Faculty of Arts English

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Faculty of Arts

Table of Contents

1. Prerequisites
2. Requirements for a major in English literary studies
3. Honours entry
4. Honours requirements
    4.1. Pure honours
    4.2. Combined honours
5. Further study
6. Career opportunities
7. For more information
Subject Lists
    First year subjects
    Second/third year subjects
    Fourth year subjects
    Subjects not offered in 2002
        Second/third year subjects not offered in 2002
        Fourth year subjects not offered in 2002

The Department of English was inaugurated in 1854 as one of the first departments in Australia to offer studies in English literature. The department is recognised nationally and internationally as one of the most exciting and progressive departments of its kind. Academic staff maintain a strong commitment to scholarly values and actively encourage and support students in their passion for literature and writing. Staff are dedicated to fostering learning experiences students will remember their whole lives. In recent decades the department has been at the forefront of disciplinary innovation and current theoretical approaches to critical literary studies. Whether undertaking a major in English literary studies or in the popular creative writing program, students of English have an excellent and flexible preparation for careers in the media and publishing, advertising, education and professional writing. Students who are interested in expanding their interests and knowledge in English are provided with an articulated structure of higher degree study options at the University of Melbourne.

English is the study of literary texts written in the English language from the medieval to the modern era. Traditional ways of thinking, writing and talking about texts have been transformed in recent decades by heightened awareness of theoretical and political assumptions underlying literary criticism. English subjects may be oriented towards the texts themselves, the historical and cultural contexts in which such texts are produced, or the theoretical issues involved in reading texts. A number of subjects approach the task of criticism from methodologies which originate in Marxist, feminist or psychoanalytic thought.

1. Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for first year subjects in English.

The prerequisite for a second/third year subject in English is usually the completion of two first year subjects in English (25 points). Students who have completed suitable alternative first year subjects are advised to consult with the department for permission to enrol. Exemptions may also be granted where subjects are taken as part of an approved interdepartmental program with its own entry requirements.

2. Requirements for a major in English literary studies

A major in English literary studies usually consists of nine 12.5 point subjects, totalling 112.5 points. It comprises:

• two first year subjects in English (25 points), and;

• seven second/third year subjects in English (87.5 points). At least four of these subjects must be taken from the following list of English literary studies subjects. The remainder can consist of any second/third year subjects offered in the English Department.

3. Honours entry

The prerequisites for entry to fourth year honours in English Literary studies are:

• completion of all the requirements for the BA;

• completion of a major in English literary studies;

• an average grade of H2B or higher over the second/third year subjects within the major.

Entry to honours must be approved by the English honours coordinator and the Faculty of Arts honours course adviser. A departmental application form for both pure and combined honours is included in the English honours handbook, available from the department mid-October. Application forms are to be lodged with the department by 16 November. If the student intends enrolling in an English honours thesis the application must include a 200 word thesis proposal. Prospective honours students will be interviewed by the departmental honours coordinator from 3-7 December. Mid-year entry applications must meet the same timetable although a mid-year interview period is provided for students ineligible to apply in December.

4. Honours requirements

Honours coordinator: Stephanie Trigg

4.1. Pure honours

Students undertaking pure honours in English literary studies must complete:

• 106-508 English Thesis or 106-509 English Thesis (MYE) (37.5 points) and;

• five honours subjects in English (62.5 points) including 106-401 Research Principles and Practices (12.5 points).

4.2. Combined honours

Students undertaking combined honours in English literary studies and another area of study must complete:

• 106-508 English Thesis or 106-509 English Thesis (MYE) (37.5 points) and;

• two honours subjects in English (totalling 25 points), including 106-401 Research Principles and Practices (12.5 points).

• three honours subjects in the combined area of study (37.5 points).

or

• honours thesis in the combined area of study (37.5 points) and;

• two honours subjects in the combined area of study (25 points) and;

• three honours subjects in English (37.5 points), excluding106-401 Research Principles and Practices.

5. Further study

The Department of English offers a number of graduate diplomas and degrees at different levels in a wide range of literary studies subjects: Graduate Certificate in Arts (English Literary Studies); Graduate Diploma in Arts (English Literary Studies); Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (English); an MA by advanced seminars and shorter thesis; an MA by thesis and the PhD. Details of these courses are available in the Faculty of Arts Postgraduate Handbook and from the Department of English.

6. Career opportunities

A degree with a major in English literary studies is an excellent and flexible preparation for careers in journalism and the media, public service, publishing, education, librarianship, information management, and many other roles, public and private, in the communications and service industries.

7. For more information

The Department of English
Second Floor, John Medley Building
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010
Tel: +61 3 8344 5506/7/8
Web: http://www.english.unimelb.edu.au

First year subjects

106-001 Contemporary Culture and Media
106-002 Modern Literature
106-005 Contemporary Culture and Everyday Life
106-007 Traditions of Shakespeare
106-010 Literature, Culture, History
106-086 Creative Writing 1: Autofictions

Second/third year subjects

106-003 Media and Cultural Difference
106-009 Media Histories and Cultural Studies
106-012 Television Cultures
106-013 Beowulf
106-015 Backgrounds to English Literature
106-020 Reading Sexuality
106-024 Introduction to Old English A
106-025 Creative Writing 2: Across the Genres
106-026 Writing Extended Fiction
106-028 Writing Poetry
106-029 Introduction to Old English B
106-032 Novel and Film
106-033 Writing After Empire
106-034 Imagining the City: Dream, Fact, Style
106-035 Popular Fiction
106-036 Postmodernism
106-038 Medievalism in Contemporary Culture
106-043 The Victorian 'Supernatural'
106-045 Aboriginal Writing
106-046 Australia and the Colonial Imaginary
106-047 Art/Pornography/Blasphemy/Propaganda
106-048 Travel Writing: Zones of the Imagination
106-052 Gothic Fictions
106-056 Character and the Novel
106-057 From Rock to Rave: Cultural Formations
106-060 Decadence
106-061 American Voices
106-064 Contemporary Cultural Studies
106-077 Poetry in the Making
106-090 Editing
106-091 Writing for Performance
106-103 Sports, Entertainment and the Media
106-210 Elizabethan Texts
106-212 Principles of Editing and Publishing

Fourth year subjects

106-508 English Thesis
106-509 English Thesis (MYE)
106-401 Research Principles and Practices
106-403 Reading the Subject: Freud/Lacan/Fiction
106-404 Memory and Contemporary Culture
106-405 The Exeter Anthology
106-406 Contested Sites
106-407 Pope and His Enemies
106-408 The Novel & the Invention of the Modern
106-411 Contemporary Historical Fictions
106-413 Reading Suburbia in Post-War Australia
106-414 Medieval Representations
106-415 Material Texts
106-422 Poetry: The Versatile Imagination
106-423 Romanticism and Modernity
106-426 Post-War American Fiction
106-428 Media, Politics and Cultural Diaspora
106-430 Subcultural Studies
106-443 Body Cultures
106-448 Theorising the Spectator
106-459 Postcolonial Writing and Theory
106-467 Latin Paleography and Codicology

Subjects not offered in 2002

Second/third year subjects not offered in 2002

Fourth year subjects not offered in 2002

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Status:                   Official 2002
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