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Graduate Programs in English
The Graduate English program at Northeastern offers courses toward an MA degree
on either of two tracks, Literature or Composition, both of which are detailed
on this page. The Literature Program is detailed below. To skip to the
Composition Program, click here.
Master of Arts in English: Literature Track
The graduate program in English is designed to provide advanced study in
literature. It provides for personal development and for professional
advancement, particularly in teaching, editorial work, journalism, publishing,
writing, and research. The program also prepares students for advanced studies
leading to the Ph.D.
REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION TO THE PROGRAM
General: Students must fulfill requirements for admission to the Graduate
College.
Specific: Students electing this program must have completed a minimum of 30
credit hours of undergraduate work in composition and literature. Included in
the 30 hours must be courses in two of the following: Chaucer, Shakespeare,
Literary Criticism. (History of the English Language may be substituted for
Chaucer.)
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
The program requires 33 credit hours of coursework in literature, principally
English and American, and a final written examination.
THESIS OPTION
A scholarly thesis or an original imaginative work may be written, earning
six credit hours. After achieving degree candidacy, the student, in consultation
with the graduate coordinator, should select a topic and suggest an advisor in
the area of the topic. The approved thesis or imaginative work must be submitted
to the graduate coordinator at least one month before a formal defense.
EXAMINATIONS
At the conclusion of their coursework candidates must pass a written
examination described in department literature consisting of three questions,
one based on the General List, one which refers to works on the General List but
includes theoretical components from the Critical List below, and a third on a
"Restricted List" from those currently offered (see link below the General List). It is ordinarily offered
twice a year. A student who fails any part of the examination may take that part
a second time. Permission to take it a third time must be granted by the
departmental graduate committee after a review of the student's record.
Additional coursework may be required before a third and final attempt.
To see a complete list of texts covered on the examination in Literature click here.
A student completing a thesis or an imaginative work will submit to an oral
examination on its subject and background.
Courses should be chosen with a view to achieving adequate and substantial
preparation in English and American literatures with some work in world
literature. Courses in Literary Criticism, Shakespeare, and Chaucer (or History
of the English Language) must be taken in the master's program if they were not
taken in the undergraduate program. While the graduate coordinator may require
more or less work in English and American literatures in special cases, the
usual program divides the coursework as follows:
ENGL-430 Studies in Literary Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 3 cr.
Two American literature courses at the 400 level
including at least one
seminar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 6 cr.
Three English literature courses at the 400 level
including at least one
seminar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . .9 cr.
Electives chosen from 300-level or 400-level courses . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 9 cr.
ENGL-453 Thesis Seminar: Literature
OR
Two additional 400-level courses
. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 6 cr.
total
33 credits
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN LITERATURE READING LISTS
I. LITERATURE Click here to leap to the list of readings in Critical texts
- Anonymous:
- Beowulf
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- Everyman
- Chaucer:
- General Prologue
- Franklin's Tale
- Pardoner's Prologue and Tale
- Miller's Tale
- Shakespeare:
- Milton:
- Samson Agonistes
- Comus, A Masque
- Fielding:
- Swift:
- Blake:
- Songs of Innocence and Experience
- Marriage of Heaven and Hell
- Visions of Daughters of Albeon
- Austen:
- Bronte:
- Wilde:
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- Melville:
- Jacobs:
- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
- Hawthorne:
- House of the Seven Gables
- Thoreau:
- Wharton:
- James:
- Chesnutt:
- Conrad:
- Eliot:
- Faulkner:
- O'Casey:
- Wilson:
- DeLillo:
- Silko:
Click here for current
RESTRICTED LISTS to choose from.
II. CRITICAL THEORY General: Eagleton, Terry. Literary
Theory: An Introduction. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1983.
New Criticism: Brooks, Cleanth. "History Without Foonotes." The
Well-Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry. New York:
Harcourt-Brace, 1947. Eliot, T.S.. "Tradition and the Individual Talent"
"Hamlet." Selected Prose of T.S. Eliot, edited with an introduction by
Frank Kermode. New York: Harcourt, 1975.
Structuralism/Post-Structuralism: Barthes, Roland. "The Death of the
Author." Image, Music, Text. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977. Foucault,
Michel. "What is an Author?" Textual Strategies. Ed. Josue Harari.
Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1979. Johnson, Barbara. "The Execution of Billy Budd."
The Critical Difference. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1980.
Reader-Response: Fish, Stanley. "Going Down the Anti-Formalist Road."
Doing What Comes Naturally. Durham: Duke UP, 1989. Iser, Wolfgang. (from)
The Act of Reading. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1978. 3-37, 163-232.
Historicisms: Eagleton, Terry. "Literature and History." "Form and
Content." Marxism and Literary Criticism. Berkeley: U California P, 1976.
Greenblatt, Stephen. "Towards a Poetics of Culture." The New Historicism.
Ed. H. Aram Veeser. New York: Routledge, 1989. Michaels, Walter Benn. "The Gold
Standard and the Logic of Naturalism." The Gold Standard And the Logic of
Naturalism. Berkeley: U Cal P, 1987.
Psychoanalysis: Lacan, Jacques. "Seminar on the Purloined Letter."
The Purloined Poe. Eds. John P. Muller and William J. Richardson.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1988.
Feminism: Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Gubar. "Toward a Feminist
Poetics." The Madwoman in the Attic. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979. Jones, Ann
Rosalind. "Writing the Body: Toward an Understanding of L'Ecriture Feminine."
Feminist Studies 7/2 (Summer 1981): 247-63. Smith, Barbara. "Toward a
Black Feminist Criticism." 1977. rpt. The New Feminist Crit: Essays on Women,
Literature and Theory. Ed. Elaine Showalter, 1985.
Cultural Studies: Gates Jr., Henry Louis, "Writing 'Race' and the
Difference it Makes." Tompkins, Jane "Indians, Textualism, Morality, and the
Problem of History," Torodov, Tzvetan, "Race Writing and Culture," and
JanMohamed, Abdul R., "The Economy of Manichean Allegory," from Race, Writing
and Difference. Ed. Henry Louis Gates. Chicago: U Chicago P, 1986.
Core Curriculum21 credits
ENGL 433: Seminar in Composition Theory
ENGL 434: Seminar in Basic Writing
Theory
ENGL 435: Writing Assessment: Theory and Practice
ENGL 436:
Rhetorics of Composition
ENGL 438: Research in Composition
ENGL 453:
Thesis Seminar in English
Electives
12 hours to be chosen with the approval of the Graduate Advisor in English
and in accordance with the following provisions:
- no more than 6 hours at the 300-level
- COURSES MARKED (#) ARE CURRENTLY
UNDER REVIEW FOR GRADUATE CREDIT
CONSULT YOUR GRADUATE ADVISOR BEFORE
ENROLLING IN THESE COURSES
- no more than 9 hours in any one area of study
designated below
Literature: American, British and/or International
Any 400-level courses
Writing: Craft and Genre
ENGL 376: Advanced Composition: Grammar and Style
#ENGL 377: Argumentative
Prose
#ENGL 335: Written Communication for Business
#ENGL 336: Writing for
Public Relations and Advertising
#ENGL 375: The Essentials of Tutoring
Writing
#ENGL 382-87: Creative Writing
Rhetoric: Theory and History
ENGL 430: Studies in Literary Criticism
ENGL 437: Contemporary Issues in
Composition
#SPCH:COMM 322: Modern Rhetoric
SPCH:COMM 404: Communication
Theory
Language: Theory and History
LING 411: Transformational Analysis
LING 412: American English: History
and Growth
LING 416: English Language: History and Development
LING 419:
Fundamentals of Modern Linguistics
LING 444: Lexicography
LING 446:
Sociolinguistics
LING 432: First Language Acquisition
LING 482: Second
Language Acquisition
LING 440: Linguistics and Literacy
READING LIST FOR MA COMPOSITION EXAMThe reading list has been updated
for 2005-2007. To access the new list in .pdf format, click HERE.
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