Hi wanderlust,
Thanks for the quick and thorough reply! Just a little more about me...
In high school, I loved English, and I was always very good at it. I love literature and grammar (even diagramming sentences), and especially writing. I was, however, lured by the glamor of film, which I also greatly enjoyed. I did film production, but I also took a lot of theory courses, specifically genre theory, gender theory, and cultural studies. These branches in film are very much derived from English studies, so I feel like it's natural to move from one to the other. My MS in Professional Writing is giving me a good rhet/comp background for teaching writing, and I'm trying to squeeze the literature courses in there to give me a better foundation and to catch up.
As far as the schools, I've been doing research for several months, creating Excel documents listing program details, information about funding, job statistics, types of courses offered, and city information. I have binders. With lots of pages.
I do plan to take as many lit theory courses as possible, though if I want to finish the program in 2 years, I won't be able to do a master's thesis and all the lit courses I want. So I'll have to sacrifice one or the other.
I have a huge study guide for the GRE Lit test, but my worry is that I don't have all those foundational courses in literature that most English students have, and with working full time and earning a master's, I'm not sure I have the time to learn the entire history of literature in English. Almost all the schools I want to apply for require the exam, so I guess there's not much to do except make flashcards until they start coming out me ears.
Thanks again for the input!
bfat