Last updated: February 14, 2022 @ 03:11PM

English

Master of Arts in English

Field(s) of Specialization
Text/ Community/ Discourse

Dean
Carol U. Merriam
Faculty of Humanities

Associate Dean
J. Keri Cronin
Faculty of Humanities

Core Faculty

Professors
Gregory Betts (English Language and Literature), Tim Conley (English Language and Literature), Adam Dickinson (English Language and Literature), Martin Danahay (English Language and Literature), Neta Gordon (English Language and Literature), Mathew Martin, (English Language and Literature), Elizabeth Sauer (English Language and Literature), Barbara K. Seeber (English Language and Literature), Carole Stewart (English Language and Literature)

Associate Professors
Robert Alexander (English Language and Literature), James Allard (English Language and Literature), Lynn Arner (English Language and Literature), Natalee Caple (English Language and Literature), Gale Coskan-Johnson (English Language and Literature), Ann Howey (English Language and Literature), Leah Knight (English Language and Literature), Andrew Pendakis (English Language and Literature), Susan Spearey (English Language and Literature)

Graduate Program Director
Gale Coskan-Johnson
gcoskanjohnson@brocku.ca

Graduate Program Assistant
Melissa Vanatte
905-688-5550, extension 3884
573A Glenridge GLN A 202
brocku.ca/humanities/english-language-and-literature/

Program Description
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.

While the program offers both a Thesis option and a Major Research Paper option, students are strongly encouraged to pursue the Major Research Paper option. Both options are designed to be completed in three terms or one year.

Admission Requirements
Successful completion of four-year Bachelor's degree, or equivalent, in English Literature, with a minimum average of B+. Applications 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 Graduate Admissions Committee will review all applications and recommend admission for a limited number of suitable candidates.

Individuals interested in part-time study should consult with the Graduate Program Director.

Degree Requirements
All students are required to take the two core courses, ENGL 5P00 and ENGL 5F01. Major Research Paper students must take four additional ENGL courses selected from the variable topics offerings; Thesis students take two such additional ENGL courses. With the permission of the Graduate Program Director 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.

Major Research Paper students will with the guidance of the Graduate Program Director arrange for a supervisor and a second reader and shall choose a topic in consultation with the supervisor, the second reader and the Graduate Program Director. A Thesis student will, with the permission of the Graduate Program Director, arrange for a thesis supervisor; the student and the supervisor will, with a supervisory committee appointed by the Graduate Program Director, choose a thesis topic.

Course Descriptions

Note that not all courses are offered in every session. Refer to the applicable timetable for details.

Students must ensure that prerequisites are met. Students may be deregistered, at the request of the instructor, from any course for which prerequisites and/or restrictions have not been met.
ENGL 5F01
Professional Skills and Development
Topics such as the nature of graduate studies, pedagogy, advanced research skills and resources, the development of research and grant proposals, career preparation, and preparation for conference presentations and publishing.

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
Surveys a range of thinkers and theoretical schools structuring the current discipline of English, including critical race theory, psychoanalysis, postcolonial theory, feminist theory, queer theory, British cultural studies, Foucault, and Bourdieu.

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 Program Director.

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.

ENGL 5V14
2022-2023 Christopher Marlowe: Texts and Contexts
Production, dissemination, and reception of the plays and poetry of Christopher Marlowe in the contexts of early modern culture. Issues ranging from the relationship between trauma and tragedy to the role of censorship in the works' textual histories.

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.

ENGL 5V20
2022-2023 Frantic and Sickly: Gothic Texts and Contexts
Examinations of the emergence of and responses to gothic texts in the latter half of the eighteenth century in Great Britain. Special attention will be given to non-canonical works. Topics may include the politics of taste; criticism and the literary marketplace; popular rewritings; and the culture of "terror."

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.

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.

ENGL 5V54
2022-2023 Reparation, Restoration, Restory-ation
Explores the capacity of literary and cultural texts to respond to intersecting contemporary crises, such as pandemics, the proliferation of mental illness, the rise of white supremacy, species extinctions, and climate catastrophe. Examines how texts and practices that sit uneasily within the framework of the humanities might catalyze feminist, decolonial, anti-racist, anti-opressive reworlding and animate alternative pathways for living, dying, being, and feeling otherwise amid social and planetary crises.

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 5V79
2022-2023 Literature of Early Nationhood
Examinations of the literary evidence for early nationhood – Renaissance to Romantic – in writings by such authors as E. Spenser, A. Bradstreet, J. Milton, J. Swift, T. Cary, A. L. Barbauld, and A. Kidd. Historicist, literary critical, cultural, and theoretical perspectives. Includes re-evaluations of seminal contributions to nationalism studies by Gellner, Hobsbawm, Anderson, Greenfeld, and others.

ENGL 5V80-5V89
Rhetoric and Discourse Studies
Study of rhetoric, genre, discourse and language. Topics may include rhetorical instantiations 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.