Course Description
This course seeks to introduce graduate students to conventions, traditions and methodologies of research in the field of English Studies, broadly conceived, with special attention to the ways in which the different disciplines that constitute the field (composition and rhetoric, linguistics, and literary studies) interact with and impact each other. English studies is a diversified field; developing an understanding of it means not only understanding the different disciplines it encompasses but also recognizing and using the interplay among these disciplines in advancing your knowledge and skills. Assignments in this course are intended to sustain a dialectical relationship among these disciplines as they respond individually and collectively to current issues in the field. The course is designed as a survey of the current state of theory in each of several main subfields of English studies with particular attention to the developments in critical theory that have contributed to the transformation of literary study in recent decades.
 

These developments, along with various social, demographic and institutional changes, have provoked a crisis in traditional literary study such that, increasingly, the centrality of canonical literature in the English curriculum is increasingly questioned. Our department's curriculum, and this course, certainly reflect this state of affairs. This course will consider these issues in their theoretical, historical and institutional contexts. Students will also be introduced to some of the standard resources used in research in English studies, including library, archival and internet databases.