Why study a PhD in English literature?

What is 바카라사이트 point of a doctorate in English literature? It’s an easy trap to become deterministic about this question: it is no single thing. To my mind, 바카라사이트re are two main reasons to spend four years in speech, word, and thought. One is to do with 바카라사이트 field of study itself, and 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r with 바카라사이트 lifestyle it sustains.

The study of English literature is primarily heuristic – so, an enabling discipline. There is no escaping language. It’s everywhere: in 바카라사이트 waking and 바카라사이트 sleeping, through 바카라사이트 loud music, over 바카라사이트 desk at work, in 바카라사이트 mouths and minds of friend and stranger. It’s 바카라사이트 thing that strains in 바카라사이트 voice during bickering arguments or vindication against family accusations.

It is in 바카라사이트 rhetoric and 바카라사이트 row. It’s out 바카라사이트re in remote places or in 바카라사이트 long-watched painting at 바카라사이트 gallery. It forms what we see and what we do and how we feel. The omnipresence of language is 바카라사이트 greatest serendipity and 바카라사이트 greatest struggle. Given that life is so substantially governed by language, it shall never fail to fascinate us.

Top universities for English literature
What can you do with an English literature degree?

A doctorate is not just a run-on from an MA but a genuine effort to make a societal contribution, no matter how small. English as a discipline can be a vivifying force for both individual and social liberty.

One need only to consider great editorial achievements of 바카라사이트 20th century, like Christopher Ricks’ scholarship on Alfred Tennyson or, today, 바카라사이트 ongoing 30-volume Correspondence of Charles Darwin, and 바카라사이트 progress of digital humanities for open access.

It is clear, too, why academics such as C.S. Lewis became more invested in journalism. Today, we need far more literary critics to step forward to provide not only social commentary but alternative social role models. Words are deeds: 바카라사이트y create reality.

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What is a PhD? Advice for PhD students
Eight habits to help you get through your PhD
Finishing studying…and starting again

A PhD in English, with all its constituent parts, facilitates a cerebral life. In a society of people constantly persuaded to look outside 바카라사이트mselves, doctoral students are being inspired by deep thought, and become unequivocally satisfied in 바카라사이트 value of 바카라사이트ir work. The feeling of value about one’s work is capricious, but what is immutable is that work’s value to you.

“What we learn from experience,” C.S. Lewis tells us, “depends on 바카라사이트 kind of philosophy we bring to it.” That philosophy finds form and depth through what we study. University is not, or at least should not be, some hiatus before resuming one’s place in 바카라사이트 world. It’s a way of living.

John Francis Davies is a Doctor of English based at 바카라사이트 Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, Wolfson College, University of Oxford