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The Master of Arts in English program immerses you in the evolving voices and perspectives of great literature, both classic and contemporary, from Shakespeare and Virginia Woolf to Thomas Pynchon, Louise Erdrich, Toni Morrison, and more.

Join a unique literary community and gain breadth and depth in English and American literature reinforced with study of critical theory. The program offers distinctive strengths in interdisciplinary and transnational analyses of literature and culture. Small seminar-style classes and dedicated faculty advising create a student-centered environment to foster an intimate dialogue about issues and ideas related to your course of study. You work side by side with doctoral students, gain exposure to scholarly research, and gain access to the impressive resources of The Claremont Colleges community. Take a conventional route to your degree by exploring a single discipline or literature or forge a path that crosses disciplines and departments. You’ll build research skills and area expertise that will prepare you for a range of possible options, from teaching and professional writing to publishing, corporate communications, and more.

Program Highlights

Program At a Glance

UNITS
40 units

ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME*
2 years

*Program completion times may vary depending on course registration, units transferred, and time to complete other degree requirements.

COURSES BEGIN
Fall | Spring

DEPARTMENT
English

DEGREE AWARDED
MA in English

Featured Courses

ENG 467
U.S. Latino/a/x Literature & Culture

Takes an interdisciplinary approach to Latin/x literature and cultural production, exploring key themes such as hybrid identities, U.S. imperialism, and the Latinization of urban America.

ENG 370
Introduction to Literary Theory

Provides an overview of Textual Criticism, Structuralism, Poststructuralism, New Historicism, Gender Studies, Queer Theory, Critical Race Theory, Postmodernism, and Postcolonialism.

ENG 316
The Shakespeare Seminar

Examines a mix of plays from one of the world’s greatest writers, each representing Shakespeare’s history, comedy, tragedy, romance, and the so-called “problem” drama.

ENG 426
American Poetry From the Puritans to the Present

Focuses on the work of paired American poets ranging from the Puritans to the present, from Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor to Mark Strand and Louise Glück, and places these literary texts in historical context.

ENG 429
American Classics: 19th & 20th Century Fiction

Surveys a range of important American novels by such writers as Susanna Rowson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joan Didion, Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison and others.

ENG 420
The World Novel

Explores how the novel has moved and grown among countries, cultures, and continents for thousands of years, from ancient Greece to 20th-century Nigeria and Colombia.

Curriculum

Core Courses

  • British literature before 1750
  • British literature after 1750
  • American literature before 1900
  • American literature after 1900
  • British or American literature of any period
  • Introduction to Literary Theory

Elective Courses

  • Four elective courses

Research Tools Requirement

  • One foreign language exam
  • Field Exam in English and American Literature
Faculty & Research
Extended Faculty

Sumangala Bhattacharya

Pitzer College

Research Interests

English and world literature


Myriam Chancy

Scripps College

Research Interests

African diaspora with specialization in its literature


Kevin Dettmar

Pomona College

Research Interests

British and Irish modernism, and contemporary popular music


Kimberly Drake

Scripps College

Research Interests

Protest writing and rhetoric, American literature and culture, Disability literature, Prison writing, Short story and experimental fiction writing, Punk rock literature and subcultures, Writing pedagogy, Feminist theory, disability theory, queer theory, theories of race and class


Warren Liu

Scripps College

Research Interests

Contemporary American literature; Asian American literature


Aaron Matz

Scripps College

Research Interests

British fiction, 1850-present, history of the novel in England and France, literature and morality, realism, satire, and theory of genre


James Morrison

Claremont McKenna College

Research Interests

Film and literature


James H. Nichols

Claremont McKenna College

Research Interests

Political Philosophy


Sarah Raff

Pomona College

Research Interests

18th- and 19th-Century British literature, History and theory of the European novel, Jane Austen

Where You Can Find Our Alumni

Interdisciplinary Concentrations

As a student in the School of Arts & Humanities, you have the option of completing one of five interdisciplinary concentrations.

American Studies

The American Studies concentration takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of United States culture, society, civilization, and identity through the curricular lenses of history, literature, critical theory, and more.

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Early Modern Studies

The Early Modern Studies concentration undertakes interdisciplinary examination of history, culture, politics, and society within the transitional and transformative period that stretched between Medieval and modern societies, marked especially by the advent of print, Christian confessional war, and the rise of the modern state.

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Hemispheric & Transnational Studies

A comparative analysis of culture in the Americas, the concentration in Hemispheric & Transnational Studies explores how scholarship on the Atlantic, borderlands, and diaspora have reshaped U.S. American Studies, Caribbean Studies, and Latin American Studies, emphasizing the topics of empire, race, religion, and revolution.

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Media Studies

Situated at the bustling intersection of cultural studies, new media, critical theory, and popular culture, the burgeoning field of Media Studies examines the creative and critical practices of media consumers, producers, artists, and scholars, focusing on questions of representation, power, technology, politics, and economy.

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Museum Studies

The Museum Studies concentration investigates the history and political role of museums in society, the interpretation and display of a wide variety of cultural productions, and topics of special concern to museums as cultural organizations, using a multidisciplinary, practice-based approach to understand the historical development of this evolving field.

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These concentrations are available for students pursuing the following degree programs:

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Gigi Audoma

Director of Recruitment for the School of Arts & Humanities
T: 909-607-0441
E: geraldine.audoma@cgu.edu