Literature at melbuni

[2352300]

Heyhey so what's literature like in this neck of the woods? I read all of Lauren's reviews and I'm kind of scared, but as an optimist I'm hoping some good changes have been made since she completed those subjects

[literally lauren]

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED!?

Apologies if my reviews came across as scathing/scary - I'm probably in the minority of people who chose a Literature major and ended up disliking it, but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Can't attest to any positive/negative changes that have happened since 2014-2016, but below is a list of the Lit. subjects I did at uni:

First year:
- ENGL10002: Literature and Performance   
- ENGL10001: Modern and Contemporary Literature
- ENGL20033 (previously THTR20021): Shakespeare in Performance

Second year:
- ENGL20022: Modernism and Avant Garde
- ENGL20023: American Classics
- ENGL30013: Gothic Fictions

Third year:
- ENGL30007: Genre Fiction/Popular Fiction
- ENGL30002: Critical Debates

^kinda dropped off towards the end here and started studying sign language, art forgery, and medieval plagues instead, lol

My very general recommendation is to only choose a Lit major if you enjoy sociology and cultural studies rather than textual analysis, as there's very little of the latter to be found. Also, the enjoyment of these subjects was largely contingent on the tutors and lecturers I had, and many of these will likely change around, so it's a bit of a mixed bag :/

Let me know if there are any particular subjects you're interested in and I might be able to give some more specific tips (and if anyone else is doing Lit @ unimelb now, please join in!)

[2352300]

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED!?

Apologies if my reviews came across as scathing/scary - I'm probably in the minority of people who chose a Literature major and ended up disliking it, but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Can't attest to any positive/negative changes that have happened since 2014-2016, but below is a list of the Lit. subjects I did at uni:

First year:
- ENGL10002: Literature and Performance   
- ENGL10001: Modern and Contemporary Literature
- ENGL20033 (previously THTR20021): Shakespeare in Performance

Second year:
- ENGL20022: Modernism and Avant Garde
- ENGL20023: American Classics
- ENGL30013: Gothic Fictions

Third year:
- ENGL30007: Genre Fiction/Popular Fiction
- ENGL30002: Critical Debates

^kinda dropped off towards the end here and started studying sign language, art forgery, and medieval plagues instead, lol

My very general recommendation is to only choose a Lit major if you enjoy sociology and cultural studies rather than textual analysis, as there's very little of the latter to be found. Also, the enjoyment of these subjects was largely contingent on the tutors and lecturers I had, and many of these will likely change around, so it's a bit of a mixed bag :/

Let me know if there are any particular subjects you're interested in and I might be able to give some more specific tips (and if anyone else is doing Lit @ unimelb now, please join in!)

I think part A of the new study design was probably added to expose lit students to sociological/cultural interpretations of a text. I didn't mind it and did well, but examining raw language was always a lot more fun. Some classes were just 75 minutes of learning about the author's life, their past works, political alignments etc. It wasn't boring but let's just say that section B will always have a special place in my heart :,)

[literally lauren]

I think part A of the new study design was probably added to expose lit students to sociological/cultural interpretations of a text. I didn't mind it and did well, but examining raw language was always a lot more fun. Some classes were just 75 minutes of learning about the author's life, their past works, political alignments etc. It wasn't boring but let's just say that section B will always have a special place in my heart :,)

Haha, my current hypothesis is that Part A was added because the assessors were told to change the study design and didn't know what else to do, so they cobbled together some quasi-Text-Response-hybrid, didn't properly explain it to anyone, and called it a day

Compared to VCE Literature, uni definitely has a broader scope as each subject involves studying 8-10 books (not to mention additional readings). So if you're doing one Lit subject each semester, you're studying around 20 books a year as opposed to the ~5 in VCE. Unfortunately, the depth of study is sort of compromised in that you only spend one week on each text (with minimal connecting threads across semester... that was actually one of the more disappointing aspects as you'd get to an end of a subject like 'American Classics' and not really be able to say anything interesting about the idea of American Classics overall - the study of each text is rather fragmented and self-contained ). However, you'll only have 2 or 3 assessment tasks per subject, meaning you can pick the handful of texts you actually wish to write about and just focus on those predominately.

Ultimately, it is what you make of it - you can choose to throw yourself into the course and do all the readings (required AND suggested), participating in class discussions, and asking questions of the tutors/lecturers. This was what I did for Gothic Fictions and it was by far the most positive experience I had. But it's hard to do if you're not interested in the subject matter, so maybe I was just unlucky in that none of the subjects bar GothFic were aligned with my literary tastes

That said, if you're Section B inclined, you'll probably find it quite easy to do well, especially in the first year subjects where they assume no knowledge and walk you through the basics with baby steps. (Your first assignment is literally a passage analysis, and it's super accessible as a starting point). Also, those two first year subjects are fairly representative of what a Lit major consists of, so I'd recommend trying those out even if you're unsure whether you'll continue.

(But Linguistics and History are superior #sorrynotsorry)