Disciplines and areas of study
English
Program Coordinator: Dr Sue Martin
Subjects offered in the English Program reflect the broad nature of the discipline. The subjects embrace a variety of literary traditions and genres. Critical approaches and methodologies are equally diverse. Some subjects draw upon the practices of other disciplines and through these provide a context for the exploration of new ideas emerging from the cross-fertilisation of diverse fields of study. Subjects focus on various aspects and periods of literature in English, including Australian literature, American literature, postcolonial literatures, women’s writing, biography and autobiography, as well as English literature and creative writing in various modes. Subjects focusing on cultural studies and psychoanalytic theory.
Availability of subjects
When planning a major students should note that subjects that are available in one year might not necessarily be available in the next. In some instances, each of a pair of subjects is offered in alternate years. Every effort is made by the program to give one-year notice when a subject is to be withdrawn the following year, but unforeseen circumstances may preclude such advance notice. If the enrolments for any second or third year subject fail in any year to reach the minimum figure considered viable by the program, the subject will lapse for that year.
Readings
Readings are listed in each subject entry on the subject database online at www.latrobe.edu.au/udb_public. Lecturers and tutors normally use the edition of the set texts available from the university bookshop.
Attendance requirements
Attendance at lectures and tutorials is obligatory. In order to pass any English subject, it is necessary to have submitted all the written work for the subject. The final date for submission of written work will be included in information given to students at the beginning of each subject.
English expression requirements
In order to pass any English subject, students must attain an acceptable standard of English expression. Tutors will offer guidance with expression difficulties, and further help with language and literacy problems is available from the Humanities Academic Skills Unit or from the Language and Academic Skills (ESL) Unit located in the Humanities 3 building. The program’s conventions of style and format are specified in the section on essay writing in the Essential Guide available to students at www.latrobe.edu.au/english/essential.htm and must be followed in the preparation of all written work.
Prerequisites
Thirty credit points of first year English is the normal prerequisite for second year English.
Forty credit points of second year English is the prerequisite for third year English.
Programs of study
English Major
To complete a major in English students must complete:
- an English core subject at each year level of their degree.
- 30 credit points at first year level,
- 40 credit points at second-year level and
- at least 60 credit points at third year level of English subjects from the list below.
Students intending to complete a major in English are strongly advised to include in their course a selection of literature from different periods and in different genres.
| Teaching period | Subject title | Subject code |
|---|---|---|
| First year core subjects (15 credit points) | ||
| TE-SEM-1 | Introducing Literature: the short story | ENG1ILS |
| OR | ||
| TE-SEM-1 | Texts Over Time: introduction to literature | ENG1TOT |
| Second year core subject (20 credit points) | ||
| To be advised | ||
| Third year core subject (20 credit points) | ||
| To be advised | ||
| Teaching period | Subject title | Subject code |
|---|---|---|
| First year subjects (15 credit points) | ||
| TE-SEM-1 | Introducing Literature: the short story | ENG1ILS |
| TE-SEM-1 | Texts Over Time: introduction to literature | ENG1TOT |
| TE-SEM-1 | Professional Writing: words in action | HUS1PWR |
| TE-SEM-2 | Text, Criticism and the Visual | ENG1TCV |
| TE-SEM-2 | Writing your Own Life | ENG1WYL |
| Second and third year subjects (20 credit points) | ||
| TE-SEM-1 | American Literature of the 20th Century | ENG2ALT/ENG3ALT |
| TE-SEM-1 | Inventing the Bush | ENG2ITB/ENG3ITB |
| TE-SEM-1 | Re-thinking Jane Austen | ENG2RJA/ENG3RJA |
| TE-SEM-1 | Re-situating Modernism: decolonising contexts | ENG2REM/ENG3REM |
| TE-SEM-1 | The Crisis of Meaning in the 21st Century | ENG2CRM/ENG3CRM |
| TE-SEM-1 | Writing Fiction | ENG2WFI/ENG3WFI |
| TE-SEM-2 | British and American Romanticism | ENG2BAR/ENG3BAR |
| TE-SEM-2 | Contemporary Feminist Thought | ENG2CFT/ENG3CFT |
| TE-SEM-2 | Jung’s Cultural Psychology | ENG2JCP/ENG3JCP |
| TE-SEM-2 | Narrative Analysis | ENG2NAA |
| TE-SEM-2 | Renaissance Voices and Counter Voices | ENG2REV/ENG3REV |
| TE-SEM-2 | Shakespeare, Realism and Romance | ENG2SRR/ENG3SRR |
| TE-SEM-2 | Women Writing B | ENG2WWB/ENG3WWB |
| Third year subjects (20 credit points) | ||
| TE-SEM-1 | Creating Non-fiction | HUS3CNF |
| TE-SEM-1 | Honours Seminar A (for prospective honours students only) | ENG3HSA |
| TE-SEM-1 | Reading Course A | ENG3RCA |
| TE-SEM-2 | Reading Course B | ENG3RCB |
| TE-SEM-2 | Writing Autobiography | ENG3WAB |
| Subject title | Subject code |
|---|---|
| Second or third year subjects (20 credit points) | |
| Shakespeare and Contemporaries | ENG2SAC/ENG3SAC |
| Shakespeare in Adaptation | ENG2SIA/ENG3SIA |
| Tragedy and the Classical World | ENG2TCW/ENG3TCW |
| Twentieth and Twenty-First century Australian Literature: inventing the past | ENG2TAL/ENG3TAL |
| Women Writing A | ENG2WWA/ENG3WWA |
| Writing Poetry | ENG2WRP/ENG3WRP |
Honours
Students who do well in second year English receive a letter inviting them to consider taking honours (a fourth year) in English, but any student may ask to be admitted to honours after consultation with the Honours Coordinator and/or the English Program Coordinator. Applicants for admission to honours in their fourth year should have completed first year English and, normally, a minimum of two second year English semester subjects. All third year intending honours students are required to include in their English major the 20-credit point, third year honours seminar, ENG3HSA. By the end of their third year, honours students must have completed 130 credit points of English (including ENG3HSA). Intending honours students are strongly recommended to include more English subjects in their degree. Students may take up to 205 credit points of English.
Permission to continue into fourth year is normally conditional on results of 70% or better in the English subjects of the pass degree and 75% or better in ENG3HSA. Applications are considered by a program committee. All admissions to the fourth year honours program, including applications for part-time study, are subject to the approval of the Honours Coordinator or English Program Coordinator. Joint honours, a fourth year honours course shared between English and another discipline, can be arranged. Mid-year entry is also possible. Students interested in the possibility of joint honours should apply in the first instance to the Honours Coordinator.
The fourth year’s work consists of three semester-long subjects selected from a range of fourth year subjects and a research essay of 12,000 to 15,000 words on a topic arranged at the end of the third year’s work and approved by the Honours Coordinator. There is also a methodology component. The three subjects are worth 45% of the final result (15% for each subject), the research essay 50%, and the methodology component 5%.
Fourth year subjects
A complete list of fourth year subjects, together with details of texts, subject requirements and assessment, is published in an honours brochure available from the English Program.