So people are already turning in pre-registration slips for next fall, even though registration doesn’t technically begin until the middle of March, because of the trouble we had getting into classes this semester, because of the now-much-firmer 12-person-per-class cap. But I have no idea what to take. The list of course offerings are available, but not the specific focus of each course (i.e., I’m in Modern American Literature right now, with a focus of the Harlem Renaissance), because the professors haven’t all decided yet what the focus is going to be, because usually they wouldn’t have to narrow that down by JANUARY. It’s sort of a mess all around, but even just looking at the course offerings, I’m not terribly excited:
Old English Language – I heard horror stories about this class last semester, plus they’re averse to M.A. students taking it, as it’s geared for Ph.D.s
Bibliography and Research Methods – Already had it. Almost had a panic attack just seeing its name on the list.
Rhetoric and Composition – I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but I’ve always hated classes that were about doing things rather than about content. On the other hand, if I want to improve my writing, which is one of the things I came back to school to do, this would be good. On the other, other hand, I’m completely unenamored of the academic writing style, and since that’s probably what they’re teaching to English grad students… (On the other, other, other hand, I need to get over my hatred of “doing things” classes if I’m going to do Library and Information Studies or anything techie-related, because they’re going to be about “doing things” rather than content…)
Seventeenth-Century British Literature – This one has a focus on Milton already announced. Now, the Donne/Herbert/etc class was 17th-century Brit lit, and we know how much I loved that class. /sarcasm. And I have a strong distaste for Milton from an undergrad survey course in which we read parts of Paradise Lost and I thought it was incredibly pretentious and overblown. I know, I know, Milton’s one of those people I should know, though. But, ugh.
Victorian Poetry – Poetry. Ugh. But somehow I’ve got to get good enough at this poetry stuff that I don’t hate it so much. Or something. And Victorian poetry is more palatable than some other forms. I mean, Browning and Barrett Browning and Tennyson, and stuff, right? I like them all right. Of course, I probably wouldn’t after having to analyze their stuff for a semester.
Nineteenth-Century American Literature – Focus of Transcendentalism. That’s like, Emerson, right? Meh.
Contemporary American Literature – Okay, this one I’m almost certainly going to try to take. Contemporary American lit doesn’t bother me as much as earlier American lit. Plus, I’ve heard good things about the professor.
And…that’s it. No 20th century British lit, nothing medieval, nothing on novels. I would love a class on the Gothic Novel or on 19th century novels, or on postmodern literature, or on pulp fiction, or even on theory. I’d love to take something on narratology, for instance. But no. I’m disappointed by the lack of variety. Variety is the very spice of life (a phrase which comes from William Cowper, incidentally…I never knew that). The undergrads get more variety than we do (they had a class last semester on Detective Stories, which would’ve been so much fun–Doyle, Poe, Christie, Chandler, Hammett–I’m assuming). What’s up with that?
Perhaps it comes back to grad school being about preparation for teaching–if I were going to teach, then yes, Milton would be important to know. But having pretty much decided against teaching, I’m now in this only for the content, and only for the content that interests me enough to want to study it intensely for a semester. Which is not poetry and not American lit prior to the 20th century. Which cuts out a lot that’s offered here. And I’m frustrated. And that’s all I really wanted to say.
