Last updated: July 14, 2005 @ 11:20AM
English
Master of Arts in English
Dean
Rosemary Drage Hale
Faculty of Humanities
Associate Dean
John Sainsbury
Faculty of Humanities
Participating Faculty
Professors
Martin Danahay (English Language & Literature), Marilyn J. Rose (English Language & Literature), Elizabeth Sauer (English Language & Literature)
Associate Professors
John Lye (English Language & Literature), Mathew Martin (English Language & Literature), Barbara K. Seeber (English Language & Literature), Angus A. Somerville (English Language & Literature), Susan Spearey (English Language & Literature)
Assistant Professors
Robert Alexander (English Language & Literature), James Allard (English Language & Literature), Tim Conley, (English Language & Literature), Neta Gordon, (English Language & Literature), Ann Howey, (English Language & Literature), Angela Mills, (English Language & Literature), Steven D. Scott, (English Language & Literature)
Lecturer
Jaclyn Rea, (English Language & Literature)
Graduate Officer
Susan Spearey
sspearey@brocku.ca
Administrative Assistant
Janet Sackfie
905-688-5550, extension 3469
Mackenzie Chown A310
http://www.brocku.ca/english
The MA in English has a Field of "Text/Community/Discourse." As mutually informing concepts, "text," "community," and "discourse" suggest the power of texts to reflect and to shape both communities of origin and communities of reception. The Program also focuses critical attention on the kinds of negotiation both material and theoretical attending the production, performance and reception of texts. Literary and textual problems acquire richer significance when viewed in relation to the ways in which texts, both literary and non-literary, are produced and used in the often conflicting discourses that constitute the culture of a community.
This Program includes a preferred Major Research Paper Option and is designed to be completed in twelve months. A thesis option is also available under exceptional circumstances, with approval of the Graduate officer.
Admission requirements
Applications for admission to the MA program, on either a full-time or a part-time basis, will be accepted from students holding an honours degree or equivalent in English Literature, with an overall average not less than B+. Applicants must supply three letters of reference, a personal statement of interest and goals of not more than two pages in length, and a representative piece of work. Students with a co-major in English and a related discipline will be considered, although such students may be required to take additional qualifying undergraduate courses. Exceptions for students with unique circumstances will be considered. The decision to admit rests with the Graduate Officer in consultation with the program admissions committee.
Program Requirements
All students are required to take the two core courses, ENGL 5P00 and ENGL 5P01. Major Research Paper students must take four additional courses, from the variable topics offerings; Thesis students take two such additional courses. With the permission of the Graduate Officer a student may take a course from one of the other MA programs in the university or a reading course/tutorial (ENGL 5P02) in place of a course from the variable topics list.
Research Paper students will with the guidance of the Graduate Officer arrange for a supervisor and a second reader and shall choose a topic in consultation with the supervisor, the second reader and the Graduate Officer. A Thesis student may, with the permission of the Graduate Officer, arrange for a thesis supervisor; the student and the supervisor will, with a supervisory committee appointed by the Graduate Officer, choose a thesis topic.
Course Descriptions
ENGL 5F90
Major Research Paper
A research project on a selected topic involving independent work and original research and thought.
ENGL 5F91
MA Thesis
An extended research project involving the preparation and defence of a thesis which shall demonstrate capacity for independent work and original research and thought.
ENGL 5P00
Theoretical Foundations
Survey and critical analysis of a broad range of theories bearing on the relation of literary texts to cultural formations.
Seminar, 3 hours per week
ENGL 5P01
Graduate Seminar in Research and Professional Development
Topics such as the nature and requirements of academic work, research methodologies, research resources, the nature and requirements of the graduate thesis and research paper, the development of the research proposal, focused discussion of research and design strategies for the work proposed, the development of and adherence to a schedule, preparation of conference proposals and public presentations.
Seminar, 1 1/2 hours per week for two terms
ENGL 5P02
Graduate Tutorial
Research course with directed study and regular meetings with a faculty member, covering topics not offered in a designated course. Requires permission of the Graduate Officer.
ENGL 5V10-5V19
Medieval and Early Modern Literature and Culture
English literature, literary culture, and discourses on community from the 14th century to the late 17th century.
2005-2006: ENGL 5V10
Textual Communities in Seventeenth-Century England
The contribution of print culture to the development of politicized textual communities of writers and readers.Features a range of heterogeneous texts, including trial accounts, printed speeches, religious treatises, female-authored defences, and political dialogues, pamphlets, and closet dramas in terms of such topics as: public spheres and print cultures; censorship and resistance; writing the revolution; royalist stage acts; cultures of dissent.
ENGL 5V20-5V29
The Long Eighteenth Century Literature and Culture
Studies in literature and culture from the Restoration of Charles II to the ascension of Victoria, 1660-1837.
2005-2006: ENGL 5V20
Jane Austen and Communities of Women
The works of Austen in the context of eighteenth-century women writers (such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Frances Burney) and contemporary feminist approaches.
Seminar: 3 hours per week
ENGL 5V30-5V39
Nineteenth Century British and American Literature and Culture
Literature and literary culture in relation to the political, social and intellectual movements of the 19th century. May include transatlantic or nationally located studies.
2005-2006: ENGL 5V31
Textuality/Sexuality in Victorian Discourse
Are new forms of sexuality "discovered" like new continents or "invented" and actually called into being by new forms of discourse? Using the theories of Michel Foucault, a range of Victorian texts from poems to paintings and photographs will be interrogated for what they tell us about the articulation of new categories such as "masochism" and "homosexuality" in Victorian discourse.
ENGL 5V40-5V49
Twentieth Century Literature and Culture
Literature and cultural identity, location and change in established and developing literatures in the 20th century.
ENGL 5V50-5V59
Canadian Literature and Culture
Studies in Canadian literature with an emphasis on texts and their relation to intersecting notions of community.
2005-2006: ENGL 5V50
Alice Munro: History, Memory and Community
The implications of storytelling in the fiction of Alice Munro, with special attention to the role of narrative in the construction of individual and communal identities in small towns in Huron County. The ways in which historical and material circumstance, as mediated by reading and writing, contribute to the provocative sense of the conditional that characterizes Munro's textualized universe.
Seminar: 3 hours per week
ENGL 5V60-5V69
Contemporary Literature and Culture
The role of literature in the creation and maintenance of located and imagined communities in the contemporary world.
ENGL 5V70-5V79
Special Topics in Literature and Culture
Literature, culture and community in areas such as genre studies, specialized theoretical studies and comparative historical studies.
ENGL 5V80-5V89
Rhetoric and Discourse Studies
Study of rhetoric, genre, discourse and language. Topics may include rhetorical instatiations of textual communities, ideologies of language as they operate in conceptualizations of nation and self, and discourse analytic methods for examining texts and their contexts.