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English

Faculty
MA Program
Interdepartmental Programs
Courses

Disclaimer


Co-directors
Christine Bold and Harry Lane (426 MacKinnon, Ext. 3881)
(E-mail: cbold@uoguelph.ca or hlane@uoguelph.ca)

Graduate co-ordinator
Danny O'Quinn (414 MacKinnon, Ext. 3250)
(E-mail: doquinn@uoguelph.ca)

Graduate secretary
Sharon Ballantyne (427 MacKinnon, Ext. 6315)
sballant@uoguelph.ca

Graduate Faculty

Christine Bold
MA Edinburgh, PhD University College London - Professor and Co- Director of the School

Peter A. Brigg
BA Bishop's, MA, PhD Toronto - Associate Professor

Susan I. Brown
BA King's College and Dalhousie, MA Dalhousie, PhD Alberta - Associate Professor

Elaine Chang
BA British Columbia; AM, PhD Stanford --Assistant Professor

Romita Choudhury
BA, MA Jadavpur (India); MA, PhD Alberta --Assistant Professor

Daniel Fischlin
BFA, MA Concordia, PhD York - Associate Professor

Kenneth W. Graham
BA Royal Military College, M Phil, PhD London - Professor

Ajay Heble
BA Innis College (U. of Toronto), MA Dalhousie, PhD Toronto - Associate Professor

Patrick J. Holland
BA Victoria (Wellington), MA Auckland, MA, PhD McMaster - Associate Professor

Helen Hoy
BA, MA, PhD Toronto - Associate Professor

Michael H. Keefer
BA Royal Military College, MA Toronto, DPhil Sussex - Associate Professor

Thomas King
BA, MA Chico State, PhD Utah - Associate Professor

Janice Kulyk Keefer
BA, MA Toronto, DPhil Sussex - Professor

Gerald F. Manning
BA, MA Alberta, PhD Queen's - Associate Professor

Daniel O'Quinn
BSc, MA Western, PhD York - Assistant Professor

Donna Palmateer Pennee
BA, MA Guelph, PhD McGill - Associate Professor

Mary H. Rubio
BA DePauw, MA Illinois, PhD McMaster - Professor

J.R. (Tim) Struthers
BA, MA, PhD Western Ontario - Associate Professor

From the Drama Program:
Alan D. Filewod
BA York, MA Alberta, PhD Toronto - Professor

Richard P. Knowles
BA, MA, PhD Toronto - Professor

Harry Lane
BA Durham, MA, PhD Toronto - Associate Professor and Co-Director of the School

Paul A. Mulholland
BA, MA Toronto, PhD Birmingham - Associate Professor

Judith Thompson
BA Queen's, Cert. National Theatre School - Associate Professor

Ann Wilson
BA, MA, PhD York - Associate Professor

From the School of Languages and Literatures:
Daniel Chouinard
BA, MA, PhD Montréal - Associate Professor

Stephen Henighan
BA Swarthmore, MA Concordia, D.Phil. Oxford - Assistant Professor

Dana Paramskas
BSL, MSL Georgetown, PhD Laval - Professor

François Paré
BA Montréal, Collége Edouard Montpetit, PhD SUNY, Buffalo - Professor

Associated Graduate Faculty:
Eugene Benson
BA National University of Ireland, MA Western Ontario, PhD Toronto - University Professor Emeritus

Diana Brydon
BA, MA Toronto, PhD Australian National University - University of Western Ontario

Neil Carson
BA Western Ontario, MA Nottingham, PhD London - Professor Emeritus

James Harrison
BA, M. Litt Durham, University Professor Emeritus

Linda E. Marshall
BA, MA Western Ontario, PhD. Toronto - Professor Emerita

M. Elizabeth Waterston
BA Toronto, MA Bryn Mawr, PhD Toronto - Professor Emerita


MA Program

     The English MA program in the School of Literatures and Performance Studies in English is designed to provide students with an intensive introduction to graduate-level work in English studies, within a flexible program. Students can draw on the program's strengths in the postcolonial and Canadian fields as well as pursue a wide range of research topics in consultation with faculty members actively engaged with the literatures of different historical periods and geographical locations, and with current debates in such areas as critical theory, cultural studies, gender studies, and queer theory.

Admission Requirements
     The normal requirement for admission to the English MA program is the equivalent of an Honours degree in English studies from a recognized institution with at least a high second-class standing (78% or higher) in the last year of study. Students with degrees with excellent academic records in other disciplines will also be considered, or may be allowed to do qualifying undergraduate courses at the University of Guelph prior to beginning graduate study. Students wishing to enter the program normally do so in September. (Only under exceptional circumstances may students be considered for admission in either January or May.) Applications from international students are warmly encouraged, although the application procedures are somewhat more complex. If the applicant's first degree was completed in a country where English is not the first language, English-language proficiency must be documented at the time of application. Sample minimum scores are 580 for TOEFL or 6.5 for the British Council test.

Degree Requirements
     All entering MA students will register for the joint, required two-semester course, ENGL*6010 Approaches to Research and Theory. This course must be taken upon entrance, requiring that entering students be registered for both the Fall and Winter semester. Students may choose between two options for completion of remaining degree requirements:
  1. Course-Work Option: The required ENGL*6010 plus five other courses; plus ENGL*6803 Research Project
  2. Thesis Option: The required ENGL*6010 plus three other courses; plus a thesis of 20,000 to 25,000 words (80-100 pages)

Creative Writing Option: both the research paper or project and the thesis may, with approval, and contingent upon faculty availability, be completed as exercises in creative writing.

Interdepartmental Programs

Collaborative International Development Studies Program
     The School of Literatures and Performance Studies in English participates in the Collaborative International Development Studies (CIDS) program. Please consult the International Development Studies listing for a detailed description of the collaborative program including the special additional requirements for each of the participating departments.

Scottish Studies Interdepartmental Group
     The School participates in the activities of the Scottish Studies Interdepartmental Group. Those faculty members whose research and teaching expertise includes aspects of Scottish studies may serve as advisers and examiners of MA students specializing in Scottish studies areas and registered in the English MA program. Please consult the Scottish Studies listing for a detailed description of the Scottish Studies Interdepartmental Group.

Courses

     NOTE: With the exception of ENGL*6010, the content of the courses listed below will vary according to the research interests of the faculty involved in offering the course. Specific course descriptions for a particular offering of the course will be available from the Graduate Co-ordinator one year in advance of the course being offered. Please consult the Graduate Co-ordinator for information on the particular focus of a specific offering of any of the courses listed below.
Course/(Credit Value) Term Course Description
ENGL*6010
Approaches to Research and Theory (1.0)
  Introduces methodologies of graduate-level scholarship through a series of modules. Module 1 (which is required) focuses on a common text of imaginative literature, to introduce a range of theoretical and interpretative strategies and research tools. Subsequent modules (of which two are required) focus on particular issues in the study of literature and performance. NOTE: ENGL*6010 is offered over the Fall and Winter semesters and students must therefore register for the course in both Fall and Winter. They will receive an INP ("in progress") grade at the end of the Fall, and a final grade at the end of the Winter
ENGL*6201
Topics in Canadian Literature (0.5)
  A course to be offered at least once every academic year. This course in Canadian Literature may focus on cross-genre study or on single genres such as poetry, biography, the short story, literary memoir and/or autobiography, and poetic prose. The focus may be on such topics as the literary and general cultural production of a time-period, an age group (such as children's literature), or a specific region (such as Atlantic Canada, the Prairies, or the West Coast), or may bring together texts from two or more categories to allow for a comparative study. Other possible topics include: post-modernism and the creation of an ex-centric Canadian canon; multiculturalism and the transcultural aesthetics of Canadian writing; the construction and reinvention of a national identity and literature; and literary history, influence, reception and critique.
ENGL*6209
Topics in Commonwealth/Postcolonial Literature (0.5)
  A course to be offered at least once every academic year. A comparative study of postcolonial literatures in English. Topics may include a focus on a single area, such as India, the Caribbean, Africa, Australia, or New Zealand or may focus on the comparative study of some of these literatures, considering the construction of Third World, diasporic, or settler-invader colonies, or writing and reading practices in colonial, neo-colonial, and postcolonial environments.
ENGL*6002
Topics in the History of Criticism (0.5)
  This course deals with various aspects of the field of literary criticism, focusing on a specific problem or question each time it is offered. Topics may include the investigation of a specific critical debate - the debate between the Ancients and the Moderns, for instance - or the various ways in which a particular concept - such as didacticism or intentionality - has been treated or is being treated in literary studies.
ENGL*6003
Problems of Literary Analysis (0.5)
  Variable in content and practical in orientation this course seeks to familiarize the student with particular critical techniques and approaches by applying specific examples of those approaches and methods to particular topics (e.g., cultural studies and renaissance literature, discourse analysis and the Victorian novel, computer-mediated analysis and the theatre of the absurd).
ENGL*6412
Topics in Medieval/Renaissance Literature (0.5)
  A examination of the literature of Britain between the 17th century and the latter part of the 18th century. Topics may focus on a single author, a specific genre, or relationships between the literary and the cultural.
ENGL*6421
Topics in Eighteenth Century and Romantic Literature (0.5)
  An examination of the literature of Britain between the restoration of the Stuart monarchy and the accession of Queen Victoria. Topics may include focus on a single author, the consideration of a specific genre, or the probing of the interface between the literary and other cultural aspects of the period.
ENGL*6431
Topics in Nineteenth Century Literature (0.5)
  A study of the literature of Britain from the late 18th century until the start of the First World War. Topics may focus on a single author, a specific genre, or a central critical question.
ENGL*6441
Topics in Modern British Literature (0.5)
  A study of the literature of Britain in the twentieth century. This course includes a consideration of the interaction between literature and culture in the period - sometimes through the examination of a specific author, sometimes through the study of a particular genre or issue.
ENGL*6451
Topics in American Literature (0.5)
  Topics may include a focus on a single region, such as the American West, on a single time period, such as the Civil War, on a specific genre, such as the novels of frontier women, or other issues in American literary studies.
ENGL*6611
Topics in Women's Writing (0.5)
  In the past the course has dealt with Victorian women poets, with the place of women in the literature of the American West, and with other issues of interest to students of women's writing and the broader issues of feminist theory.
ENGL*6621
Topics in Children's Literature (0.5)
  Past offerings have involved a focus on a specific author - such as Lucy Maud Montgomery - or on a specific kind of writing for or by children.
ENGL*6641
Topics in Scottish Literature (0.5)
  Courses under this rubric are concerned with the various literatures produced by Scots both within and beyond the boundaries of Scotland. The course could involve the study of a specific genre, the investigation of a specific theme, or the examination of a particular author over the course of her/his career.
ENGL*6691
Interdisciplinary Studies (0.5)
  Designed to provide the opportunity to explore alternative fields and modes of critical inquiry, this variable-content course will study the relationship between literary study and other forms of intellectual inquiry such as the relationship between literature and sociology, between critical theory and psychology, between literary history and historical fact.
ENGL*6801
Reading Course I (0.5)
  An independent study course, the nature and content of which is agreed upon between the individual student and the person offering the course. Subject to the approval of the student's advisory committee and the graduate committee.
ENGL*6802
Reading Course II (0.5)
  An independent study course, the nature and content of which is agreed upon between the individual student and the person offering the course. Subject to the approval of the student's advisory committee and the graduate committee.
ENGL*6803
Research Project (1.0)
  An independent study course, the content of which is agreed upon between the individual student and the person offering the course. Subject to the approval of the student's advisory committee and the Graduate Committee. This course is designed to provide the student with the opportunity to conduct an extended research project that, while not as complex or as extensive as a thesis, still provides the student with training in research methodology.
ENGL*6811
Special Topics in English (0.5)
  Depending on the research interests of the instructor, courses under this rubric explore topics in the study of literature that do not fall neatly under the rubrics above. In the past the course has dealt with literature and aging, and with issues in the field of popular culture.

         



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