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Welcome to English at Magdalene

The main aim of the English Fellows at Magdalene is to help our undergraduates to discover the pleasures, the difficulties and sometimes the impossibilities of understanding the written word, how it has its effects on us, and how it 'means'. Our approach is eclectic, and students are encouraged to look at a wide range of methods of interpretation as they develop their individual responses. We are also keen to raise questions about literature: why do we read? What is the place of the written word in our culture and in earlier cultures? How do we evaluate literature - and should we? Can literature tell us aobut history, or is it only obliquely related to the time in which it was written? How does the written word relate to other forms of communication, such as film, music or art? These questions and others, equally tricky, will, we hope, always be in the back of our students' minds as they read new material. Having said that, we also believe that reading literature is a valuable pursuit in its own right, and we encourage students not to lose their sense of pleasure and wonderment when they read a great book. Our approach to tackling some of the major questions of interpreting literature, therefore, centres unashamedly on the reading of primary texts.

We believe strongly that students develop best intellectually when they are members of a group of like-minded people, and so we try to foster an environment conducive to discussion of the topics for the term outside the context of formal teaching. While independent study is without doubt the main focus of the week, seminars, readings and discussion groups, as well as more formal classes and supervisions, help to create a forum in which ideas (old and new) about literature can be considered.

Candidates often ask what we are looking for in a prospective undergraduate. While it is a perfectly valid question, it is not so easy to give a straightforward answer! Undergraduates are individuals, and each has his or her strengths and weaknesses. We have no model of our ideal student in mind when we consider applications. However, there is one essential characteristic of all successful English students: they must have a genuine passion for reading. It helps if they can also express themselves clearly - a good prose style often evolves gradually as a person reads more. A student must be able to involved him- or herself in a text, but also to stand back from it and consider its technical merits. Finally, students need to be curious about literature, for otherwise, they will take no pleasure from encountering works from periods when the aesthetics of the age were very different from their own, or, for that matter, works emerging from sections of today's society which are unfamiliar to them.

The English course is divided into two parts (known as Part I and Part II of the English Tripos). Part I takes two years to complete (i.e. the first and second years of the course); Part II normally takes one year (i.e. the third year of the course, though special arrangements exist for students who have taken a different Part I subject).

September 2005