English departments that welcome the study of film?

[Sanchéz]

Hey everyone,

I've recently attained my MA in English Literature and am hoping to apply for doctoral program for the fall of 2012. Both in my undergraduate and graduate studies (at the same university), I've been heavily involved in both the study of film and literature. Now that I'm wanting to move on, I was curious to see if any of you have suggestions for programs that would embrace a student focusing on both the gaps and overlaps between film and literary narrative. More specifically, I'd like to dive into and investigate the shared cultural space of modernist literature and the classical Hollywood narrative during the first half of the twentieth century. With this, I'd hope to focus my work through the theoretical, cultural, and political lenses....in other words, I'm dying to find a program that allows their students a lot of mobility through disciplines.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. And although I'm mainly looking for English programs (they're more inclined to allow mobility and there's typically a greater likelihood of getting a job afterwards), I'm absolutely open to other ideas.

I hope the beginning of the application season is going well for everyone, and I look forward to joining (and hopefully contributing to) the discussions with all of you this fall.

-B

[truckbasket]

I can't imagine that many programs exist that wouldn't allow such transdisciplinary work -- most that I've run into emphatically encourage it. You could probably slide into a niche within English, but it might depend on your angle of attack as to whether or not Media Studies would be a better home. If I were in the business of giving advice, I might suggest you seek out individuals doing the kind of work you're interested in rather than entire programs or institutions. Leo Braudy at USC, for example, springs to mind for Modernism and the early Hollywood stuff.