Graduate Studies

Our Statement of Purpose:

What is literature? What is interpretation? What is the text? What is an author? The Department of English seeks to answer these questions by examining and utilizing the latest tools of critical theory and bringing them to bear on a variety of English-language texts. We introduce our students to cutting-edge developments in the humanities, including cultural studies, multiculturalism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, aesthetics, feminist and queer theory, semiotics, narrative theory, American studies and many more. At the same time, we teach the history and significance of English, American, and other English-language literatures. We bring the variety of methodologies to bear on a linguistically-definite corpus which includes the most recent works of English-speaking writers across the globe in the context of post-modern culture and extends back to the early Middle Ages, requiring of our students dexterity in the knowledge and analytical use of the English language.

The graduate program in English at Tel Aviv is meant to appeal to the best and the brightest of our student body as well as to the best graduates of other leading research universities in the humanities but also in other disciplines and to provide these with a superior education in critical and theoretical thinking about literature, language, and the arts in what has become the common language of our times. For our student body, we are looking for exceptionally talented persons who have distinguished themselves as highly-motivated and independent thinkers with a strong interest in literature and language and a complex understanding of culture in its historical, political, and conceptual dimensions. In line with our commitment to foster intellectual excellence and creative thinking, we offer an intensive and streamlined MA program, tailored to the needs and research interests of each student. In the course of this program, each of you will be exposed to a range of exciting and innovative approaches to the study of literature and culture. Each of you will be challenged to find and/or create your own place in the changing world of the humanities today.

Extra-Curricular Activity

Graduate students are very strongly encouraged to attend the graduate-student organized MA Forum, lectures and events organized by the Department, and other advanced-level intellectual activities on campus.