Quicklinks
- Assignment Cover Sheet (pdf)
Honours Program
The B.A. (Hons) at Macquarie is a separate degree, normally requiring one year's full-time or two-years' part-time study. Mid-year enrolment is possible. Part-time enrolment is available to those students who can demonstrate work or other commitments in excess of 20 hours per week.
The Honours Program in English is an exciting engagement with high-level and cutting-edge study in the field. An Honours degree is traditionally the first step towards a career in university teaching and research. Macquarie Honours graduates have gone into careers such as: publishing; teaching; public service; media and journalism; business and industry.
Graduates of other universities are welcome. Graduates of other disciplines are welcome too, but may be asked to take a qualifying program.
What do I need in order to do Honours?
- You need to have qualified for the B.A. with a major in English (or a closely related discipline)
- A minimum of 24 credit points in English units above 100 level, at least 12 of them at 300 level, at least 8 of them in 300-level ENGL units.
- An overall grade point average of 2.5
- A grade point average of 3 in 300 level units
All students undertake:
- Research Methods and Thesis Workshop
- ENGL 431 Literary Theory
- A short thesis
- Two Honours units
1. Research Methods and Thesis Workshop
(fortnightly throughout year)
Dr Paul Sheehanl
An un-assessed unit run in conjunction with the Honours thesis. In first
semester it will consist of a series of seminars on such topics as: choosing
a thesis topic, using the library, research methods, compiling a bibliography,
writing strategies. In second semester there will be a series of workshops
in which students will be able to present portions of their thesis for
discussion.
2. ENGL 431 Literary Theory
(Semester 1)
Dr Paul Sheehan
An examination of some of the major critical theories of the twentieth
century including new criticism, formalism, deconstruction, cultural history,
new historicism, structuralism, cultural materialism, feminism and marxism.
3. A short thesis
A thesis of 15,000 words on a topic in the field of English Studies. Students are at liberty to work in an area and topic of their choice subject to a final approval by the Honours Committee.
4. Two Honours units
Students undertake two honours which are to be chosen from:
- ENGL 412
- ENGL 420
- ENGL 450
- ENGL 451
- ENGL 452
- ENGL 453
First Semester 2008
ENGL 420
Comparative Literature
This unit explores literature (in translation) from various societies and
cultures, principally but not only from Europe, over the past 3000 or so
years. Comparative literary studies consider the way in which images and
concepts are represetned over time and within different cultural contexts
and how our understanding of them is enriched by thinking about
different modes of representation and their literary histories. We will also
be looking at the ways in which works interrogate and transform the
generic conventions of the traditions they are based in, and the extent to
which stories and motifs pervade the visual arts as well as literature. The
unit examines issues of translation and semantics, genre and form (epic,
romance, bildungsroman and elegy), the development and remodeling
of figures and motifs within a continuing tradition, and the responses of
different literary traditions (“world literatures”) to similar events.
This unit has a substantial reading list.
Dr Rosemary Colmer
Tel: 9850 8731
Email: rosemary.colmer@humn.mq.edu.au
ENGL 451
Decadence
This course will engage with Decadence as a concept of cultural crisis
which has been deployed to refl ect, represent, interrogate and often revel
in the exigencies and transformations of modernity. Ranging from the
Eighteenth Century to the present and across a wide variety of cultural
forms, from poetry and novels, to photographs, paintings and fi lms, to
sexology, aesthetics and racial theory, this course will explore the ways in
which change and transformation are always haunted by fears of decline,
crisis and nostalgia.
Dr Helen Groth
Tel: 9850 8776
Email: helen.groth@humn.mq.edu.au
Second Semester 2008
ENGL 412
Reading the Renaissance
This unit focuses on texts by Shakespeare and by other early modern English writers, such as More, Spenser, Jonson, and Marvell. It considers issues such as the nature and power of genre (for example, the pastoral, the utopian, the heroic), Shakespeare's ambiguous valuings of fictionality, early modern explorations of the theatricality of political power.
Professor Tony Cousins
Tel: 9850 8772
Email: tony.cousins@humn.mq.edu.au
ENGL 450
Writing Creative Non-Fiction
Focusing on the writing of creative non-fi ction this unit looks at
the varied contexts in which texts are written, with readings of a
range of Australian and international contemporary writing. We consider
the narrative techniques used, and the cultural contexts in which the texts
have been written,
published, and debated. Assessment is based on
a combination of practical research tasks and the students’ creative non-fiction writing. (The unit is run in conjunction with CWPG 815.)
Dr Jane Messer
Tel: 9850 8738
Email: jane.messer@humn.mq.edu.au
ENGL 452
Metaphor and Meaning
We use, read and hear metaphors every day in all sorts of contexts, though this use of language is routinely considered to be essentially 'poetic' or 'figurative'. This unit explores how metaphors function in a range of different discourses, both literary and non-literary. After reviewing current and earlier theoretical models of metaphor, it will examine how we interpret metaphor, and explore the range of literary, rhetorical and practical functions this trope can serve.
Dr Antonina Harbus
Tel: 9850 6802
Email: antonina.harbus@humn.mq.edu.au
ENGL 453
(RxD+V)xF+S / A: Comedy
What is comedy? What makes something comic? Is it a genre or a mode? What are the theories of comedy? We shall examine texts that fall within the category of comedy from the medieval period to contemporary writing, and think about the range of issues that affect what comedy looks like. How do shifting cultural environments influence the construction of comedy? From texts by Geoffrey Chaucer, Alexander Pope, Lawrence Sterne, Frank Hardy, Aphra Behn, and Janet Evanovitch we shall also see how comedy interacts with other modes and genres.
Associate Professor Marea Mitchell
Tel: 9850 8754
Email: marea.mitchell@humn.mq.edu.au
Further Information
Convenor
Dr Paul Sheehan
Tel: 9850 8757
Email: paul.sheehan@humn.mq.edu.au