Graduate Calendar 2009-2010

English Language and Literature

Dunton Tower 1812
Telephone: 613-520-2310
Fax: 613-520-3544
carleton.ca/english

The Department

Acting Chair of the Department: P. Keen
Departmental Supervisor of Graduate Studies: G. Williams

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

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.

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.

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 ENG 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, or
• 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 may be required, or
• 4.0 credits in English selected from those at the 5000-level (excluding ENGL 5908 and ENGL 5909), plus ENGL 5005.

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.

Doctor of Philosophy

The Department of English Language and Literature offers a program of studies leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English. There is one field of study in the program: The Production of Literature.

Admission Requirements

Applicants will normally hold a master's degree in English (or equivalent) with at least an A- average (10 G.P.A.) Applicants judged to be deficient in preparation may be asked to complete course work in addition to the Ph.D. program requirements.

Program Requirements

Students admitted to the Ph.D. program are required to complete a total of 10.0 credits.

• ENGL 6000 Doctoral Seminar (1.0 credit)
• ENGL 6001 Proseminar (0.5 credit)
• 2.0 credits of approved courses
• 1.0 comprehensive credit (ENGL 6900)
• 1.0 research project credit (ENGL 6901)
• 4.5 dissertation credits (ENGL 6909)

ENGL 6000 and ENGL 6001 are required courses. Optional English coures will be selected from a list approved annually by the department. Students may take up to 1.0 credit of approved courses offered in other departments. Students may also choose directed reading courses with the core faculty of the program.

Comprehensive Examination and Research Project

Students are required to complete one comprehensive examination and one doctoral research essay. Each has a 1.0 credit value. The comprehensive examination (ENGL 6900) will focus on relevant theoretical and methodological issues and will take the form of a written examination set and marked by members of core faculty. This will normally take place at the beginning of the second year of full-time doctoral study. The doctoral research project (ENGL 6901) will focus on the general historical period or conceptual issues of the candidate's research and will comprise a written research project of publishable length followed by an oral examination. This will normally be completed before the end of the second year of full-time studies.

Language Requirements

Candidates must demonstrate reading ability in a language other than English, normally by successfully completing a translation examination during the second year of full-time enrolment in the program.

Thesis

All students are required to submit a thesis proposal before proceeding to the writing of the thesis. The proposal must be approved by the graduate supervisor and the thesis committee. This will normally take place early in the third year of doctoral study. All students are required to complete a thesis (4.5 credits) in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree offered by the program. The thesis must be defended at an oral examination.

This program is designed to be completed in four years of full-time study. Students admitted to part-time study will normally complete all requirements within eight years of registration.

Academic Standing

Doctoral students must normally obtain a grade of B- or better in each course counted toward the fulfilment of the degree requirements.

Graduate Courses

Not all of the following courses are offered in a given year. For an up-to-date statement of course offerings and to determine the term of offering, consult central.carleton.ca

ENGL 5000 [0.5 credit]

Literary Criticism

A study of specific topics or particular areas of literary criticism.

ENGL 5002 [0.5 credit]

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]

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]

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]

M.A. Seminar

Examines topics such as research resources and methodologies, current issues in literary theory and professional concerns. Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.

ENGL 5207 [0.5 credit]

Early Medieval Studies

Topics in early medieval period. Topics vary from year to year and may include Old English, Old Norse, Latin texts in translation, or pre-Chaucerian texts.

ENGL 5208 [0.5 credit]

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]

Renaissance Poetry

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5302 [0.5 credit]

Seventeenth-Century Poetry

A study of selected seventeenth-century poets.

ENGL 5304 [0.5 credit]

Renaissance Drama

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

ENGL 5307 [0.5 credit]

Renaissance Authors

A study of selected Renaissance authors.

ENGL 5308 [0.5 credit]

Renaissance Studies

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5402 [0.5 credit]

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]

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]

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]

Nineteenth-Century Fiction

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5508 [0.5 credit]

Nineteenth-Century Literature

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5601 [0.5 credit]

Twentieth-Century Poetry

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5603 [0.5 credit]

Twentieth-Century Fiction

A study of selected twentieth-century writers.

ENGL 5604 [0.5 credit]

Twentieth-Century Drama

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5606 [0.5 credit]

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]

Twentieth-Century Authors

A study of twentieth-century authors of fiction.

ENGL 5608 [0.5 credit]

Twentieth-Century Studies

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5701 [0.5 credit]

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]

American Fiction

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5706 [0.5 credit]

American Literature

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5708 [0.5 credit]

Studies in American Fiction

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5801 [0.5 credit]

Canadian Poetry

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5802 [0.5 credit]

Ethnicity, Multiculturalism, and Canadian Literature

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

ENGL 5803 [0.5 credit]

Canadian Fiction

Canadian writing of the last twenty to thirty years, with reference to the concept of ideology, within the contexts of Marxist, feminist, and postmodernist literary theories.

ENGL 5805 [0.5 credit]

Canadian English

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5807 [0.5 credit]

Selected Topics in Canadian Literature

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5809 [0.5 credit]

Colonial Discourse and Native Literatures in Canada

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5900 [0.5 credit]

Selected Topic

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5901 [0.5 credit]

Selected Topic

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5903 [0.5 credit]

English and Cultural Studies

The borders of literature and cultural studies. Topics vary from year to year.

ENGL 5904 [0.5 credit]

Special Studies in Dramatic Literature

Topic may vary from year to year.

ENGL 5908 [1.0 credit]

Research Essay

ENGL 5909 [2.0 credits]

M.A. Thesis

ENGL 6000 [1.0 credit]

Doctoral Seminar

Issues related to the production of literature as a material object, as an institutional site or practice, and as an enabling concept.

ENGL 6001 [0.5 credit]

Proseminar

Exploration of recent critical theory and discussion of issues related to the profession.

ENGL 6101 [0.5 credit]

Directed Reading

This tutorial is designed to permit students to pursue individual research. Topics will be chosen in consultation with at least one faculty member and the graduate supervisor.

ENGL 6102 [0.5 credit]

Studies in the Production of Literature

Explores selected studies/themes related to the production of literature.

ENGL 6103 [0.5 credit]

Selected Topics in the Production of Literature

Selected topics/themes related to the production of literature.

ENGL 6900 [1.0 credit]

Comprehensive Examination

This examination will include a range of topics related to the production of literature as a material object, as an institutional site or practice, and as an enabling concept.

ENGL 6901 [1.0 credit]

Doctoral Research Project

This project will comprise both an essay of publishable length and an oral defense in the general area of the project.

ENGL 6909 [4.5 credits]

Thesis

Undergraduate Courses

Master's students may take the equivalent of 1.0 credit at the senior undergraduate level.

Other Disciplines

With prior approval of the English department's supervisor of graduate studies or departmental Chair, graduate students may take the equivalent of 1.0 credit in a related discipline.

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.