Faculty of Arts English Literary Studies

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Faculty of Arts

Table of Contents

1. Time commitment to study
2. Prerequisites
3. Diploma in Arts (English)
4. Requirements for a major in English literary studies
5. Honours entry
6. Honours requirements
    6.1. Pure honours
    6.2. Combined honours
7. Further study
8. Career opportunities
9. For more information
Subject Lists
    First-year subjects
    Second/third-year subjects
    Third/fourth-year subject
    Fourth-year subjects
    Publishing and communications subjects

The English literary studies program was inaugurated in 1854, making the Faculty of Arts one of the first faculties in Australia to offer studies in English literature. The School of Culture and Communication is recognised nationally and internationally as one of the most exciting and progressive program 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 program has been at the forefront of disciplinary innovation and current theoretical approaches to critical literary studies. Students of English literary studies 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 literary studies is the study of literary texts written in the English language from the medieval to the contemporary era. Traditional ways of thinking, writing and talking about texts have been transformed in recent decades by heightened awareness of the 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, postcolonial, historicist or psychoanalytic thought.

1. Time commitment to study

As well as scheduled contact hours for lectures, tutorial and seminars a considerable additional time commitment is needed to complete the academic requirements of each subject.

A subject-specific time commitment to study will be provided by your lecturer or tutor at the beginning of semester to help you schedule your workload and successfully manage your time during the semester. In addition, general estimates of the total time commitment required to study a 12.5-point single semester subject in the Faculty of Arts can be found on Time commitment to study.

2. Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for first-year subjects in English literary studies. The prerequisite for a second/third-year subject in English literary studies is the completion of one first-year subject in English literary studies (12.5 points). Students who have completed a suitable alternative first-year subject are advised to consult with the School of Culture and Communication for permission to enrol. Exemptions may also be granted where subjects are taken as part of an approved interdisciplinary program with its own entry requirements.

3. Diploma in Arts (English)

The Diploma in Arts (English) is only available to students who are currently enrolled in a degree course at the University of Melbourne. It consists of a three-year sequence of study, and adds one year to the duration of your degree.

Students must complete 25 points of first-year subjects in English and 75 points of second/third-year subjects selected from the list of English literary studies subjects below. Alternatively, students who have completed appropriate background studies at first year may complete 100 points of second/third-year subjects from the list of English literary studies subject below.

4. Requirements for a major in English literary studies

A major in English literary studies usually consists of eight 12.5-point subjects, totalling 100 points. It comprises:

• one first-year subject in English (12.5 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 (a maximum of three subjects) can consist of 106-code cultural studies program and creative writing program subjects offered by the School of Culture and Communication.

5. 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.

For information on how to apply see Applying for Honours. If the student intends enrolling in an English honours thesis the application must include a 200-word thesis proposal. Students admitted to the honours program will be interviewed by the honours coordinator to discuss the thesis proposal, study program and appointment of a supervisor. It is recommended that students planning to enter honours in English literary studies or who have already qualified to enter honours in English literary studies undertake the subject 106-453 Introduction to Theory in either their third or fourth year of studies.

6. Honours requirements

Honours coordinator: to be advised

6.1. Pure honours

Students undertaking pure honours in English literary studies must complete:

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

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

6.2. Combined honours

Students undertaking combined honours in English literary studies and another discipline must complete:

• 106-509 English Thesis (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 combining program (37.5 points).

or

• honours thesis in the combining program (37.5 points); and

• two honours subjects in the combining program (25 points); and

• three honours subjects in English (37.5 points), excluding 106-401 Research Principles and Practices.

7. Further study

The School of Culture and Communication 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 Certificate in Arts (English); Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (English); Postgraduate Certificate in Arts (Editing and Communications); Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Editing and Communications); an MA and the PhD. There is also the Master of Arts (Editing and Communications) and Master of Arts (Publishing and Editing). Details of these courses are available in the Faculty of Arts Postgraduate Handbook and from the School of Culture and Communication.

8. 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.

9. For more information

School of Culture and Communication
Second Floor, John Medley Building
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010
Tel: +61 3 8344 5506
Web: http://www.english.unimelb.edu.au

First-year subjects

106-101 Contemporary Culture and Media
106-102 Modern Literature
106-106 Contemporary Culture and Everyday Life
106-109 Shakespeare's Theatre
106-110 Contemporary Literature
106-120 Literature, Culture, History
106-186 Creative Writing: 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
106-014 Hong Kong Cinema
106-015 Backgrounds to English Literature
106-019 Blake
106-020 Reading Sexuality
106-022 City Cultures: Urban Stories
106-024 Introduction to Old English A
106-025 Creative Writing 2: Across the Genres
106-026 Writing Extended Fiction
106-027 Writing Scripts
106-028 Writing Poetry
106-029 Introduction to Old English B
106-032 Novel and Film
106-033 Writing After Empire
106-035 Genre Fiction/Popular Fiction
106-036 Postmodernism
106-037 Shakespearean Worlds
106-038 Medievalism in Contemporary Culture
106-039 Literary Classics
106-043 The Victorian 'Supernatural'
106-045 Aboriginal Writing
106-046 Australia and the Colonial Imaginary
106-047 Art/Pornography/Blasphemy/Propaganda
106-050 Australian Authorship
106-052 Gothic Fictions
106-053 Chaucer and the Birth of the Author
106-055 Cybercultures
106-057 From Rock to Rave: Cultural Formations
106-058 Scandal, Sex and Sentiment
106-060 Decadence
106-062 Writing Literary Non-Fiction
106-063 Aboriginal Cultural Studies
106-064 Contemporary Cultural Studies
106-068 Imagining Hollywood
106-091 Writing for Performance
106-203 Sports, Entertainment and the Media
106-210 Romance and Melancholia
106-212 Principles of Editing and Publishing
106-213 Art, Ideology and Doctrine, 400-1000
106-214 The Enlightenment and its Others
106-216 Victorian Crime Writing
106-217 Asian Screen Cultures
106-218 Romanticism, Feminism, Revolution
106-219 Literature, Cyberspace & Virtual Reality
106-221 Creative Writing: Travel and Place
106-222 Revolution, Reform and the Victorians
106-223 Romantic Literary Celebrity
106-224 Language of Feeling
106-225 Writing for Real
107-221 The Epics of Homer
107-231 Greek Tragedy and Roman Farce

Third/fourth-year subject

106-453 Introduction to Theory
106-467 Latin Paleography and Codicology

Fourth-year subjects

106-509 English Thesis
106-401 Research Principles and Practices
106-402 Cultural Policy and Power
106-403 Reading the Subject: Freud/Fiction/Lacan
106-404 Memory and Contemporary Culture
106-405 Anthologies of Anglo-Saxon Poetry
106-406 Contested Sites
106-408 The Novel & the Invention of the Modern
106-409 Stardom, Media, Culture
106-414 Medieval Representations
106-421 Scripts Wanted: Any Medium
106-422 Poetry: The Versatile Imagination
106-423 Romanticism and Modernity
106-427 Writing: Before and Beyond the Image
106-428 Media, Politics and Cultural Diaspora
106-430 Subcultural Studies
106-432 Cultural Studies in Asia
106-433 Genre Interventions
106-436 Queer Theory Ten Years On
106-444 Global Culture: History and Theory
106-448 Theorising the Spectator
106-451 Writing Nature
106-452 Thinking Writing
106-454 Melancholy in Australian Literature
106-457 Literary Pleasure
106-458 Dickens and the Condition of England
106-459 Postcolonial Writing and Theory
106-464 Cosmic Pandemonium in Paradise Lost
106-468 The Black Presence in American Fiction
106-469 The Athlete's Body as Sign and Text
106-472 Writing Genealogies of Place

Publishing and communications subjects

106-471 Structural Editing
106-473 Editorial English
106-474 The Contemporary Publishing Industry
106-475 Business and Professional Communications
106-476 Technical Writing and Editing
106-477 Writing and Editing for Digital Media

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