judy.keogh@arts.monash.edu.au or louella.dcosta@arts.monash.edu.au
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/schools/lvcs/
Room W707, West Wing, Menzies building, Clayton campus
(03) 9905 2148 or (03) 9905 2140
The English section offers a variety of units in the literatures of Britain, Australia, America, Asia, and in a range of related areas including academic, professional and creative writing.
In first year, students are introduced to the study of English through a
choice of unit sequences. Each sequence has a different focus - the study of
English literature and the study of effective writing. Each aims to introduce
students to a variety of modes of reading and to a number of ways of speaking
and writing about what they read. At Clayton, the text and context sequence,
provided by the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, may
also lead into later-year English units. Students at Clayton should note that
these CLS units are recommended as usefully supplementing English literature
units in the first year, and that one of these sequences may be taken alongside
the ENH units.
Second and third-year units in literature introduce students to the literature
and culture of different historical periods. Related units are offered in the
following fields: Australian studies, the theory and practice of children's
literature, critical theory, feminist theory and women's writing, postcolonial
theory and literature, the languages of literature, literary and visual
semiotics and performance studies, creative writing and professional writing.
Students may select from these areas to develop their major in English. For the
language of places and performance sequence, see entry for `Drama and theatre
studies'.
Students will find the expectations of English outlined in unit handbooks as
they proceed through the degree.
English provides consultation and advice on choice of units at first, second,
third and fourth-year levels to ensure that students choose suitable and
coherent sequences.
The English-in-use (EIU) program is designed for students whose first language is other than English. As the program is a study of the functional, theoretical and cultural features of the English language and not a literature-based course, it is a separate unit to English and may not be taken as part of a sequence in English. This allows second language students the option of taking EIU as a separate sequence and considering English as a possible second major or minor within their degree. This program is available to international and non-English-speaking-background students who fulfil the Arts faculty second language entry criteria.
The visual culture program teaches courses in two major streams: visual culture, and film and television studies. Minor sequences, major sequences and honours studies may be undertaken in either of these broad areas, or a combination of the two. The first-year unit VSA1000 (Introduction to visual culture: back to the future) is designed to provide a foundation for all subsequent studies in visual culture. Students may choose to complete a first-year sequence by taking VSA1010 (Contemporary visual culture) or VSA1050 (Contemporary popular film), or both, in second semester.
Visual culture units involve historical and critical approaches to film and
television, video and new screen technologies, photography, painting, fashion,
sculpture and the built environment, with a special emphasis on Australian,
European and American art and architecture. Particular attention is paid to
recent manifestations of visual culture. Film and television studies cover
Australian, Asian and European national cinemas, contemporary popular Hollywood
and its institutions, alternative film and video, documentary and television
studies and video practice.
Throughout the course of studies, emphasis will be given to a variety of
critical and theoretical methods of analysis appropriate to the study of visual
culture, including formal, semiotic and psychoanalytic approaches,
consideration of issues to do with the intersection of ideology and culture,
the representation of gender, race and class, and questions concerning the
relations between visual culture and technology.
Students are encouraged to consider combining their visual culture studies with
other relevant and compatible disciplines in the Faculty of Arts. Examples are
performing arts, comparative literature and cultural studies, English, history,
women's studies, and a range of relevant Asian and European languages.
Particular attention is drawn to: CLS1010 (Text and context), CLS1040
(Introduction to cultural studies), and WMN2240/ 3240 (Introduction to
contemporary feminist theory).
Units under this heading are administered by the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies and taught jointly by the School of Literary, Visual and Performance Studies and the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics. The centre is an interdisciplinary teaching unit with responsibility for teaching and research in three main areas of work:
Comparative literature is the study of literary texts in ways that go beyond
particular national or linguistic boundaries. We study literary texts written
in other languages - especially Chinese, French, German, Russian and Spanish -
as well as in English. All texts are studied in English translation, but the
people teaching them will normally know the original as well.
Cultural studies is the study of literature in its political and social
contexts and in relation to other arts and media, for example the press, film
and television. We study the interrelationships between texts and codes, both
`artistic' and `popular' verbal and visual. We look at the connections between
social institutions like the international media conglomerates, cultural
technologies like printing and film and cultural forms such as the novel and
the soap opera.
Critical theory is an umbrella term for a whole series of contemporary
approaches to literary and cultural criticism, for example hermeneutics,
semiotics, post-structuralism, ideology critique, psychoanalysis, and so on.
Such theories are central to recent work in literary and cultural studies.
Although the emphasis varies from unit to unit, much of our work deals with all
three areas.
Students who wish to make a specialist study of drama and theatre studies as part of their Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Performing Arts may do so within the Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies. The units available represent a wide range of approaches to studies in the field. Most place a strong emphasis on performance. While the major in drama and theatre studies is not designed specifically as a course in systematic skills training, the element of performance in our program (whether in public production or through in-house experimental work) is regarded as fundamental to the analysis of theatre texts and processes.
The first-year prerequisite for students intending a major or minor sequence
in drama and theatre studies is DTS1060 (The language of performance) and
DTS1160 (The places of performance). A second first- year sequence is available
as an additional option (DTS1320 and DTS1420). In later years, majoring
students should take at least 48 points (12 points at second-year level and
24 points at third-year level) from DTS units offered by the faculty.
While some of the units, which are not offered solely by the centre, have
disciplinary prerequisites, students taking these units as DTS studies may,
with the permission of relevant discipline area, be excused of those
requirements. Students who are appropriately qualified may be admitted to the
fourth-year honours program.
The DTS units listed in this handbook are offered at the Clayton campus unless
otherwise indicated. None of the DTS units listed in the handbook may be
counted towards more than one minor or major sequence. Units with the prefix
PER are available only to students enrolled in the Bachelor of Performing Arts
degree.
The Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies has close connections with a number of other teaching programs in the Faculty of Arts, all of which are concerned in one way or another with the study of texts and textuality. These are comparative literature, critical theory, cultural studies and English literature - units offered in these areas are listed under each of these disciplines.
It is possible to take a double major in any two of comparative literature and cultural studies, drama and theatre studies, and English. A major in any of these may also be combined with a minor sequence in any other or with a minor sequence in critical theory.
For details of the following courses, see `Outline of studies' earlier in this section.
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