English 200 - Fall, 2016

Introduction to Graduate Studies in English

Class Information

Instructor: Jerng, Mark
CRN: 32685
Time: M 3:10-6:00
Location: 120 Voorhies

Description

This seminar introduces Ph.D. students to graduate study in English by focusing on contemporary and ongoing debates in literary study. The aim of this course is to prepare new students for advanced work in the field and to orient them in the profession. Much of what we do as scholars is familiarize ourselves with debates and problems both inside and outside our field, follow our own curiosities, and work to shape new interventions. In order to model this process and develop your own engagements as scholars, we will read selections of work that helped define and move forward some of the key debates going on in our field today. Occasional faculty visitors will supplement our readings by sharing their own thinking about these developments. Possible topics include both conceptual and methodological issues such as reading (the recent emphasis on the practices and processes of reading); historicism; ideology critique; ecological approaches, among others. In addition, this course will address a few practical issues in graduate study: the seminar paper/writing and the practice of teaching.

Grading

Grading is P/F.
Short assignments built around methods of textual analysis

Texts

Course Reader