English Literature Ph.D Program Recommendations – Modern American Fiction

[McDolphin Burger]

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 20^th 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!

[Historiogaffe]

The best starting point: author stalking.

What books or articles have bowled you over in the Modern American Lit field? If someone called, say, Georgina Wu wrote something that stoked your nerdy flames, Google her. (If it's someone with a name more like John Brown, maybe type "John Brown professor".) See where they are, and where they got their PhDs. Which of these universities have you heard of before? Which ones do many PhDs seem to be coming from? That should start you off.

You can also plumb the archives here for "american lit" or whatever; posters often list the schools they have applied/are applying to in their signatures, so you can go on over to those institutions' sites and see if you like their gist.

Edit: Solid GPA and GRE scores. 3.5 should only preclude a few Ivies and West Coasties. If you feel that having relatively few ENGL courses on your transcript could hurt you, you may want to check out (funded) terminal MA programs in English lit.

Edited August 17, 2012 by A Proper Pun

[wreckofthehope]

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 20^th 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!

Hey - I'm in late C20th fiction... but not necessarily postmodernism (if that makes sense...). My sense is that this is thought of more as a 'field' in the UK and Canada - and Canada, especially, has some really great departments for this - in the US, you will certainly find people to work with and be able to do great work and write a dissertation on this topic, but you might also need (for the sake of jobs, really) to label yourself as, say, a twentieth century Americanist, who is as at ease teaching American Modernism, as they are teaching Vonnegut. To that end, your exams and such might be directed to mastering a much broader field than 'postmodern American fiction.'

If you were to look in the U.K. definitely take a look at Sussex and Warwick. In Canada, definitely look at UBC, Simon Fraser, and McGill.

A few US departments that I can think of right now that might be possibilities are: Wisconsin Madison (Thomas Schaub), UC Davis, and UC Riverside, oh and Wisconsin Milwaukee.

Edited August 17, 2012 by wreckofthehope

[McDolphin Burger]

Hey - I'm in late C20th fiction... but not necessarily postmodernism (if that makes sense...). My sense is that this is thought of more as a 'field' in the UK and Canada - and Canada, especially, has some really great departments for this - in the US, you will certainly find people to work with and be able to do great work and write a dissertation on this topic, but you might also need (for the sake of jobs, really) to label yourself as, say, a twentieth century Americanist, who is as at ease teaching American Modernism, as they are teaching Vonnegut. To that end, your exams and such might be directed to mastering a much broader field than 'postmodern American fiction.'

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll try to bear that in mind when I get around to finishing my statement of purpose.

If you were to look in the U.K. definitely take a look at Sussex and Warwick. In Canada, definitely look at UBC, Simon Fraser, and McGill.

You've piqued my interest. I've heard some good things about McGill. Also, what's the admissions cycle like for UK schools?

[wreckofthehope]

You've piqued my interest. I've heard some good things about McGill. Also, what's the admissions cycle like for UK schools?

Most schools in the UK have rolling admissions, although some are different (you'd have to check with each department). I'd say that the majority of UK students plan to apply around January or February because funding council applications are due about that time. So, I'd plan to apply around then, or just before - if you're applying to American schools too, it would make sense to use the momentum generated by the US process to finish up the UK apps rather than let them become an afterthought. You usually find out really quickly in the UK and most departments interview (either in person or phone/skype). You also need to do a very different kind of application for UK schools: you are basically writing a dissertation proposal rather than laying out a possible trajectory.

It's WAY less competitive than it is in the US - Oxford accepts about 45% of English PhD applicants- but funding is scarce and you'd have to weigh that up.

Oh - look at University of Nottingham too!

Edited August 18, 2012 by wreckofthehope

[nhswrestle]

I also plan on doing work with late-20th century texts. My interests and current schools I am applying to are in my signature.

What schools are you planning to apply to?

[nhswrestle]

Also, if possible I would change the heading of this thread to "Postmodern American Fiction" or "Late 20th-century American Fiction." People may think your talking about early 20th-century texts when you say "Modern."

[McDolphin Burger]

On 8/18/2012 at 5:05 PM, nhswrestle said:

I also plan on doing work with late-20th century texts. My interests and current schools I am applying to are in my signature.

What schools are you planning to apply to?

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

Suggestions? Feedback? Opinions?

[claptrap]

On 8/19/2012 at 9:56 PM, McDolphin Burger said:

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

Suggestions? Feedback? Opinions?

If you're interested in working with Ursula Heise (formerly) at Stanford, you should be aware that she is moving to UCLA this year.

P.S. Bolaño is amazing.

[Two Espressos]

On 8/23/2012 at 11:03 AM, claptrap said:

If you're interested in working with Ursula Heise (formerly) at Stanford, you should be aware that she is moving to UCLA this year.

P.S. Bolaño is amazing.

This is emphatically off-topic, but reading claptrap's post led me to google Heise, which in turn led me to her CV. Her native tongue is German; she is quasi-fluent in English, Spanish, and French; she has intermediate speaking, reading, and writing ability in Japanese; and she has a good reading ability in Portuguese, Italian, and Latin.

Fuck!

I feel so much less intelligent now.

 

[user_name]

somewhere in the midwest was big on Vonnegut. nebraska maybe? can't remember but if you look up the Vonnegut society that might guide your search. Brian McHale at ohio state has written a lot on Pynchon and postmodernism

[McDolphin Burger]

P.S. Bolaño is amazing.

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.

As an aside, how did you prepare for the GRE Verbal? Any tips you can pass on?

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.

[McDolphin Burger]

... what kinds of specific postmodern issues are you interested in? This is another way of narrowing.

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...

[sebastiansteddy]

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.

Thanks for this recommendation! Just downloaded it, seems very helpful!