ma in english - UCC

School of English

MA IN ENGLISH

MA English brochure 2015 01.indd 1

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MA English Modules Old English Literature, to c. 1200

Craft and Technique of Fiction (1)

Middle English Literature, 1200-1550


Renaissance Literature, c. 1500-1700

Fiction Workshop

New Histories of the Book: Theories

Writing and Experiment

Texts and Transformations: Medieval to Renaissance

Poetry

Irish Culture: Colonial, Postcolonial, Transnational

Writing the Self: Fiction and non-Fiction

Gender and Sexuality

The Business of Writing

Gothic to Modernism

Food Writing

Space and Place in Irish Writing and Film

Writing for Radio

American Modernities

Writing for the Media

Romanticism and Modernity

Workshop with Writer–In–Residence

Literary and Cultural Modernisms

Contemporary Literary Research: Skills, Methods and Strategies

Theories of Modernity

Dissertation

Postmodernism in Literature and Film Irish Cinema: History, Contexts, Aesthetics American Cinema from 1960-1985

See the Book of Modules at http://www.ucc.ie/modules/descriptions/page019.html

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“

Why an MA in English? The ethos of UCC’s learning revolves around the principle of “independent thinking”. This, I can confidently note, has been my experience with an MA in English. It was both a privilege and an exciting challenge to write an MA English thesis amongst engaged and critically renowned lecturers. ~Marie Coffey, MA in Irish Writing and Film (2013)

The School of English in University College Cork offers the ideal atmosphere for further study in the fields of literature, film, creative writing and digital humanities. Flexible but focused, our postgraduate programmes and options offer unique opportunities for tailor-made study and research in the context of UCC’s beautiful and historic campus.

CHOICES The School of English offers a rich variety of MA options, across times and cultures. A unique aspect of the UCC MA is the ability to choose one module from an MA programme other than the one you are studying, so that you can customise your programme according to your emerging interests. Postgraduate flexi-options are also available, if you wish to get a taste of MA study before committing to a full programme.

SKILLS An MA in English gives you a chance to continue to read, think and write in a dynamic and supportive environment, which you can shape according to your own scholarly interests as they emerge. You will learn to keep pace with and to contribute to fast-evolving scholarly debates, to develop as an independent thinker and to become a skilled and effective writer. A postgraduate qualification will also enhance your employability and give you the opportunity to develop valuable digital skills. Our MA programmes share a unique focus on digital literacy, effective communication and strong presentation skills.


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Course Details The MA programmes currently on offer in the School of English are as follows: MA in Creative Writing co-ordinated by Dr Eibhear Walshe [email protected] MA in English – Irish Writing and Film co-ordinated by Dr Heather Laird [email protected] and Dr Maureen O’Connor [email protected] MA in English – Medieval to Renaissance - Texts and Contexts co-ordinated by Dr Ken Rooney [email protected] MA in English – Modernities: American and British Literature and Film co-ordinated by Prof. Alex Davis [email protected]

For 2015-16, we currently have four MA scholarships on offer, one for each of these programmes: MA in English – Irish Writing and Film MA in English – Medieval to Renaissance - Texts and Contexts MA in English – Modernities: American and British Literature and Film MA in Creative Writing The School also offers an MRes in English as well as a range of Postgraduate flexi-options. See page 11 for more details A unique aspect of the UCC MA is the ability to choose one module from an MA programme other than the one you have chosen, so that (for example) a student taking Modernities may opt to replace one of the four taught MA modules in Modernities with one from Irish Writing and Film. Full list of modules : http://www.ucc.ie/en/english/study/postgraduate/ School of English staff also support UCC’s MA in Digital Arts and Humanities, the MA in Film Studies and the MA Irish Studies; cross-listed options are available.


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Your MA Learning Journey Apply through PAC

Closing date MAY 14 2015

http://www.pac.ie/ucc

limiting factor: the sky

Module 1 10 Credits

Participate • Read • Write

Module 2 10 Credits

Typical Module Structure 10 x 2hr Seminars Associated Reading, Research and Consultation Hours Assignment (2,000-3,000 words) Continuous Assesment (Preparation, Attendance and Participation)

Module 3 10 Credits

MA ENGLISH

Part 1: 50 Credits

Module 4 10 Credits

Part 2: 40 Credits *Module 5 10 Credits

*one module may be substituted from one of the other English MA programmes

Dissertation 15,000-17,000 words Lit review Research • Read • Write


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Part 1 (50 credits)

Writing for Radio

1 EN6034

The Business of Writing

2 EN6035

Writing and Experiment

3 EN6031

Poetry

4 EN6044


5 EN6056


6 EN6032

Fiction Workshop

7 EN6033

Writing the Self: Fiction and Non-Fiction

8 EN6037

Food Writing

9 EN6038

Writing for Radio

10 EN6042

Workshop with Writer-in-Residence

11 EN6057

Writing for the Media

Part 2 (40 credits) EN6017

Dissertation 1 5,000-17,000 words on a topic agreed by the student and his/her assigned supervisor

Creative Writing The UCC MA in Creative Writing encourages students to be curious about literature, to pursue creative excellence and to nurture and develop their writing in a university atmosphere. The course as a whole encourages and supports a full exploration of the creative self while also maintaining a strong vocational emphasis. All of our courses are embedded in Cork’s creative milieu, rooted in expert practice and taught by highly accomplished professionals. A rich variety of modules are available, including Fiction, Poetry and Life Writing. Creative nonfiction options include innovative courses in Food Writing and Writing for Radio.

Some of Ireland’s greatest writers have studied or taught at UCC, including Sean O’Faolain, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and John Montague. Notable poets associated with UCC include Sean Lucy, Thomas McCarthy, Sean Dunne, Paul Durcan, Theo Dorgan and Leanne O’Sullivan. The School of English hosts an annual Writer-in-Residence. Previous holders of this prestigious post have included Mary Morrissy, Claire Keegan and Matthew Sweeney. Teaching staff: Dr Eibhear Walshe, Matthew Sweeney, Leanne O’Sullivan, Mary Morrissy, Dr Jools Gilson, Prof. Bernard O’Donoghue.


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Some Cork Poets - Mural by Tom Doig Commissioned by the Munster Literature Centre for the 2014 Cork Spring Poetry Festival. Reproduced by kind permission of the artist and the Munster Literature Centre. Poets’ images based on portraits by John Minihan from his book An Unweaving of Rainbows.

Part 1 (50 credits) 1 EN6009

Contemporary Literary Research: Skills, Methods and Strategies 2 EN6047

Irish Culture: Colonial, Postcolonial, Transnational 3 EN6048

Gender and Sexuality 4 EN6049

Gothic to Modernism 5 EN6050

Space and Place in Irish Writing and Film 6 FX6010

Irish Cinema: History, Contexts, Aesthetics Part 2 (40 credits) EN6017

Dissertation 15,000-17,000 words on a topic agreed by the student and his/her assigned supervisor

Irish Writing and Film: Theories and Traditions The MA in Irish Writing and Film introduces students to an exceptionally rich body of cultural texts whose breadth and diversity continues to generate scholarly debate. Students who take the course will be given an authoritative introduction to key texts from the eighteenth century to the present; will be encouraged to engage with some of the most influential critical and theoretical models currently being applied to Irish literature and film; and will develop independent research in the field under the expert guidance of UCC academics.

Writers who are studied include Jonathan Swift, Maria Edgeworth, Gerald Griffin, James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Elizabeth Bowen, Frank O’Connor, Seamus Deane, Anne Enright and Colm Tóibín. Classic Irish films such as Man of Aran and This Other Eden are studied alongside the work of such notable new Irish filmmakers as Lenny Abrahamson. Teaching staff: Dr Mary Breen, Professor Claire Connolly, Professor Patricia Coughlan, Professor Alex Davis, Dr Heather Laird, Dr Barry Monahan, Dr Maureen O’Connor, Dr Clíona Ó Gallchoir, Dr Eibhear Walshe.

Subject to the approval of the MA programme co-ordinators, students may substitute one 10-credit module with a 10-credit module from one of the other MA in English programmes.


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Septentrionalium Regionum Descriptio by Abraham Ortelius c. 1570



Middle English Literature, 1200-1550 3 EN6052

New Histories of the Book: Theories and Practices of Earlier Writing 4 EN6054

Renaissance Literature, c. 1500-1700 and either: 5 EN6053

Old English Literature, to c. 1200 or 6 EN6055

Texts and Transformations: Medieval to Renaissance

Part 2 (40 credits) EN6017

Dissertation 15,000-17,000 words on a topic

agreed by the student and his/her assigned supervisor

Texts and Contexts: Medieval to Renaissance This MA embraces a 1,000-year tradition of Anglophone writing in Britain and Ireland in the period c. 700 to 1700, allowing students to choose from a range of courses in Old, Middle, and Renaissance English. The programme explores the historical, material, and critical issues involved in the study of earlier literature. Key areas of the course emphasise the continuities between medieval and Renaissance writing, investigate the beginnings of Anglo-Irish writing, and engage closely with an English Renaissance poet who lived and worked in Cork in the sixteenth century, and produced his most significant work there: Edmund Spenser.

The course also lays the foundation of study at higher degree level. It introduces the subject-specific skills that are required (use of databases, bibliographies, palaeography, codicology, analysis of the physical composition of printed texts), as well as developing generic skills (writing, referencing, presentation skills) that will be useful as you embark on a scholarly project or career. Teaching staff: Dr Tom Birkett, Dr Andrew King, Dr Kenneth Rooney, Dr Edel Semple.



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Samuel Beckett. Image: Roger Pic [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons



Literary and Cultural Modernisms 3 EN6026

Postmodernism in Literature and Film 4 EN6027

Romanticism and Modernity 5 EN6028

Theories of Modernity 6 EN6029

American Modernities: from Modernism to Postmodernity 7 FX6007

American Cinema from 1960-1985 Part 2 (40 credits) EN6017

Dissertation 15,000-17,000 words on a topic agreed by the student and his/her assigned supervisor

Modernities: American and British Literature and Film This MA introduces students to the advanced study of American and British literature and film, from the eighteenth century to the present day. Under the guidance of leading scholars in their fields, students will encounter some of the most influential contemporary critical and theoretical models currently being applied to the notions of modernity and modernisation, and apply the ideas raised by these theories to a rich variety of literary and filmic texts from such movements as Romanticism, Modernism, and Postmodernism. Writers and directors who are studied range from canonical Romantics and modernists, including

P.B. and Mary Shelley, Virginia Woolf, and Samuel Beckett, to recent and contemporary novelists and filmmakers such as Thomas Pynchon and Stanley Kubrick. Among theorists of modernity, students can expect to examine Freud, Nietzsche, de Beauvoir, Habermas, and Jameson, and to explore the relevance of their ideas to a deeper understanding and greater appreciation of the literature and film in this period. Teaching staff: Prof. Graham Allen, Prof. Alex Davis, Dr Anne Etienne, Dr Alan Gibbs, Dr Lee Jenkins, Dr Barry Monahan, Dr Clíona Ó Gallchoir, Dr Gwenda Young



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People

Prof. Graham Allen

Dr Tom Birkett

Prof. Claire Connolly

(Head of School)

Dr Alan Gibbs

Dr Jools Gilson

Dr Lee Jenkins

Dr Orla Murphy

Dr Maureen O’Connor Dr Clíona Ó Gallchoir

Ms Valerie Coogan

Dr Andrew King

Dr Kenneth Rooney

Dr Mary Breen

Prof. Alex Davis

Dr Anne Etienne

Dr Heather Laird

Dr Barry Monahan

Ms. Mary Morrissy

Dr Edel Semple

Dr Eibhear Walshe

Dr Gwenda Young


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How to Apply

Apply on-line at www.pac.ie/ucc

Entry Requirements To be considered for admission to an MA programme within the School of English, an applicant will normally possess a primary degree result of Second Class Honours Grade 1 (2H1) level or higher or equivalent qualification in English or a cognate subject. For North American students a cumulative GPA of at least 3.2 is expected. For the MA in Creative Writing, applications will be considered from graduates of all disciplines. Applicants with relevant writing or arts experience are also invited to apply. For Creative Writing, applicants will be asked to submit a piece of original writing of at least 1000 words (any genre). Further examples of applicants’ work may be requested. English Language Requirements: Minimum IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL 100.

MRes in English MRes students take 90 credits as follows: EN6009 (10 Credits)

Contemporary Literary Research: Skills, Methods and Strategies (10 credits) Dissertation (70 credits) Plus 10 credits to be chosen from across the range of MA in English modules.

The MRes is a flexible, one-year, stand-alone graduate degree, which offers independent choice, guided by expert supervision and shaped by vital skills training. Candidates undertake a sustained research project on a topic of their own devising, and develop their ideas in the context of informed and engaged supervision and training. The MRes is an approved calendared programme of study of 12 months’ duration (full-time) or 24 months (part-time) from registration for the programme in October.

Flexi-Options Many MA in English and some MA in Creative Writing modules are offered as Flexi-Options.

Contact the Graduate Studies Office on +353 21 4903224 or email [email protected] for an application form.

Postgraduate Flexi-Options allow access to specialist research-led teaching along with the many practical benefits of being a registered UCC student. Modules can be taken on an individual basis, up to a maximum of 20 credits in any one academic year. Students who successfully complete a postgraduate Flexi-Option module may be eligible for exemptions if they subsequently apply and are admitted to that programme. Such exemptions normally apply within a maximum of five years.


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Graphic Design: www.kieranoconnor.com revised Feb 2015

The School of English has been overwhelmingly helpful… former lecturers have gone above and beyond what I would have conceived as their duty by continuing to… offer support and invaluable career advice. Moving to Cork to study English at UCC not only turned out to be a wonderful decision, and highly enjoyable time, but one that is proving crucial for advancing my career ~Brianna Dougher, MA in Medieval and Renaissance English (2012)

School of English

MA IN ENGLISH


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ma in english - UCC

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