McDolphin Burger

I'm more into the epistemological / theories-of-knowledge nexus than the metafictive or high-versus-low-culture aspects, though obviously these are inextricable. Vague enough for you? ; ) Another strong interest I have is absurdism (cf. Heller, Barthelme). As I alluded to in my original post, my as-yet-fuzzy thesis proposal is to study the (political) ideology underpinning texts which in themselves appear to challenge the foundations of all ideologies. Another nice instance of postmodern irony...

He is. It took me a good three months to read 2666 my first time through, but I was so taken with it that I proceded to blast through the rest of his ouvre in another three. If my Spanish were any better, I'd probably be applying for Spanish literature programs now. I shored up my vocabulary using a flashcard program called Anki. Beginning about four months before the exam, I did about one hundred cards a day. The reading comprehension is a little more difficult to prepare for; I used practice sets from The Princeton Review and took every practice test I could lay my hands on. For the actual exam, I physically covered the questions on the screen with my scratch paper and read every selection twice before I as much as glanced at the questions.

My short list includes, Stanford, UC Santa Cruz, WashU, UMass - Amherst, Cornell and New Mexico. Suggestions? Feedback? Opinions?

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll try to bear that in mind when I get around to finishing my statement of purpose. You've piqued my interest. I've heard some good things about McGill. Also, what's the admissions cycle like for UK schools?

After a year out of university, I'm planning to apply to English literature programs admitting in the fall of '13. My primary interest is 20th century American fiction – especially postmodern novelists – and I have a notion to research the counterculture connections and commitments of guys like Pynchon, Vonnegut and Kesey. My instinct tells me that this is a pretty popular field and a lot of universities should fit the bill, but where should I start looking? I'm inclined to stick to the west coast, but I've also checked out a few eastern universities. I'm open to the UK, but haven't put any major thought into it. I do have a few admissions-related hurtles to jump: first, my B.A. is in history and I've only got three English lit classes on my transcript for my last couple of terms. On account of freshman (ok, and sophomore) indiscretions, my GPA's in the 3.5 range, though I transferred to another school after a few years and ended up with a 3.93 on the classes I took at the latter institution. Both were state universities and not particularly well-known ones at that. I also don't really have either any personal references in literature or a decent undergraduate English paper to work into a writing sample. It's a tall order - what can I do to overcome this? On the plus-side, I thought I did pretty well on the GRE general (99% verbal, 68% quantitative and 92% writing). If it's at all relevant, I speak both Spanish and Japanese competently and I have overseas experience: I taught English in Japan for eleven months. Any input at all is appreciated!