/lit/ - Literature

>>4841608
>I would like to study world literature, especially Asian literature, and teach general literature classes.

Can you do any of those things without a PhD?

>>4841648

You can probably teach some gen ed lit classes at community college with just an M.A.

Get a STEM degree and actually contribute to society.

>>4841608
>I would like to teach general literature classes.

That's cool. Just don't be one of those faggots who cries to everyone about how their students are lazy pieces of shit who don't care about literature. It's going to happen.

I can only tell you what I know as a first-year student of English literature, and that is that it fucking sucks. I've learnt nothing except what I've gone out of my way to learn in my own time.

We look into one work or a few segments per week per module and discuss it in class. The classes are two hours so there's hardly any time to get beneath the skin of a text. If you're not one for talking, like myself, the classes are of little use. Most people use the class as a platform to throw out as many irrelevant long words as possible and express half-baked theories. The majority of people that are vocal don't seem to have a huge scope of literature and yet arrogantly assert their opinion of any matter be it political, philosophical or cultural.

This is just my experience from my uni, but I'd encourage you to look closely at your course and make sure it's right for you. For me, it's just feeling like a very expensive library membership right now

As for employability, I have no idea, but I'm sure if you became trained as a teacher after your degree it wouldn't be too difficult to find a job.

I'm considering taking philosophy. Yay or nay?

>>4841681
>being this pleb

It depends what you want the degree for.

If you just want to learn about literature, you can do that yourself in your own time, maybe even better than going to uni for it depending on where you go.

If you want to be a teacher or go into academics then it will be worth it.

If you just want a degree for employment then it is a bad option with a lot more better options out there

>>4841608
Not worth it unless you go to a top school.

Lol just go to the library

>>4841771

Library doesn't grant you any credentials

A PhD in English/Literature or other Humanities is a bad decision because you are capable of learning all of that without spending an obscene amount of money. If you are going to spend tens of thousands of dollars on education, spend it on something that you can't learn on your own for free.

Wanting to be a teacher is a noble goal, but please, please have a backup plan. Teachers are treated like shit these days and the jobs are few and far in between. Having great qualifications does not mean you'll have an easy time finding a teaching gig that will keep you above the poverty line. Your best bet career-wise would be to travel and be an English teacher somewhere in Asia. You sure as hell don't need a PhD for that.

>>4841608

It's a good decision, if you like what you do. It's a bad decision if you don't. If you are uncertain, you got a 50% chance of it being a good decision.

>>4841939

Meaning: having or not money, is irrelevant, provided you are fulfilled with your life. One of the important points about having a fulfilled life, is doing what you like the most.

So if what you like the most, is learning and teaching about English literature, anything that deepens your knowledge, and your capacity of teaching said discipline, would eventually make you happy.

You need to be lucky though. There are people in the academic world, and in the world in general, that can easily make you hate your "dream" activity.

>>4841987
>is doing what you like the most
Provided, of course, it doesn't hurt anyone else...

if you are rich or connected, go for it. otherwise only a lunatic can succeed.

>>4841608
If you're doing World lit, you need to speak more than just English. You'd likely be a comparative lit major.

Remember, if you're lucky enough to get a job it will likely be in some backwater community college making peanuts.

Double major if you can with something practical. I chose to go into business instead of grad school and I'll have the financial freedom to do whatever I want by the time I'm 30. Might leave finance and work 9-5(rather than upwards of 90+ hours a week) as a compliance manager and do my phd on the side or wait till I have enough money to have an OK investment income and just go into High School teaching.

Don't put all your eggs in the english basket strictly so you experience something other than stuffy academia.

>>4841681
I have a STEM degree. Biology from UMaine Machias. My thesis was on a new model of hominid evolution that favors a coastal development rather than the prevailing savanna theory. I was a graduate student working at Jackson Labs in Bar Harbour. I quit and became a writer so I could contribute to society.

>>4841806

Cress don't matter. Any decent writer will be allowed to teach.

Lets be honest the only reason you do a humanities PhD is to avoid the real world. university is day care for adults.

Write a good book and that will be your ccredential.

>>4842392
>I quit and became a writer so I could contribute to society.
NANI?

>>4842421
Advertising? No, features journalism.

>>4842392
... Did you post on a Reddit thread a little while ago? I remember someone else talking about doing their thesis on that exact proposal, and it was worded very similarly.

>>4842535
Never been to Reddit. But I've talked to some people on different threads here about it when it comes up. Usually like this time, some sanctimonious dick that just learned a new acronym and runs their mouth. Were you in the awesome "infinity of superfluity" thread a few days ago? We discussed it there.

>>4841681
There is no such thing as society.

>>4841905
When you do a phd you'd want to get in a program that would pay you a stipend. If they don't pay you then probably it's not worth it doing it because it means that they either don't want or don't have the power to get you published/hired.

But yeah you don't have to pay to do a phd, they actually pay you for your research.

>>4842410
Sometimes this whole thing of "facing the real world" I suspect is the excuse frustrated people made up to justify their having shitty jobs.
"I hate my job, but hey I'm facing the real world not like those silly academics"

As if having a 9 to 5 job means you are facing a real world.
Come on let's be serious, our model of what it means to be an adult (steady job, homeowner with a family and children) it's hardly facing the world, actually it's one of the easiest ways to not face the world. It's so easy that the vast majority of people manages to do it.

>>4842631

All my friends got PhDs because they can't handle the real world. They make shit money and dont work in their fields either. University is day care for adults.

Good luck getting a tenured position the supply is tiny and competition is super high.

>>4842647
confirmed faggot who is gay and loves penis in his faggot ass
homo

>>4842631
'the real world' means the world for the majority, nothing more or less

>>4842647

>>4842680
First that's not necessarily true. It's an idea criticized since plato's cave.

Second the majority still has to prove that their real world is difficult and tough if they want to be convincing that anyone is escaping from it because they can't handle it. Because from my experience, and I have a 9 to 5 job, most people's world is pretty comfy and easy.

To me it looks like the majority is just like the 11 year old telling the 18 year old guy "ah why don't you fight me? Are you scared of me? I'm too tough for you, right?" Not realizing that the reason why people don't engage with it it's because it is, frankly, either humiliating or terribly boring. And the reason why so many people go into it it's because it is safe and soft.

>>4842569
I swear it was in a thread like this one: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1kqtgy/serious_scientists_of_reddit_whats_craziest_or, only more recent. Maybe you and the other person came to the same conclusion, or maybe I'm mixing up the two sites. I wasn't in that thread that you mentioned, sadly.

>>4842724
Since my model's published, I'd like to know who's using it on a public forum like reddit.

>>4841608
Its good if you find something you want to study enough to become a world-leading knowledge in the subject
Its bad if you don't

It's a good idea if someone else is paying for it

It's a bad idea if you are

It's a horrible idea if you need loans to do it

If you think spending your life in classrooms is fine for you, then go for it.

I stopped studying about 4 months after it was mendatory (16 years old) and became a part-time bookseller. 9 years later I'm still really glad I chose this path.

>tfw poor but free books
>tfw I can study what I want

>>4842757
>reddit copying what someone from 4chan did

Who'da thunk it?

>>4841608
Just be damn sure you really, really want to make a living doing it. I started a PhD without being damn sure and... it was a mistake.

Also
>overqualified
is such a silly word. PhDs can't get jobs because they're less qualified than other people the same age as them, not more qualified.

>>4841681
>contribute to society
>perpetuating the capitalist system
Why would you support such a terrible thing and then pat yourself on the back for it?