Literatures in English

While our focus remains on writing produced in Britain and the U.S., as its title is meant to imply, the Literatures in English Section encourages study of Anglophone writing in a global and multicultural context. UC San Diego's comparative emphasis offers several advantages for the study of literatures in English. By actively studying in a second (and even a third) literature, students are in a unique position to explore theoretical currents and critical modes within and beyond the English-speaking world, and to evaluate claims for the uniqueness of its national literary traditions. It is not uncommon, for example, for students working in early modern English drama to draw upon Spanish and French, as well as English exploration narratives in the New World, or for a student of American modernism to work with congruent developments in the Caribbean or the Indian subcontinent. Traditionally, faculty members in the Literatures in English Section have research and scholarly interests in several fields, allowing the graduate student to work across national, linguistic, and methodological borders.