This course seeks to introduce graduate students to conventions, traditions and methodologies of research in the field of English Studies, broadly conceived, with special attention to the ways in which the different disciplines that constitute the field (composition and rhetoric, linguistics, and literary studies) interact with and impact each other. English studies is a diversified field; developing an understanding of it means not only understanding the different disciplines it encompasses but also recognizing and using the interplay among these disciplines in advancing your knowledge and skills. Assignments in this course are intended to sustain a dialectical relationship among these disciplines as they respond individually and collectively to current issues in the field. However, the traditional focus of graduate study in English has been on literature, and this course has traditionally served as an introduction to literary research. Therefore, literature and cultural studies remain a major focus of the course.

The course begins with an institutional history of English Studies, a survey of the current state of theory in each of several main subfields of English Studies and an overview of the developments in critical theory that have contributed to the transformation of English Studies in recent decades.

These developments, along with various social, demographic and institutional changes, have provoked a crisis in traditional literary study such that, increasingly, the study of canonical literature is being displaced from its central position in English curricula. In its place have risen a variety of nontraditional literary and cultural studies topics as well as a variety of courses in linguistics, the teaching of English to speakers of other languages, rhetoric and composition, and technical and professional writing. Our department's curriculum, and this course, have been impacted by the shift from modernism to postmodernism in the cultural sphere, and by the shifts from industrialism and nationalism to post-industrialism and post-nationalism in the economic and political spheres.

A second focus of the course will be on practical-methodological issues; the "Critical Review of Journals" assignment, for example, is intended to introduce students to bibliographical research and to encourage them to develop a critical awareness of the standard resources in the various subdisciplines of English studies..

Assignments and Grading:

First paper: Critical Review of Journals (8-10 pages) ...................... 30%

Final paper: Theoretical Issues (8-10 pages) ..... ..............................30%

Reading responses ................................................................................40%