Monash University Handbook 2011 Postgraduate - Area of Study

The discipline of English is concerned with the richest and most varied of the world's literatures, reaching in time from Anglo-Saxon writings of the eighth century to contemporary genre fiction, and in geographical range across all the many nations in which English is a preferred medium for writing. English has also been the source of some of the most exciting theoretical and interdisciplinary advances of recent decades. English at Monash has as its ideal a fruitful interaction of new energies and modes of awareness with the strengths of traditional scholarship and criticism. It offers studies in authors from the Renaissance onwards and in many thematic and theoretical fields. It is a world-recognised centre for the editing of scholarly texts, particularly from British literature pre-1800, classic Australian poetry and fiction, and postcolonial literature. Scholarly editions of Henry Handel Richardson and Mary Gilmore, and 19th-century Indian women's writing in English are among some of the section's recent productions. The Monash Library has particularly fine collections in the field of English literature 1660-1800 and has recently acquired a rare database, exclusive to Monash University, in postcolonial studies - Empire On-Line. The Rare Books library also has outstanding collections of Australian literature, children's literature, science fiction and ephemera.

Particular academic strengths in the section include:

• 17th and 18th-century writing and new literatures in postcolonial contexts
• Australian literature (including its regional and textual character)
• children's literature and discourses of childhood
• creative fiction writing
• discourse analysis
• law and literature
• literary and cultural theory
• literary and other biography
• literature and the history of ideas
• poetics and poetry
• postcolonial literature and discourse
• pre-1800 British literature
• the construction of canons and the newly emerging developments of English studies
• the history of authorship and editorial practice and theory
• Victorian literature
• women's studies and writing.

Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Research)

Students complete 48 points including a dissertation, one core theory unit and two elective units chosen from the list below.

Core units

• APG4274 Literary theory
• APG4736 Dissertation

Elective units

• APG4265 Poetics
• APG4270 Writing the child
• APG4271 Gothic revivals
• APG4272 Writers and the creative process
• APG4273 Contemporary Australian poetry and fiction
• APG4275 Drama of the age of Shakespeare
• APG4276 Exotic erotic other: World writing in English
• APG4277 Visions and revisions: Reworkings
• APG4424 Ireland, Swift, England: Special author subject
• ATS4765 Feminist poetics

Course coordinator

Dr Nina Philadelphoff-Puren

Master of Arts by Research and Coursework

The entry below only details the coursework component of this degree. For all requirements including the research/thesis component refer to the full course entry at http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2011handbooks/courses/2846.html.

On completion of the course, students should have consolidated and extended their knowledge of literature, literary theory and the contexts in which literature is produced and read. They should also have consolidated their skills in originating and pursuing research projects independently and extended their skills of analysis, composition and argument. They should also have completed a substantial research thesis which represents a significant contribution to knowledge in the field in which they are working.

Units

Students complete 24 points at fifth year level from:

• APG5265 Poetics
• APG5272 Writers and the creative process
• APG5273 Contemporary Australian poetry and fiction
• APG5274 Literary theory
• APG5275 Drama of the age of Shakespeare
• APG5276 Exotic erotic other: World writing in English
• APG5277 Visions and revisions: Reworkings
• APG5424 Ireland, Swift, England: Special author unit

Course coordinator

Dr Nina Philadelphoff-Puren

Further courses

For a list of units studied or course outlines, refer to the relevant courses.

• 3937 Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Research)
• 2846 Master of Arts by research and coursework
• 2695 Master of Arts*
• 0020 Doctor of Philosophy*

* By research.