M. Phil in Literatures of the Americas

Course Director 2012-1113: Professor Stephen Matterson

Go to http://www.tcd.ie/courses for general details on how to apply for this course at Trinity College.

Over the past few decades the scholarly fields of American Studies and Postcolonial Studies have undergone radical transformations. Their core concepts – including identity, race, citizenship, hybridity, and nationhood – have been redefined in fundamental ways by writers such as Margaret Atwood, Ana Castillo, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Laurence Buell, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., whose practice has enlarged the conventional sense of what it means to read/write ‘American’ and/or ‘Postcolonial’ literature(s). This course, which started running in 2007, reflects on those changes and provides an opportunity to spend a year studying the literatures of the Americas in detail. The course stimulates fresh analyses of a wide range of American literatures in English and in translation into English, by canonical, mainstream, avant-garde and marginal writers, and by opening up research opportunities in this dynamic field it lays the foundations for further postgraduate (doctoral) research in Postcolonial and American literary studies. Graduates of the course have gone on to pursue research projects on a wide range of subjects, including early American travel writing, the poetry of Kamau Brathwaite, the construction of Diasporic identity in the work of Maeve Brennan, dystopian fictions, and a study of Ted Hughes’s engagements with US America poetic culture.

Students of the MPhil in Literatures of the Americas interact with literatures in various genres and from different historical periods in the development of a complex sense of the literatures of the Americas. Compulsory core courses (‘Theorising the Americas’ and ‘Thematising the Americas’) provide students with a grounding in the key theoretical and historical debates in the field, and they allow them to explore a range of ideas in relation to established (‘major’) and peripheral (‘minor’) authors. Offering a range of option courses each semester, the MPhil provides ample scope for advanced readings in so-called ‘classic U.S. American literature’, but it also provides students with an opportunity to challenge conventional categorizations of writers from across the Americas – and not just in the United States – by fostering transnational, transatlantic, hemispheric and trans-historical perspectives.

Trinity’s School of English has a large and active cohort of research students (over 60 in the current session), and three other taught MPhil courses. Participants in the MPhil in Literatures of the Americas, the first of its kind, will be part of a long-established and vigorous academic community. A weekly staff-postgraduate research seminar offers a lively forum for debate and the exchange of ideas. Postgraduates of the School of English routinely go on to further research and successful careers, in the academy and other fields.
Entry to this course is very competitive (and becoming more so every year) and prospective applicants are normally expected to have at least a high 2.1 (or equivalent) BA degree in English or a cognate discipline in order to be considered for entry. Students wishing to find out more about the application process should go to http://www.tcd.ie/courses for general details on how to apply for this course at Trinity College.

Course Structure

In addition to two compulsory core modules, students take a Research Methods module and two 1-term option module from a group of at least four in any given year, depending on staffing arrangements. The core modules are taught in two 2-hour seminars in Michaelmas and Hilary term. Students take one Option module each semester. The Research Methods module is taught in 2-hour seminars throughout Michaelmas semester. Students also have to complete a supervised dissertation, which is researched and written during the late Spring and Summer months and submitted for examination at the end of August.

ECTS summary and calculations     

Assessment

There are no timed examinations. Students submit two essays of 2,000 words for each core module (4 essays in total), and one essay of between 6,000 and 8,000 words for each option module taken. Essay titles will be provided before each module ends, but students are encouraged to propose their own titles for essays and to discuss these with the module coordinators before beginning their research. Students must complete and pass all assessment elements to pass the course. (The pass mark is 40%.) The 6 essays taken together count for 60% of the final mark and the dissertation counts for 40%. Failed work may be resubmitted with the approval of the Course Committee. Further details about College regulations pertaining to postgraduate study are available in the College Calendar, Part 2.

Dissertations

Students will begin discussing topics for their dissertations with course coordinators early in Hilary semester, and supervisors will be assigned then. Given the extensive expertise of staff in the School, they will be able to discuss a wide variety of topics. Students are expected to complete preliminary bibliographies and dissertation outlines before the end of Hilary term. Dissertations of up to 20,000 words in length are due for submission on or before the 30th of August in a given year. Students will be expected to submit 2 copies of the dissertation, which should be typed and bound in accordance with the University guidelines, available from the Graduate Studies Office or Course Administrator. Degrees will be awarded to successful candidates at the Spring Commencements in the year following completion of the course.

Option modules to be offered in 2010/11

Four option modules will be offered in 2010-11. All questions related to individual option courses should be directed to the relevant course coordinators in the first instance, as indicated below. They will also be able to provide preliminary reading lists.

Michaelmas

• Narratives of First Encounter (Dr Melanie Otto)
  
• Diasporic Voices (Dr Paul Delaney)

Hilary

• Creole Literatures (Dr Melanie Otto)
  
• American Essays (Dr Philip Coleman)

For further details about Core modules contact the Course Director, Dr Melanie Otto: ottom@tcd.ie

Contact:

Diane Sadler
Executive Officer
MPhil in Literatures of the Americas
School of English
Room 4026
Trinity College
Dublin 2
Ireland

Tel: +353-1-896-1111
Fax: +353-671-7114
Email: sadlerd@tcd.ie

Dr Philip Coleman
Course Director
MPhil in Literatures of the Americas
School of English
Room 4020
Trinity College
Dublin 2
Ireland

Tel: +353-1-896-1878
Fax: +353-671-7114
Email: philip.coleman@tcd.ie