English

Degree Type: 

Master of Philosophy

Department: 

Department of English

Programme Duration: 

2 years (Standard Entry)

Modes of Study: 

Regular

About Programme: 

Not Published

Entry Requirements: 

  • A good first degree (at least, Second Class Lower Division in English or a related discipline)

  • Candidate should pass an admission interview

Career Opportunities: 

Not Published

Programme Structure

Level 500

First Semester

ENG 801: Phonology
3 Credit(s)

The course begins with an introduction to the major theories of phonology, including classical phonemics, prosodic phonology and generative phonology,

and then focuses on the segmental and non-segmental features of modern English.  There will also be a practical phonetics component involving the

use of the Department’s modern language laboratory.

 

 

 
ENG 802: Grammar
3 Credit(s)

This course presents different approaches to the grammatical description of English, notably the ‘grammar tradition adopted by Quirk et al.,

transformational–generative grammar and functional grammar.  Topics in both morphology and syntax will be explored.
ENG 808: Genre Studies
3 Credit(s)

This course is designed to appeal to candidates who are interested in working with large amounts of language data as well as those whose work involves

writing in different modes (e.g. secretaries)., It looks at regular linguistic patterning in different domains of language use. It is intended to improve the writing

of candidates by introducing them to the meaning expressed by the different patterns.
ENG 812: Literary Stylistics
3 Credit(s)

This course will focus on four women writers whose biographies have little in common, except for gender: George Eliot, Toni Morrison, Ama Atta Aidoo, and Nadine Gordinmer.

For the most part, their writing will be studied chronologically. But attempts will also be made to analyse the texts as thematic units with overarching “feminist” concerns.

This course will raise such questions as the following: is there a distinctively feminine sensibility manifested in the creative process, in the choice of subject, in style,

in narrative point of view or, in the characterization of hero and heroine? What critical tools are appropriate for the study of women writers and images of the “feminine”?
ENG 818: Research Methods
3 Credit(s)

This course will focus on research methods and techniques of general bibliography. Students will be equipped with the resources and basic research

material in English literary studies and the skills and tools in presenting the findings of literary research. The course also explores methodological

issues such as sampling, field research, finding and formulating a research topic, writing a research proposal, annotating references,

developing conceptual and theoretical frameworks. 

Second Semester

ENG 809: Literary Perspectives on Autobiography
3 Credit(s)

This course is designed to exercise and extend critical skills and to provide some practice in research. The main focus will be on autobiography, since

this relatively ignored literary form: questions of self–representation in literature, the transformation of reality via imagination, the relationship between literature

and history, and nature of literary or poetic art.
ENG 811: Studies in Literature and Society
3 Credit(s)

These two contemporary writers (Ayi Kwei Armah and NgugiWaThiongo) differ mainly in the sources of their influences. Yet, in spite of Ayi Kwei Armah’s absorption

in the ideas of Frantz Fanon, and Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s alignment with a folksy kind of Marxism, both writers explore the actual, spiritual and moral terrain of African

life and history. Both express a concern for African wholeness; both are disturbed by a history of European exploitation in Africa; both have attacked the notion

that economic relationships among people can be meaningfully studied from emotional and moral concerns; and yet both writers seem convinced that humans

cannot produce good work unless they are themselves good. This course will study the complete up-to-date writing of these two writers with a view to assessing

the value of their contribution to modern African thought.
ENG 821: Feminist Theory
3 Credit(s)

This course will assume a posture of enquiry not assertion. There will be a definitely exploratory attitude to this course because evidence is strong that feminist literary theory looks for its home on borderlines: it has better things to do than patrol boundaries. Thus, there will be some suggestions of the inter-disciplinary in the course.

The course will review a series of topics that seem to situate and define a good deal of women’s writing on:

  1. Discourse-as-power and the politics of women’s writing;

  2. Gender and race;

  3. Cultural deformations of women into fetish, object, other;

  4. Literary canonization that marginalize and silence women.