Fields of Interest

[Boz]

I was just curious about something and would like to hear other people's (better-informed) opinions on the subject. What are the most popular fields of interest for those applying to PhD programs in English these days? I read somewhere (I forget where exactly, but it was a reliable source) that about half of all people apply with a focus on modernism/20th c. literature, but does anyone know the stats for other periods/genres? For example, is the other half of applicants distributed evenly across other specializations, or are there other particularly popular fields pre-1900? Or certain schools of theory/criticism?

I apologize if this is all common knowledge and I just sound silly--I don't have many intellectual/literary friends these days (post-college), so I'm out of the loop!

[Minnesotan]

Well, I realize you're mixing theoretical fields and time periods here, but it seems to me that the vast majority of female grad students in my department work on feminist rhetoric or theory. Other than that, there seem to be quite a few rhet and tech folks, and post-colonialists.

Are you trying to avoid the fields for which departments get flooded with applications, or do you have grand hopes of finding the "hot" field to help you get in? I would not chase trends at this point in your career. Do what you love.

[acceptedwannabe]

Hi there,

I am interested in "spanking", "black leather", and single latin females 20-30... oops, wrong forum, sorry about that.

Seriously now, I am applying to Romance studies and Spanish literature and I am interested in a very specific literary topic: the application of Vladimir Propp's model to modern south american short stories.

It goes something like this: Propp developped a system that helps analyzing the structure of faerie tales and folk tales; basically it synthesizes a story into something that looks like a short math equation. Modern literature doesn't work well with his model, and was never meant to do so because its narrative is too complex. But I found out that when you try to do so... and then you fail miserably... you actually discover a lot about the structure of the the story at hand. Is like trying to understand a human being by studying him as if it were a chimp.

Although I am really passionate about this subject, this "interst" might turn out to be as bizarre and out-of-place in an application form as the the "spanking" and "black leather" interests mentioned above. Anyway, good luck to all of you "applicants" out there and may we all be "accepted" and "well fund" by mid march.

[Minnesotan]

Hi there,

I am interested in "spanking", "black leather", and single latin females 20-30...

You'll find that in the "Lobby" forum.

[Comfect]

From my experience at a visit weekend last year (Hopkins), the 13 people admitted went around the room as follows:

1 Renaissance

2 Long 18th century

4-5 19th century

5-6 20th century

I don't know if that reflects the applicant pool, but that was the distribution in the admitted pool.