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Mentioning Foreign Literature in English Literature Personal Statement.

I am not sure if this is under the right topic, but...

I wish to apply, for an English Literature course come the autumn and I am wondering whether it would be appropiate to mebtion works written outside of England, specifically Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, in my personal statement.

It was written in English but by a Russian author and published in America. However it is a text I am versed and wish to relate to points within my personal statement, such as Death of the Author, by analysing how it affects ones reading of Atlas Shrugged, and Rand's controversial philosophy of Objectivism.

I also wish to analyse how literature diseminates and affects future works for generations to come, by comparing the work of he Brother's Grimm to the work of Polish author Andrezej Sapowski's translated 'Witcher' Series.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 1

QHF

Original post by GradeJockey

I wish to apply, for an English Literature course come the autumn and I am wondering whether it would be appropiate to mebtion works written outside of England, specifically Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, in my personal statement.

It was written in English but by a Russian author and published in America. However it is a text I am versed and wish to relate to points within my personal statement, such as Death of the Author, by analysing how it affects ones reading of Atlas Shrugged, and Rand's controversial philosophy of Objectivism.

I also wish to analyse how literature diseminates and affects future works for generations to come, by comparing the work of he Brother's Grimm to the work of Polish author Andrezej Sapowski's translated 'Witcher' Series.

At most English departments anything originally written in English counts as English literature, regardless of its country of origin or the original nationality of its author. Mentioning Rand won't raise eyebrows just because Rand was born in Russia.

Sapkowski and the Grimms in English translation are of course still a set of texts in English, but English academics' interest in them will vary. There are English departments which run courses in comparative literature in English translation. A subset of those departments will have people who are interested in non-canonical contemporary texts. Sapkowski might not cut much ice elsewhere.