andrew.pilsch.com

I had to send an email to the English Dept. graduate adviser today because I was worried about a change I was going to affect and whether or not it would diminish my prospects re graduating. The MA has a very simple set of requirements:

1. English 501
2. One course in literary theory or rhetoric
3. Two courses in literature in English prior to 1800
4. Two courses in literature in English after 1800

Those are the only class requirements for the degree (there are a few other requirements, but that’s not what we are talking about). Anyway, as someone who studies post-WWII fiction, I would theoretically not have trouble fulfilling the third requirement, right? Wrong, actually.

It turns out during the first year of the MA, I have only taken one class on contemporary fiction (but I’ve taken a few classes on contemporary science studies, theory, and rhetoric). Anyway, the point of all this is that I’m changing around my schedule, to get out of the “Contemporary Fiction” seminar and take another literary theory class. So, I had to ask if a class I had taken would count as a post-1800 requirement.

Naturally, the person I emailed assumed I was asking about pre-1800 requirements (since those seem to be the ones people with my interests have trouble fulfilling). When I responded, I had to tell her that I was, in fact, asking a rather embarrassing question about whether I had fulfilled my post-1800 requirements. To this email, she responded:

I’m pretty sure that Scott’s sexologies would count for the post-1800. I’ll check with Bob Edwards and let you know if he thinks not. He’s been fairly strict on issues of interpretation. Yes, given your focus this was an embarrassing question.

So, I guess I just got served or something.