The Master's Degree in English is awarded to
students who have acquired extensive knowledge of literature
in English and who have demonstrated skill in writing on various
components of this field in courses and seminars. The M.A. program
provides a thorough general grounding in English and American
literature. Students who earn the M.A. at Marquette are well prepared
for doctoral studies.
The program offers broad coverage of the major
texts of English and American literature while making room for
an expanding and shifting canon. The program is organized as
follows:
Course-credit
hours: The candidate for the M.A. degree is required to complete 30 hours
of course work beyond the Bachelor's degree. At least 24 credits must be
taken in English Department courses, and at least 15 credits in graduate
courses at the 200 level.
Distribution Requirement
The candidate's
combined undergraduate and graduate course of study must include at least one
upper-level or graduate course in each of the following groups:
- Language and Linguistics. Normally
fulfilled by ENGL 101, 102, 103, 170, 202, 203. ENGL 201, 204,
and 205 fulfill this requirement when their content is linguistic,
e.g., Old English language or Middle English language.
- Chaucer and/or Medieval Literature.
Normally fulfilled by ENGL 204 or 205.
- Shakespeare. Normally fulfilled
by ENGL 217.
- Renaissance Literature. Normally
fulfilled by ENGL 210, 215, or 216.
- Restoration and Eighteenth-Century
British Literature. Normally fulfilled by ENGL 220 or 225.
- Nineteenth-Century British Literature.
Normally fulfilled by ENGL 230 or 235.
- American Literature before 1900.
Normally fulfilled by ENGL 250 or 255.
- Twentieth-Century Literature,
British or American. Normally fulfilled by ENGL 240, 245, 260,
or 265.
- Introduction to Modern Critical
Theory and Practice. Normally fulfilled by ENGL 281.
- Courses taken elsewhere satisfy distribution
requirements if they are equivalent to Marquette offerings.
M.A. candidates must take a 6-hour written
comprehensive examination in two historical fields chosen from
the following three: British Literature to 1660; British Literature
after 1660; and American Literature.
The M.A. comprehensive exam is offered twice
a year, in the spring and summer. Each field exam takes three
hours and is divided into two parts, as follows:
- Part One is designed to test the
student's powers of synthesis. It lasts two hours, and consists
of three groups of questions from each of which the student
chooses one question to answer. The available formats for
this part are (A) two 45-minute questions and a half-hour question;
(B) a one-hour question and two half-hour questions.
- Part Two tests the student's competence
in the techniques of literary analysis. It lasts one hour,
and asks the student to choose one from several previously unseen
short texts (poetry and prose) and answer questions based on
a reading of that text.
The comprehensive exam is prepared and evaluated
by a committee of four examiners, consisting normally of
two members representing each field. A majority vote (i.e., 3 of
4) is required for a passing grade. The exam performance is
judged as a whole, and votes for pass or fail rendered accordingly.
