General Statement

The Department of English offers graduate work leading to the Doctor of Philosophy in English and the Master of Arts in Creative Writing degrees. The department is strong in the traditional areas of literary scholarship and offers concentrations as well in criticism, cultural studies, film, and composition. The Creative Writing faculty includes nationally recognized writers in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and translation. Temple Ph.D.'s in English primarily find employment, whether full- or part-time, in college and university departments of English. Temple M.A.'s in creative writing find employment as writers, teachers, publicists, writing consultants, or publishers; and they also go on to doctoral study in English or other disciplines.

Application Deadlines

The deadline for completed applications is February 1 for fall admission. Applications received after this date may not be considered for financial aid. The graduate programs in English do not accept applications for admission in the spring semester.

Financial Aid

The Department offers a number of teaching assistantships, each of which carries a stipend plus full waiver of tuition and fees.

Doctor of Philosophy

Admissions Requirements

Applicants must hold the bachelor's degree with a major in English or at least 24 credits in English and American literature. Applicants with an M.A. in English from elsewhere are welcome to apply, and are eligible to transfer up to 24 graduate credits to the doctoral program at Temple. (Transfer credits must be approved by the director of graduate studies upon admission to the program.) Applicants must submit transcripts from all institutions of higher education previously attended (including Temple University), as well as scores from the general Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and the GRE Literature in English subject test. Three letters of recommen-dation, a statement of career goals, and a sample of critical writing are required. The quality of the writing sample is the most crucial element among the application materials.

Degree Requirements

Students must complete a total of 42 credits of course work (or at least 18 hours of course work beyond a previously acquired M.A.) in English and American Literature or in related areas, including 505; and a minimum of 6 credits of dissertation research after being elevated to candidacy. Students are required to take 505; 508 (if they are awarded an assistantship); they must take 9 credits in pre-1800 studies; and they must take 9 credits at the 800-900 level.

To satisfy the foreign language requirement for the Ph.D. degree, a student must demonstrate a reading knowledge of two languages or a superior knowledge of either French or German. Superior knowledge of a language other than French or German can satisfy the language requirement in exceptional cases, if the language is demonstrably necessary to the student's dissertation. Superior knowledge can be demonstrated by satisfactory completion of 12 credits of course work beyond the intermediate level or by testing in the appropriate language departments. The preliminary examination cannot be taken prior to the student's satisfying the foreign language requirement.

Students design a preliminary examination in two areas of study with a supervisory committee they have chosen and continue to work with this committee until the completion of the dissertation, a book-length project in literary criticism, which must be defended in an oral examination.

Students are given seven years to complete all degree requirements. If requirements are not completed within this period, students must apply for an extension of time.

On their way to the doctorate, doctoral candidates who have no prior M.A. and who have completed 24 credits of doctoral coursework (and have completed 6 credits of pre-1800 studies) are eligible to acquire an optional master's degree in English. For information regarding how to apply for this degree, contact the graduate chairperson.

The Master of Arts in English: Creative Writing

Admission Requirements

Applicants must hold the bachelor's degree with a major in English or at least 24 credits in English and American literature; however, applicants who were not English majors or who do not have the required number of literature credits can be admitted in consultation with the Graduate Chair and the Director of Creative Writing. Applicants must submit transcripts from all institutions of higher education previously attended (including Temple University), as well as scores from the general Graduate Record Examination (GRE) test. Three letters of recommendation, a statement of career goals and a sample of creative work (a minimum of 6 poems or 20 pages of fiction) are required.

Degree Requirements

Students must complete 30 credits, including 12 hours of creative writing workshops (selected from workshops in poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and translation), nine hours of graduate English courses (including at least one advanced seminar), three hours of elective credit (selected from graduate English courses or, upon petition to the Creative Writing Director, from graduate courses outside the English department), and six hours of master's Manuscript Tutorial. In addition, students must pass a comprehensive examination in either poetry or fiction and submit a book-length manuscript of creative work (to be evaluated and found satisfactory by a committee of English faculty). See the following courses: 790, 791, and 904.

Course Descriptions -English

Introductory Courses

Courses at or above the 500 level are open to students in the M.A. in Creative Writing or Ph.D. program in English and, with the instructor's permission, to students matriculated in any graduate program at Temple.

505. Literary Forms and Critical Practices. (3 s.h.)

Surveys the major literary forms and traditions and the critical practices that have characterized academic literary study from its origin to the present. Required of doctoral students.

507. Introduction to Teaching. (3 s.h.)

508. Composition Theory and Practice. (3 s.h.)

This course is designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of writing instruction. The course requires a modest amount of reading accompanied by brief assignments.

510. Movies/Film/Cinema: Histories and Practices. (3 s.h.)

An introduction to film studies that considers the historical, institutional, and technological contexts of film production and reception, with attention to different film traditions and genres.

Intermediate Courses

Courses numbered in the 600's and 700's are commonly more detailed than are the 500-level courses, but coverage is still wider and more general than in 800- and 900-level courses. Some 600 and 700 courses are conducted as lecture and discussion courses, but others are offered each year as seminars.

630. English Literature of the Renaissance. (3 s.h.)

This course examines the relationships among imitation, innovation, literary production, and circulation in sixteenth and early seventeenth century England.

645. Milton

This course will introduce students to Milton's life and his writings. Class sessions will consider the canonical position that Milton occupies for both our profession and for the tradition of writers who follow Milton.

650. Dryden to Burns. (3 s.h.)

This course surveys major literary figures and representative literary forms of the 18th Century. We will consider literature's relation to political, social, and cultural developments

673. Victorian Novel. (3 s.h.)

Major novelists of the Victorian period, from the Brontes to Hardy. Social and cultural backgrounds of the Victorian Age.

679. British Literature in Transition. (3 s.h.)

Content varies, e.g., the esthetic movement, naturalism, colonialism and postcolonialism, gay/lesbian issues.

684. American Writing: 1800-1865. (3 s.h.)

This course juxtaposes works that have achieved the status of "classics" with rediscovered works by women and African Americans. The class explores the relationship between aesthetic judgments and political or ideological values; the consequences of reading canonical works in new literary and historical contexts.

685. American Writing: 1865-1910. (3 s.h.)

This course is intended as a survey of the period 1865-1910, concentrating on the major figures, together with a representative sampling of the full range of literary discourse.

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