DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPY IN LITERATURE - De La Salle University

Doctor of Philosophy in Literature (PHD LITT)

Program Background

Doctor of Philosophy in Literature Program graduates are trained in research and literary criticism, creative writing, and cultural studies. They are provided opportunities for sustained investigation of aspects of literature and literary history, particularly that of the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific, and guided in the production of research projects that are vital contributions to the fields of literary/cultural studies and literary output.

Students interested in literary studies may work on theory and criticism, comparative literature, regional literatures, literary history, translation studies, and textual scholarship. The program aims to equip students with the critical tools and necessary skills to rethink theoretical categories and critical practice as they relate to the study of literatures in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific. It also aims to contribute to the growing body of scholarship on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary explorations of literature.

The cultural studies courses complement the literature courses in its rethinking of “literature” and seek to create more opportunities for multidisciplinary/anti-disciplinary fora among Filipino scholars here and abroad. The cultural studies courses cover cultural production of arts and media, cyber technology and globalization, pop culture, gender and sexuality, language and ideology, nation/nationalism, diaspora and globalities, neo-colonial and postcolonial relations, region and ethnicity, etc.

The creative writing track is the department’s answer to the increasing demand for more high-level training in imaginative writing. The core courses provide writers/students with adequate background in the critical and theoretical aspects of writing, which is expected of a Ph.D. graduate and should complement their craft and knowledge of techniques. Under the guidance of experienced writers and teachers, writers will have sufficient opportunities to hone their craft, theorize about their chosen genre, and contribute to scholarship on the genre.

Doctor of Philosophy in Literature (PHD LITT)

Course Requirements
Core Courses				15 units
Major Specialization Courses				21 units
Dissertation				12 units
Total				48 units

PHD LITT Core Courses

Course Code	Course Title	Brief Description
LIT527D	Introduction to Scholarship	This course prepares the students for the profession of a scholar. It acquaints them with the knowledge and utilization of essential resources for literary scholarship. It introduces the various methods and materials of research, including bibliography, textual criticism, historical criticism, the effective use of electronic technology, and selected critical and theoretical approaches. Critical questions and issues that have challenged the scholarly profession such as those concerning the nature of the text, the question of evidence, literary value, canonicity, authorship, historiography, book production, and institutional culture will be raised and examined.
LIT660P	Twentieth Century Theory and Criticism	This course provides an introductory knowledge and understanding of modern and contemporary theories of literary and cultural criticism in the twentieth century. It seeks to equip the students with basic critical vocabulary, acquaint them with significant theoretical concepts, and introduce them to a range of topics and issues related to authorship, narrative, tradition, interpretation, language, culture, ideology and hegemony, gender and sexuality, subjectivity and identity, modernism and postmodernism, race and ethnicity, etc.
LIT888P	Philippine Critical Tradition	This course examines the different trends and traditions of literary and cultural criticism in the Philippine contexts. It acquaints the students with a range of critical views and reading practices by Filipino critics such as Miguel Bernad, Nick Joaquin, Bienvenido Lumbera, E. San Juan, Lucila Hosillos, Isagani R. Cruz, Soledad Reyes, Nicanor Tiongson, Resil Mojares, Alice Guillermo, Virgilio Almario, Oscar Campomanes, Roland Tolentino, and Caroline Hau.
LIT531D	Literature and Philosophy	This course acquaints the students with the different schools of thought focusing on the philosophy of literature. This includes philosophical discourses on literature and philosophical examinations of literary texts. Critical questions and issues concerning the relation between literature and philosophy will be raised and examined. Specific topics may include the following: tragedy, Chinese classical poetry, Romanticism, phenomenology, existentialism, postmodernism, and hypertextuality.
LIT661P	Critical Writing	A scholarly writing workshop course designed to examine the practice of literary studies and criticism.

PHD LITT Sample Major Courses

Course Code	Course Title	Brief Description
LIT711P	Literary Masterpieces	A reading course on literary masterpieces, with emphasis on works that have significantly changed the course of literary history in Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, and the States; a brief survey of major literary movements and themes will be given at the start of the course.
LIT730P	Literary History of the Philippines	A reading course on the history of Philippine literature in the various vernacular and foreign languages, with emphasis on how that history is constructed; includes both ‘canonized’ and marginalized authors from the different regions and sectors in the Philippines and explores themes, movements, periods, trends, issues, and prospects in Philippine literary history. Students are expected to submit and defend a proposal for their own project in literary history.
LIT762P	Popular Literature	A study of the history of popular literature and the theoretical approaches to its study; reading of representative works in English and Filipino.
LIT331P	Women’s Literature	Close reading of the fiction, poetry, and plays of selected women writers; examines their resolution to the question of the narrative voice, the image of women and women writing reflected in the works and the manner in which the self is presented.
LIT781D	The Culture Concept	Culture is one of the most contested concepts across the disciplines and foundational to Cultural Studies. This course acquaints the students with classical, anthropological, sociological, and literary definitions of culture.
LIT763P	Gender, Sexuality and Literature	A study of literature from the optic lens of genders and sexualities. Includes a survey of feminist and antihomophobic discourse/theories; an examination of the representations of the female and the homosexual subject in literature; and an interrogation of the identity politics of the writers/texts.
LIT769D	Performance Studies	This course takes up performance both as object of study and as a mode of critical inquiry in the humanities and social sciences. It explores various understandings of performance, performance studies, and performance research, with a special attention to practices of performance in the Philippines.
LIT771D	Postcolonial Studies	This course examines the rise [of] and ongoing conversation on Postcolonial Studies. The course explores how the main theoretical movements and debates intersect [and engage with] important questions and issues of nationalism and nationhood, transnationalism, cosmopolitanism and globalization, migration and diaspora, gender and sexuality, class, race and ethnicity.
LIT370D	Pathography: Writing Illness to Wellness	This course is an elective interdisciplinary seminar course on the intersections of Literature and Medicine, and focuses on Pathography: Narratives of Illness, Recovery, and Death. The texts for study in the course are literary pathographic texts as well as medical theories on pain and literary theories on narrative.
LIT672D	Creative Nonfiction	A study of the craft of writing biographies and autobiographies and other forms of creative nonfiction; exercises in writing short biographies of literary figures based on research and interviews, and on writing about one’s own life.
LIT697D	Fiction Writing Techniques	An in-depth study of the fundamentals of prose fiction beyond the undergraduate level; includes frequent writing exercises in the elements of description, characterization, dialogue, narrative viewpoint, the writing of short fiction, and peer analysis of these exercises.
LIT345D	Literature and Environment	This three-unit interdisciplinary course introduces students to the evolving nature of literature and environment studies.

PHD LITT Other Courses

Course Code	Course Title	Brief Description
LIT900P/ LIT904D	Literature Seminar /Literature Seminar 01	Special topics in interdisciplinary studies, such as Literature and Psychoanalysis, Literature and Marxism, Literature and Linguistics, and Literature and Historiography.
LIT344D	Literature and Social Science	This course delves into the relationship and intersections of Literature and Social Science mainly through the study of the sociology of literature.
LIT707D	Literature and Film	A study of the relationship between literature and cinema, the major theoretical and aesthetic problems these relationships have provoked: verbal and visual language, literary discourses and film discourses, film and modern fiction.
LIT210D	Contemporary Philippine and Southeast Asian Novel	A critical study of representative Philippine and Southeast Asian novels from 1946 to the present.
LIT371P	Poetry and Philosophy	The course explores the relations between poetry and philosophy as complementary, though at times antithetical, discourses. It inquires into selected issues drawn from philosophy of literature, philosophy of poetry, and philosophy of language, such as truth in/and poetry, metaphorical meaning, and lyric philosophy.

Dissertation (12 units)

Course Code	Course Title	Brief Description
LIT951P onwards	Dissertation Writing	To adapt to the changing trends in academia in the 21st century, the Literature Department welcomes other options and formats for the dissertation—for as long as there is an exegetic or introductory/critical essay to explain the dissertation project.