Major Research Paper
A research project on a selected topic involving independent work and original research and thought.
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.
Theoretical Foundations
Survey and critical analysis of a broad range of theories bearing on the relation of literary texts to cultural formations.
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.
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 Program Director.
Medieval and Early Modern Literature and Culture
English literature, literary culture, and discourses on community from the 14th century to the late 17th century.
2008-2009: Christopher Marlowe, Trauma, Traged
Examination of Marlowe's plays in the context of early modern communal traumas. Emphasis on the tension between tragic and traumatic discourses in the plays' reworkings of cultural rupture and dislocation. Theorists such as Cathy Caruth, Dominick LaCapra, Kelly Oliver and Kirby Farrell.
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.
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.
2008-2009: Victorian London: Monster City
An examination of the relationship between the production and reception of texts and images in Late-Victorian London, with special focus on the "urban Gothic." Emphasis on the relationship between literature and culture in the representation of urban environmentsusing the work of urban geographer David Harvey.
Twentieth Century Literature and Culture
Literature and cultural identity, location and change in established and developing literatures in the 20th century.
2008-2009: Samuel Beckett: Meditations and Mediations
Considerations of how Beckett's varied oeuvre prompt equally various questions about interpretation, performance, and adaptation. An evaluation of how Beckett has been and continues to be reinvented by and within literary theory, the stage, film, and other arts.
Canadian Literature and Culture
Studies in Canadian literature with an emphasis on texts and their relation to intersecting notions of community.
2008-2009: Textualising "Post-Conflict Histories"
An examination of artistic responses that bear witness to contemporary histories of mass violence from a "post-conflict" perspective, focusing on South Africa and Rwanda as case studies. Emphasis on exploring how texts and discourses challenge or reproduce conditions of conflict, and destabilize or re-invoke inherited categories of belonging as they address legacies of sustained historical conflict.
Contemporary Literature and Culture
The role of literature in the creation and maintenance of located and imagined communities in the contemporary world.
Special Topics in Literature and Culture
Literature, culture and community in areas such as genre studies, specialized theoretical studies and comparative historical studies.
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.