The Department of English Literary Studies at UCT recently launched a revised coursework Master's degree that foregrounds research into English Literary Studies in the global South. The new MA aims to equip a new generation of postgraduate students to conduct research into the compelling issues that arise in our discipline at a time when questions of canonicity are under revision and new approaches to literary studies are generating new archives and addressing the coloniality of received archives. The course helps to equip students to develop their own research paths and would make excellent preparation before moving into the PhD.
Course convenor
A/Prof Barbara Boswell (barbara.boswell@uct.ac.za) and Dr Bernard Fortuin (bernard.fortuin@uct.ac.za)
Course structure
The coursework MA includes the following components:
- Two core courses
- Two elective courses
- One ‘minor’ dissertation of 25,000 words, to be undertaken in the second year of registration.
The first year of the MA is devoted to coursework, comprised of two electives and two core courses. Students are invited to select two electives in total. These can be made up from within one of the streams, if they would like to align themselves with one of the sub-specialities in preparation for their dissertation the following year. However, it is not necessary to select both electives from one stream. Students are at liberty to choose their electives from 2 different streams.
There are 5 streams, each of which represents an area of speciality within the Department:
Black Literary and Intellectual Traditions
Gender and Sexuality in African Literature
World Literatures in English
Literature and the Archive
Between the Critical and Creative
Course work is completed in the first year of the programme.
A ‘minor’ dissertation of 25,000 words is undertaken in the second year of the programme. Students register for the dissertation during the second year of the programme, through the following code: ELL5001W.
Compulsory (core) courses
In addition to the 2 MA electives, students are required to take 2 MA core courses which are designed to support the work of research. All coursework MA students will, therefore, be required to register for the following two courses during their first year of study:
ELL5047F: Literary Theory from the Global South
This course introduces students to key theoretical debates and fields of knowledge associated with postcoloniality and decoloniality, emphasising reading and producing literary theory from the global South. We will consider how the conceptual framework of the global South impacts the field of literary studies and our scholarly practice. Students will have the chance to think through and write about the meanings that derive from being situated in the global South as producers of knowledge. Students will be expected to draw on and synthesise the work of key postcolonial and decolonial theorists, with the aim of epistemologically orienting their work as produced from the global South. This core course lays the theoretical grounding for the core course, "Research Methods in English Literary Studies".
Assessment: Three equally weighted essays of 2500-3000 words each.
- Module 1: Theory from the Global South (Sandy Young)
- Module 2: The Decolonisation of Sexualities. (Bernard Fortuin)
- Module 3: On Afro-Asian Theories of Co-operation and Critique since Bandung (Mapule Mohulatsi)
ELL5045S: Research Methods in English Literary Studies
The course aims to impart to students the knowledge and ability to conceptualise a research project in literary studies, undertake different methods for conducting literary research, and construct a sound research proposal, leading them to embark on MA-level research in literary studies. The course also instructs students to write and assemble constituent parts of a research proposal incrementally, resulting in a completed research proposal by the end of the semester.
- Module 1: Starting out (Hedley Twidle)
- Module 2: Workshop on archive and working across disciplines (Kate Highman)
- Module 3: TBC
Electives
Electives are offered within each of the following streams of inquiry:
- Black Literary and Intellectual Traditions
- Gender and Sexuality in African Literature
- World Literatures in English
- Literarature and the Archive
- Between the Critical and
- Environmental Humanities South