Our expertise with English as an expressive medium and a field
of disciplinary study has led us to design a choice of focused
postgraduate modules. These will stimulate your research interests and
enhance your understanding of the various historical, creative and
critical discourses that have shaped the contemporary discipline of
English Studies. Given our context, special attention is paid to
southern Africa in relation to the wider world, and we have an ongoing
concern with postcolonialism and the emergence of new ‘englishes’.

First Semester

ENGL713 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND IDENTITY

Beginning with St. Augustine’s Confessions, generally thought to be
the first autobiography, this module traces shifts in self-conception
and self-representation right up to very recent times. Looking at a
diverse range of texts from around the world, we will consider key
questions: how have autobiographers conceived of the self? How they have
construed the relation between self and other? How have they have
approached the problems of truth-telling and textual representation? We
will consider also the generic particularities of autobiography, and the
functions which autobiographical texts can serve.

ENGL714 CRITICAL THEORY: CONTEMPORARY DEBATES

The course examines a range of key concepts in literary-cultural
criticism. As an introduction, attention is given to central texts from
the past which have decisively shaped modern conceptions of culture, and
thereafter students engage with important debates in contemporary
literary theory. Here, central illustrative examples may be drawn from
such theoretical areas as Marxism, Feminism Psychoanalysis,
Postcolonialism, Cultural Studies, and Deconstruction. In particular, we
will follow the interaction among ideas of literary value, the concerns
of social criticism, and the nature of subjectivity.

ENGL716 WRITING ACROSS WORLDS

The world of ‘posts’ – postmodern, post-apartheid, post-9/11 – is
said to be characterised by information flows, cultural exchanges,
translations, diverse experiences, and border crossings. Such movements –
whether conversations or journeys – are challenging and arduous. The
module explores the perspectives of metropolis and colony, or North and
South, through a variety of textual contexts. We look comparatively at
texts not only from western Europe and South/Africa, but also by writers
from the former Eastern Europe, the United States, Zanzibar, and China.
A series of questions will focus the study on issues of belonging and
dis/location, ‘home and/ as exile‘.

Second Semester

ENGL712 CREATIVE WRITING

This is a senior creative writing course in which students develop a
sustained writing project in a genre of their choice. In seminars,
students are familiarised with the critical debates informing creative
writing as a sub-field of English Studies, and they participate in
writing exercises. Students are also expected to cover a range of
prescribed reading as a means of developing style and technique.
Entrance to the course is subject to the submission of a short portfolio
of illustrative work for the consideration of the steering committee.
(Contact Dr Moolman.) Along with a number of seminar work pieces which
comprise a record of progress, course participants will be expected to
produce a substantial piece of creative writing by the end of the course
– poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, scriptwriting…

ENGL711 GENDER AND WRITING

This module traces the historical relationships between gender and
writing in various parts of the world. Seminars address: the
possibilities of reading and writing as empowerment; the politics of
language; how/why the ownership of writing changes at different times in
different societies; how women enter writing; how a place in the
institutions of writing has been affected by factors such as race and
class; how women are represented in various genres; and how women in
oral cultures enter writing.

ENGL705 MEDIATING SOUTH AFRICAN IDENTITIES

The module addresses influential South African literary-cultural
concerns through the examination of texts by leading South African
writers. Running through the course is a series of questions with which
students are required to grapple: What is suggested, in the course
material, about how to live in a particular place at a particular time?
Is ‘identity’ an essence, a construct, an uneasy mediation amongst
contradictory positions? How have local particularities been conceived
by writers in relation to various metropolitan, or supposedly global,
realities?

TRIC702 INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND TRANSLATION

This module is concerned with the theory and practice of translation
and intercultural studies. It is suited to professionally-oriented
students and, more generally, to those interested in the processes of
culture, communication and language. The module is available to all
students, but may be of particular relevance to those taking English,
Cultural/ Media and Gender Studies, Languages and Linguistics. The
course draws on key theoretical issues and practical methodologies of
cultural and linguistic translation. In a world where cross-cultural
communication has global applicability, translation should be viewed not
only as a linguistic end-product, but also as a process profoundly
influenced by, and influencing, complex socio-cultural dynamics.

For further information, including info about the PhD, please contact
the Postgraduate Co-ordinator, Dr Matthew Shum: shum@ukzn.ac.za

English Studies offers:

A coursework Honours: 1 year full-time (2 years part-time), based on
combinations of the modules listed in this brochure. Full-time students
take two modules in each semester. Students who choose English Studies
as their home discipline are permitted to replace an English Studies
module with one module from another discipline. Students are assessed
through combinations of seminar presentation, essay, short task and
exam. (Note: in any one course taken in Honours, the long essay must
replace the exam.)

An MA by thesis (with support) The research MA is a guided degree.
Initially, students are directed towards departmental, school and/or
college workshops which assist a postgraduate researcher in identifying a
research topic, writing a proposal, and becoming familiar with key
literary-cultural debates. Thereafter, a student works with an
individual supervisor who facilitates the student’s planning, drafting
and writing of a dissertation of approximately 100/120 pages. (The MA
thesis may address any area, including cultural studies, creative
writing, and translation. Possibilities depend in part on the
availability of supervision.)

Your MA studies can be FREE! If you work hard, the MA can be
completed full-time in 1 year. There are NO FEES in the first year. If
your research runs into the second year, UKZN will charge for a year’s
registration. The NRF may provide bursary funding.