564)

Twentieth-Century Drama

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5606 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.566)

Twentieth-Century Literature

Topics vary from year to year and may include issues of genre, selected themes, particular literary movements or developments in critical theory.

ENGL 5607 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.567)

Twentieth-Century Authors

A study of twentieth-century authors of fiction.

ENGL 5608 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.568)

Twentieth-Century Studies

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5701 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.571)

American Poetry

A study of the formative poetry and poetics of several major modern American writers, including: Whitman, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, H.D., George Oppen, Charles Olson, and Robert Creeley.

ENGL 5703 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.573)

American Fiction

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5706 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.576)

American Literature

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5708 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.578)

Studies in American Fiction

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5801 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.581)

Canadian Poetry

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5802 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.582)

Ethnicity, Multiculturalism, and Canadian Literature

A study of Canadian literature in relation to theoretical and critical issues posed by ethnicity and other aspects of Canadian cultural diversity.

ENGL 5803 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.583)

Canadian Fiction

The course concentrates on Canadian writing of the last twenty to thirty years, exploring it with reference to the concept of ideology, within the contexts of Marxist, feminist, and postmodernist literary theories.

ENGL 5805 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.585)

Canadian English

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5807 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.587)

Selected Topics in Canadian Literature

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5809 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.589)

Colonial Discourse and Native Literatures in Canada

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5900 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.590)

Selected Topic

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5901 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.591)

Selected Topic

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5903 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.593)

English and Cultural Studies

This course will examine the borders of literature and cultural studies. Topics vary from year to year.

ENGL 5904 [0.5 credit] (formerly 18.594)

Special Studies in Dramatic Literature

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5908 [1.0 credit] (formerly 18.598)

Research Essay

ENGL 5909 [2.0 credits] (formerly 18.599)

M.A. Thesis

Undergraduate Courses

Graduate students may take the equivalent of 1.0 credit at the senior undergraduate level.

Other Disciplines

Graduate students may take the equivalent of 1.0 credit in a related discipline. The following courses may be among those of special interest:

Comparative Literary Studies

CLST 5001, CLST 5002

This is not a complete list of all acceptable options. Students should contact the supervisor of graduate studies or the chair of the Department for approval if there are other courses they wish to take which are not on the list.

Other Universities

Graduate students may take the equivalent of 2.0 credits at another university or other universities. Students are especially reminded that the University of Ottawa offers a wide range of graduate courses which may be completed (under the general 2.0 credit ruling) for credit at Carleton University.