The Department of English, Linguistics and Theatre Studies welcomes applications for the Master of Arts (Literary Studies), which offers students a fully taught programme on a unit system.<\/p>\n
By taking taught courses, students develop advanced knowledge and critical skills in contemporary literary studies. It is possible for a full-time student to complete the degree in two semesters, i.e. in one year. Some students may take longer to complete the degree, for instance, over a period of three semesters. Students can undertake the degree as full-time or part-time students. A full-time student has a maximum period of three years to complete the degree, while a part-time student has four years to do so. Foreign students on a student pass can only enrol as full-time students.<\/p>\n\tAdmission Requirements<\/a>Curriculum<\/a>Apply for Admission<\/a>Funding<\/a>\n To be eligible for admission, candidates must have:<\/p>\n Candidates can earn the degree of Master of Arts in Literary Studies by completing 40 units or 10 courses (each course is worth 4 units). Course requirements and options are listed below.<\/p>\n For more information on the courses, please refer to Canvas(opens in new tab)<\/a> and NUSmods(opens in new tab)<\/a>.<\/p>\n 1 foundational course:<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t Gilbert YEOH<\/strong><\/p>\n The course introduces issues, challenges and questions raised by advanced study in literature and culture. Students approach the study of texts by developing a working understanding of appropriate questions and methods. The course covers the nature of scholarship in literary studies and explores the importance of literary history when approaching a given author or text. It introduces the connections between formal study and historical approaches and the relations between textual and cultural experience. Students pursue their choice of approach from a broad base of critical theory. The course also addresses the role of literature within the intersectional and environmental humanities.<\/p>\n\t 9 courses chosen from the following selection:<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t Walter LIM<\/strong><\/p>\n This course, specifically designed for MA by Coursework students, prepares them for a Masters in Literary Studies through a two-pronged approach: First, to obtain a general overview of the discipline in order to approach the field with a better understanding of its academic demands. Through gradual but consistent exposure to articles on various critical approaches and research methods, students will gain an understanding of broad theoretical perspectives. Next, through extensive practice: working through several short writing assignments, revising and resubmitting these through the course of the semester, students' comprehension about disciplinary practices and about field-specific academic writing, will increase substantially.<\/p>\n Preclusion: EN5249<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Gayatri PILLAI<\/strong><\/p>\n The course introduces students to the emerging field of Global Anglophone Literature, which analyses texts associated with postcolonial and decolonised regions, including Asia, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Trinidad, Nigeria, South Africa, as well as Great Britain and North America. The course introduces some foundational material on the history and cultures of Empire, and introduces texts from the greater Anglophone world, asking how these fictional works illuminate the forces that shape the globalized yet unequal world we currently inhabit. Critical contexts include those of race, aboriginality, gender, political economy, migration, cosmopolitanism, technology, and war.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Geoffrey BAKER<\/strong><\/p>\n This course is a focused examination of the various senses of \u201cpolitical literature\u201d. One may say \u201call literature is ideological\u201d, but this course raises doubts that \u201ceverything is political\u201d in a significant way. This course examines the differences between \u201cideology\u201d and \u201cpolitics\u201d in relation to literature. The course considers works that challenge conventional distinctions such as that between \u201cpropaganda\u201d and \u201cliterature\u201d. Students will test definitions of \u201cthe political\u201d on a variety of texts.<\/p>\n Preclusion: EN5235<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Anne THELL<\/strong><\/p>\n From early modern England up into the eighteenth century, English literature registers distinctively a deep fascination with worlds both old and new: Egypt, Africa, China, and India are some examples. In reading critically how different authors in this historical timeline represent old and new worlds in their literary production, this course seeks to analyse the formation of cultural perceptions relating to such topics as<\/p>\n It offers opportunity for considering the engagements of literature with certain momentous social, historical, and political realities, such as the slave trade and the activities of the British East India Company.<\/p>\n Preclusion: EN5241<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Heather BRINK-ROBY<\/strong><\/p>\n The course will examine Victorian literature with an emphasis on its historical, political, and cultural context. Topics addressed may include significant literary genres and movements (e.g. The Industrial Novel, Aestheticism and Decadence) major authors (e.g. George Eliot, Oscar Wilde), or broader thematic explorations of the diverse literary productions of nineteenth-century Britain (e.g. Gender and Sexuality in the Nineteenth Century, Imperialism and Victorian Writing). This course will also familiarize students with contemporary critical approaches to the study of Victorian literature and culture.<\/p>\n Preclusion: EN5247<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Steven GREEN<\/strong><\/p>\n Virgil's epic, Aeneid (29\u201319 BCE), tells the story of Aeneas, who flees Troy and journeys to Italy to establish the first settlement of Rome. The poem quickly established itself as national literature, and was an inspiration for later European writers, including Dante, Shakespeare, and Milton. We will read the poem in depth, in English translation, focusing on topics such as: Virgil\u2019s development of the ancient epic traditions; the poem as part of the cultural and political ideology of the Emperor Augustus; topics such as the nature of heroism, the role of the gods, and the depiction of human struggle.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Gilbert YEOH<\/strong><\/p>\n This course surveys some major twentieth-century writers. Beginning with selected landmark works of modernist literature in the early twentieth century, we go on to examine authors in the later twentieth century who may be considered postmodern. In the process, we explore a range of issues such as literary experimentation, the literary tradition, literature and gender, magic realism, and literature and historiography. Some attention will go towards understanding modernism and postmodernism, and their characteristics. Writers we will study include J. M. Coetzee, T. S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Toni Morrison, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams and Virginia Woolf.<\/p>\n Preclusion: EN5238<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Walter LIM<\/strong><\/p>\n This course analyses literary works written in English by authors associated with the Chinese diaspora. It considers how this literature engages with concepts such as diaspora, exile, transnationalism, and globalization. It discusses the following themes central to this literature: home and identity; assimilation and alienation; representing China; nationalism and populism; the \u201cPacific Century\u201d; and others. The course offers an opportunity for a comparative analysis of works written by authors from different countries. Examples of authors to be read include Maxine Hong Kingston, Ha Jin, and Tash Aw. Extracts and short stories may also be recommended for reading.<\/p>\n Preclusion: EN5239<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Andrew HUI<\/strong><\/p>\n We will explore European imaginations of China from the medieval to the modern era. Students will journey from Marco Polo\u2019s medieval travelogue to Jesuit missionaries\u2019 letters, diving into Athanasius Kircher's baroque Sinology and Leibniz's philosophical inquiries. Enlightenment ideas emerge in Voltaire\u2019s works, while Borges, Kafka, and Calvino offer modern reflections on the \u201cOriental Other.\u201d We\u2019ll explore how European writers constructed and mythologized China, revealing patterns of cultural exchange and fantasy.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t ER Yanbing<\/strong><\/p>\n What is feminism? What makes a work feminist? Is \u2018women\u2019s writing\u2019 necessarily \u2018feminist\u2019 in nature? How might feminist literary criticism be performed? In this course, we will read literary works by and about women to explore how such texts reflect on and represent gendered experience and its intersections with race, class, and sexuality.<\/p>\n Preclusion: EN5242<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Beryl PONG<\/strong><\/p>\n This course examines various philosophies, concepts, and politics of time as they are addressed and represented in modern and contemporary anglophone literature. Attending to narrative, form, and theory, we will scrutinize how writers have rendered different times and temporalities related to modernity, war, colonialism, disability, environmental consciousness, and algorithmic cultures, among other contexts.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Chitra SANKARAN<\/strong><\/p>\n This course examines the shifting perceptions of the natural world found in a variety of English literary works. Through the study of key literary texts, the evolution of ideas about nature will be traced from the 17th century\u2019s age of scientific discovery to the 21st century\u2019s idea of environmental crisis. A key element of the model will be the use of ecocritical ideas and concepts as a way to approach and understand connections between literature and the environment.<\/p>\n Preclusion: EN5880A<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t David TEH<\/strong><\/p>\n What\u2019s distinctive about moving images in Southeast Asia? Are they vehicles of a convergent \u2018global\u2019 culture, or a medium for difference, resistance and critique? As video becomes integral to everyday social and economic life, and screen culture reaches beyond the bounds of national cinema, so should theory and criticism. This interdisciplinary course draws on cultural and media theory, art history and anthropology, as well as film studies, exploring a range of fiction and non-fiction material including indie and experimental film, documentaries, video art and installations. Students will engage critically with this region\u2019s screen cultures, via both historical and contemporary perspectives.<\/p>\n Preclusion: EN5883<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> Please consult with the department or your supervisor before starting this module.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Peter TAN<\/strong><\/p>\n This course is aimed at graduate students who wish to explore the development of the English language over the past 1,500 years or so, and to see that some features of present-day English can be explained in the light of its history. Students should ideally have some background in grammatical description. Issues that will receive attention include the transformation of a synthetic Old English to a more analytic Modern English; language contact as a force for language change; the standardisation of English; and the spread of English and the New Englishes.<\/p>\n Preclusion: EL5212<\/p>\n Remarks: Peter TAN<\/strong><\/p>\n This course examines the phenomenon of naming from a range of different perspectives and considers the range of functions of names, and how there might be names that matter a lot and those that matter less. Names will be considered from the point of view of linguistics (the structure, meaning and sounds of names), philosophy (theories about the nature of names), socio-cultural history (the development of personal naming systems including hybrid systems), geography (the development of place names, street names and station names), literary criticism (how names function in literary texts) and commerce (business names and product names).<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t YONG Li Lan<\/strong><\/p>\n Shakespeare is by far the most produced and adapted western playwright in East Asian theatre cultures. Approaches to translating, performing and re\u2010writing his plays have changed over time, and are now at their most diverse and experimental. Correlatively, connections and relationships between Asian and Anglophone performance histories have also matured. Using translated and annotated archival recordings, this course examines the historical contexts and theatrical concerns of East Asian Shakespeare performances, relating them comparatively to Anglophone and European textual and performance histories. It is jointly taught by NUS and The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham as a distance learning course.<\/p>\n Preclusion: TS5213<\/p>\n Category: Theatre, Film and Literature<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t Graham WOLFE<\/strong><\/p>\n This course asks how we can better understand theatre through the lens of novels and vice versa. It explores the complex relationships between theatre and prose fiction in different eras and parts of the world. Often competing for audiences and defining themselves through antagonism, theatre and novels have also influenced each other\u2019s development, drawing upon each other\u2019s techniques, mimicking each other\u2019s affordances, at times collaborating or even seeking to dissolve apparent boundaries. Focusing on several authors who have straddled theatre-making and novel-writing, the course investigates topics such as adaptation, transmodalization, theatricality, anti-theatricality, intermediality and parody.<\/p>\n Category: Theatre, Film and Literature<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> Subject to the approval of the Department, students may take up to two 4000-level courses in English Literature. However, ENC students cannot usually take EN5000-level or EN6000-level research courses (unless granted approval in exceptional cases).<\/p>\n Candidates who have completed equivalent courses which were not used towards obtaining another degree prior to admission to the Master of Arts (Literary Studies) may apply to the Head of Department for an exemption of course(s), subject to a maximum of 50% of the MA requirements.<\/p>\n Candidates will be advised on the possible composition of their programme by the Department.<\/p>\n Candidates must obtain a minimum Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.00 for all examinable courses. The candidature of a student will be terminated if they:<\/p>\n Candidates must fufil 50% residency in Singapore.<\/p>\n Unless there are special circumstances, we prefer that students begin their studies in the first semester in August each year.<\/p>\n For the Masters by Coursework programmes, students planning to begin in August must have submitted their application between 1 November of the previous year and 15 January of the current year.<\/p>\n Click on the button below for more information about admissions and the application process.<\/p>\n\tAdmission Info(opens in new tab)<\/a>Apply Now(opens in new tab)<\/a>\n In general, MA coursework programmes do not have scholarships. As such candidates must ensure that they have the financial resources to support themselves for their entire programme of study.<\/p>\n However, there are options for graduate financial assistance such as travel grants for conferences and support for fieldwork. Please click on the button below for more information on course fees and funding.<\/p>\nFunding(opens in new tab)<\/a>\n\n\t\t\tAdmission Requirements\t<\/h2>\n\t
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ENC5150 Survey of the Discipline: Methods and Approaches<\/h5>\n\t\t\t
Any ENC courses offered<\/h5>\n\t\t\t
ENC5149 Literary Studies: Overview and Writing Practices<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ENC5151 Global Anglophone Literature<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ENC5235 Politics and Literature<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ENC5241 Early Modern Fantastical Worlds<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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ENC5247 Victorian Literature: History, Politics, Culture<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ENC5255 Virgil's Aeneid: A National Epic for Ancient Rome<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ENC5238 Twentieth Century Literature<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ENC5239 Literature of the Anglophone Chinese Diaspora<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ENC5240 Visions of China in European Literary Culture<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ENC5242 Writing Women<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ENC5264 Temporalities: Narrative, Form, Theory<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ENC5880A Literature and the Environment<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ENC5883 Screen Culture in Southeast Asia<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
Recognised modules from other programmes<\/h5>\n\t\t\t
An Independent Study<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
ELC5212 History of English<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
Subject Area C: Language in Use (Applicable to August 2023 intake and before)<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\tELC5256 Onomastics: the Study of Names<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
TPS5213 Performing Shakespeare in Asia<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
TPS5215 Theatre and the Novel<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\tApplying for Admission\t<\/h3>\n\t
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\n\t\t\tReady to go?\t<\/h4>\nApply for this programme(opens in new tab)<\/a>
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