Graduate lit pep talk.

July 15, 2010 9:03 AM

Fellow English (and other language) lit graduate students: recommend me what you think is the best online source for getting up to speed on either common terminology or current trends in the discipline.

I'm starting a doctoral literature program after years in a different field, though I did receive a bachelor's degree in literature. I don't need help with writing or analysis (I did get into the program, after all), but I'm worried I'll feel completely out of water for the first year since most of the other Ph.D. students have just come from an M.A. in English and are going to be all-up-ons with the litspeak.

Any recommendations for online resources to familiarize me with a) what I've been missing over the past couple years and b) arguments and terminology other lit students expect each other to know? I'd prefer online sources (I'm really not looking for a book list of canon texts like Golden Bough).

Throwaway email is [e-mail]. (Anonymous 'cause admitting unfamiliarity in academia can be awkward.)

posted by anonymous to Education (3 answers total)

but I'm worried I'll feel completely out of water for the first year since most of the other Ph.D. students have just come from an M.A. in English and are going to be all-up-ons with the litspeak.

First of all, absolutely do not think this. In fact, it's possible to get through a high-quality doctoral program and not be fully acquainted with the litspeak.

For an orientation to critical theory, c. 2003, see Guide to Literary and Critical Theory. A more recent variant is the Introduction to Modern Literary Theory. Unfortunately, the Johns Hopkins Guide is subscription-only.
posted by thomas j wise at 9:21 AM on July 15, 2010 [3 favorites]

Seconding the Johns Hopkins Guide. If you are in a graduate program, your library should link to it from the same page where they keep the MLA.
But really, if you are in a graduate program, no one really cares if you can reproduce the theoretical battles of the past, so long as you can develop a coherent critical and theoretical for what you want to say. So mastery of Lacan or Althusser might be less important than thinking clearly about your own processes and preconceptions, and developing a vocabulary to discuss them. Although, if you do learn these theoretical frameworks, showboating can be fun in the right circumstances (ie, NOT in seminar).
posted by pickypicky at 9:29 AM on July 15, 2010

It's been quite some time since I did my EngLit grad work, but I've never heard of a program at least in the US that would admit you for the Ph.D. and not the M.A. So your concerns, depending on where you are, may just be your anxiety.

Also, it's my experience that people come into the first year of a Ph.D. program with wildly different backgrounds and literacies. The whole point of a Ph.D. program is to mold you into a professional English professor in the mold of your teachers and advisors. There will be something that everyone is not up to speed on, believe me, and part of what you learn - part of what has been most valuable to me in pursuing a non-academic career, frankly, is the ability to dive into a topic area you don't know well and be able to get your bearings in the material quickly.

All that having been said, I'd just read some good blogs and follow your interests. The Valve has a nice long blogroll, and while it's not lit-only, I still love Crooked Timber. Listening in on academics talking amongst themselves is going to be as useful as getting up to speed on theory terms.

Also, seriously? Consider what you're doing, and consider why. A Ph.D. in the humanities is a preposterous effort for a rapidly-diminishing reward. Timothy Burke is, if anything, overly positive in his advice. I don't regret having done it, but I do regret the opportunities (career and personal) that I missed.
posted by mishaps at 9:49 AM on July 15, 2010