Master of Arts in English

Description

The MA in English, Creative Writing and Literature tracks introduces graduate students to advanced critical and creative study in the art of language. The program can be completed entirely (100%) online through a variety of synchronous and asynchronous courses, or through a combination of online, hybrid, and in person courses. Literary seminars and writing workshops provide intentionally framed forums for sustained and comparative analysis of literary texts, techniques, and traditions from diverse cultural contexts, through varied critical and theoretical lenses, and in dialogue with current critical scholarship. The program encourages students to work closely with faculty mentors and culminates for all creative writers and, optionally, for literature track students in a substantial (and potentially publishable) independent project focusing on an area of the student’s interest and emerging expertise. The MA in English Literature can be successfully completed with coursework. For students intending to pursue a PhD or wanting to write a thesis, there is the opportunity to do so under the guidance of faculty advisors and readers. Graduate students additionally have the opportunity to read, hear, and talk craft with nationally and internationally recognized authors through Brockport’s visiting writers series, the Writers Forum, established in 1968 and including a remarkable repository of interviews.

For accepted students exhibiting superior promise, the department has a limited number of assistantships available that provide a stipend and a tuition scholarship for up to nine graduate credits per semester. They are awarded on a competitive basis with an April 15 application deadline. Further information on assistantships may be obtained from The Center for Graduate Studies.

Admission to the Program

Applicants for matriculation in the Master of Arts in English program must submit a completed application. Application materials are available online. The application includes the following:

1. A statement of interest/intent.
2. Official transcripts of all undergraduate and prior graduate work.
3. Two letters of recommendation from persons in a position to assess the potential for significant academic achievement.
4. Applicants for the Creative Writing track must submit a sample of their poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction of no more than 20 pages in length. Applicants for the Literature track must submit a nonfiction writing sample of no more than 8-10 pages in length.

Normally, an undergraduate major in English with a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 “B” is required. For further information, contact the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English.

Program Requirements

Students must meet the University’s standards for graduate study.

Students choose one of two tracks for the Master of Arts in English: Literature or Creative Writing. Each is a 36-credit program. Each track includes an introductory seminar on advanced discourse in the discipline. While the Creative Writing track includes a series of writing workshops, which students in the Literature track may take as electives, both tracks require a range of literature courses.

Note: no course may meet more than one requirement.

Literature Track (36 credits)

• Literature: Critical Discourses and Dialogues in the Discipline (3 credits)
• Two Seminars in Literary Genres and Techniques ⁱ (6 credits)
• Two Seminars in Critical Perspectives on Literary Traditions ⁱⁱ (6 credits)
• Two Seminars in Comparative Literature, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Literature, or Literary Theory ⁱⁱⁱ (6 credits)
• Three Electives in literature, film, or creative writing (9 credits*)
• Either:
• One additional Literature seminar or
• ENG 697 Advanced Project in Literature**
• *Up to 3 graduate credits may be taken outside the English department with approval of department.

**Any graduate student may complete the MA in English Literature entirely through coursework. Literature track students interested in pursuing a PhD and/or completing an advanced scholarly project for prospective publication may elect to work with a faculty mentor to substantially revise an essay written for a literature seminar. Application for the advanced project requires a proposal, including an abstract and annotated bibliography developed in consultation with the proposed mentor. The advanced project is typically an article-length study (30-40 pages), expertly researched and sufficiently complex, that demonstrates mastery of relevant primary and secondary literature as well as an ability to write in accordance with professional disciplinary standards. The outcome of ENG 697 will be a potentially publishable paper that represents a significant contribution to the discipline, approved by a director, a second reader, and the Graduate Committee. ENG 697 is taken as a directed study with the faculty mentor, subject to approval by the Director of Graduate Studies, in the candidate’s final semester.

Note: no course may meet more than one requirement.

Creative Writing Track (36 credits)

• Creating Writing Workshops (12 credits), including at least 3 credits in each of:
  • ENG 691 Prose Workshop
  • ENG 692 Poetry Workshop
• ENG 603 Seminar in Creative Writing
• ENG 595 Writer’s Craft
• Literature Electives (9 credits)
• English or Film Electives (6 credits) (creative writing, film, or literature)
• ENG 698 Creative Thesis

The track culminates in a creative thesis of 50-60 pages – typically a collection of poems or short prose pieces accompanied by a critical introduction. The thesis should include the best of the work that has come through the workshops, revised, and brought to a finished state. A thesis proposal must be approved by a director who has agreed to work with the student, and by two readers selected in consultation with the director. The thesis is then written under the guidance of the director, approved by the readers, and recommended to the Graduate Committee.

  ⁱSeminars in Literary Genres and Techniques

These close reading courses focus on a particular genre, intersecting genres, and/or literary techniques. Without purporting to be surveys of literary form or genres, they offer students the opportunity to do lots of close reading attentive to formal elements of the texts. This does not preclude investigations informed by other interests (for instance, intercultural/comparative literary inquiry, historical surveys of a genre, culturally coherent investigations, etc.). While these courses include critical writing assignments through which students’ capacity for close reading attentive to literary form and technique could be assessed (SLO1), they might engage with literary form and technique in more creative ways also. They may but need not include the conventional 12-20 pp. graduate essay engaged with current scholarship.

  ⁱⁱSeminars in Critical Perspectives on Literary Traditions

These seminars include analysis of literary texts within a particular tradition (with tradition defined broadly in terms of a cultural or historical context, literary form, thematic coherence, etc.). While constituting a survey of sorts of the tradition, they also introduce critical/theoretical perspectives on that tradition. These seminars engage literary canons and criticism with an intentional attentiveness to concerns of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Seminars may include a variety of writing and other assignments, though they should require an extended analytical essay to be assessed as a “compelling, critically informed argument regarding literary texts and traditions in dialogue with current scholarly discourse” and “practice standards and techniques of advanced academic research and writing” (SLO2).

  ⁱⁱⁱ Seminars in Comparative Literature, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Literature, or Literary Theory

These seminars are intercultural, interdisciplinary, and/or theoretical in scope. They require students to examine texts in terms of comparative contexts, cultural literacies, and/or theoretical frameworks. These courses might be focused on intersections of literature and film, literature and art, literary and other social discourses. While they should include analytical writing engaged with relevant critical scholarship, they might also include other comparative/interdisciplinary modes of inquiry and expression, including an assignment that might demonstrate students’ capacity to “effectively engage literary texts within comparative intercultural and/or interdisciplinary contexts” and “articulate clearly their own critical perspectives in literary inquiry” (SLO3).

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, all students will be able to:

1. Analyze and articulate correlations between form and meaning in literary texts, through close reading attentive to literary genres and techniques.

Literature Track students will be able to:

1. Create historically, culturally, and critically informed arguments regarding literary texts and traditions in dialogue with current scholarly discourse, demonstrating standards and techniques of advanced academic research and writing.
2. Construct insightful projects that consider literary texts within intercultural, theoretical, and/or interdisciplinary contexts.

Creative Writing Track students will be able to:

1. Create original texts engaging forms and techniques in varied genres of poetry and prose, employing professional standards in constructive critical commentary on peer writing and in revising their own work.
2. Articulate the place of their own work in contemporary literary practices.