Wanting to study literature at uni but which uni has the best reputation?

[kcookie]

hey guys, if anyone reads this im pretty lost with what uni i should be researching as im looking into studying literature but don't know how to tell which uni I should choose. Any help would be much appreciated

[simpak]

Do you want to stay in Melbourne or go interstate?

[paulsterio]

hey guys, if anyone reads this im pretty lost with what uni i should be researching as im looking into studying literature but don't know how to tell which uni I should choose. Any help would be much appreciated

The ANU has the Bachelor of Philosophy degree which apparently is absolutely great for literature, EvangelionZeta is doing it, so you might want to look him up and send him a PM if you were interested in that course

[EvangelionZeta]

ANU if you can get into the PhB.  Sydney if you can't.  Otherwise, Melbourne.

EDIT - ELABORATION:

Ok, so basically, as a preface to this, English in Australia is a little bit dead, but then again it's dead in a lot of places.  That said, Sydney still has a very decent raw English faculty, so if you're just looking for coursework, that's the place to go.

I recommend PhB at ANU above all else because the reading courses are simply superb.  You don't want to go there for straight coursework (it's decent, about the same level as Melbourne's I suppose), but reading courses (which are PhB-specific) basically allow you to do whatever you want in a subject basically - you get to "design it" yourself.  This semester I'm doing a reading course in the literature of Asian Diasporas (so Asian-American/Asian-Australian literature); next year, I'll probably do a course in either Shakespearean Tragedy, or Contemporary Australian Literature.  Or both.

If you're staying in Melbourne, just go to Melbourne.  The coursework there in English is still better than Monash's, from what I hear, athough it's not as good as USyd.

[appianway]

Yale...

[EvangelionZeta]

^^ignoring the fact that the topic creator probably isn't looking overseas (then again, I could be wrong), that's not necessarily true as well.  Yale's definitely right up there, but places like Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard and even UPenn have a lot of rep in the US (or so a quick scanning of everything tells me...).  If you wanted to do English and only English as well (as in, with an eye for academia or something right afterwards too), then I would say Oxford and Cambridge are your best bets: I have trouble imagining anything - even Directed Studies - is as comprehensive and rigorous as they are.  It also depends on what kind of literature you're interested in: for instance, I'd stay in Australia if I were deathly interested in Australian Literature for some reason (lolwut), or go to Singapore if I was into postcolonial stuff with a heavy Asian focus. 

That said as well, I would argue that studying English is something which you don't necessarily require a strong institutiion for.  You'll find so much of what you "learn" is accessible on your own (by doing your own wider reading, just TALKING to other people, etc.), that really, your university doesn't even matter that much, as long as you're there just for the appreciation of literature.