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Studying English literature is a rich and varied process: at the university level, it is as much founded in the pleasures of analysis, interpretation, and exploration as it is in the pleasures of reading itself. Literature is important not only because it instructs and delights, teaching us things about our history, our cultures, our institutions, and our means of expression and interaction, but also because it teaches us things about ourselves as readers and interpreters of texts. In fact, it can ask us to think about the nature of interpretation itself: how and why do we read? How do we assign value, individually and collectively, to what we read? How do we conspire, as writers or readers, as individuals or groups, to make things have meaning? Considering these kinds of questions - which regularly underlie the pursuits of the university-level English class - can give us insight not only into particular literary texts (although as students and teachers of literature we are always interested in cultivating those insights), but also into the way we see and understand the world and our place in it; in this way, the study of literature is a far broader study than it might at first appear, and one that is replete with its own demands, rigors, and rewards.

The Department of English Literatures is one of Mount Allison's largest, with nine full-time faculty members. Most students take at least one English course during their undergraduate career. Those who choose to complete a minor concentration in English are introduced to a range of literary texts and approaches, in various genres and from diverse historical periods. The English major allows students to extend the range of their study, while the Honours program permits them to undertake an individual project of their choosing designed in consultation with a faculty supervisor.

Programs
The English curriculum offers a generous breadth of material, balancing canonical writers and genres with the non-canonical, and offering courses that range from the traditional to the exploratory in scope and format.

Faculty
Part of an enthusiastic and energetic Department, English Faculty members combine diverse and active research interests - from medieval manuscript culture to narrative Cinema - with a strong commitment to teaching. Collectively they hold more than a dozen awards for research and teaching, and several contribute to the scholarship of pedagogy as well as to research, criticism, and creative activity in their fields.

Creative Writing
Every year the Department sponsors three or four students to attend the Atlantic Undergraduate English Conference, where they present their critical and creative work to an audience of their peers. Students interested in creative writing may, in the winter of their second or third year of study, apply for admission to English 3850, a hands-on, workshop style course based on weekly discussion of students' original writing. Other opportunities for creative writers include the annual anthology of student work, Seven Mondays.

Where to go from here?
Many English students go on to graduate programs in education, English literature, creative writing, law, and library science. Others find careers in the civil service, social work, public relations, and private industry. The greater critical understanding of the English language and of key works of literature that students gain through four years of active research, exploration, creative and critical writing, and through active exchange with faculty and other students prepares them for success and confidence in a number of fields, whatever their next step after Mount Allison.

Department Website

Academic Calendar: English