Honours in English Literary Studies is designed to increase understanding of literature and culture through sustained and close attention to particular texts (including film), key topics and major critical and theoretical issues. In particular, you will expand and deepen your specialist knowledge gained at undergraduate level, and develop advanced-level research skills, critical skills, and knowledge of theory and praxis. You can focus your learning on areas of personal interest and inquiry through your choice of units (allowing concentration on areas as diverse as film or creative writing, theatre or poetry, Australian literature or postmodernism, or representations of Asia) and are encouraged to devise your own topic for the dissertation. The skills and attributes gained by honours students in English Literary Studies are especially useful for those intending to progress to language-based professions such as law, education, psychology, journalism and diplomacy, as well as to careers in the arts, broadcasting, publishing, cultural management, advertising and public relations, the civil service, teaching and public advocacy groups.<br><br>Outcomes: Students are able to (1) develop advanced-level research skills that are methodologically informed, (2) articulate an independent critical position clearly in written and oral forms, (3) use highly-developed skills of analysis and critical reasoning in order to advance and defend a proposed interpretation or argument, (4) have an advanced understanding of the role played by discourses on race, class and gender in the production and reception of fictional texts, and (5) be aware of the importance of informing and challenging one's independent analyses and ideas with discriminating reading in imaginative and theoretical literature.