To add to this, you generally don't want to go to a school that does not have a specialty in children's lit, if that's what you want to do. In addition to the faculty problem (that endxgame and greekdaph have pointed out), you will also very likely find yourself with a library resource problem: if a school doesn't do children's lit, they will likely not have very many books on it at the library, and you will have to wait for everything from ILL, which really can be a huge pain. While I decided to go to grad school for something other than children's lit, I recently did a seminar paper on Shakespearean children's literature, and had to get pretty much everything from ILL, because my current institution doesn't do anything with it. This may seem like a minor problem with a slightly inconvenient fix, but I really could not imagine reaching the dissertation stage and not being able to have the books I need for more than a month because of ILL. A small issue, but one worth thinking about
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As far as applications go, I don't see anything wrong with saying you have a primary interest in 20th century lit, with a secondary interest in children's lit.
No. Do not even consider applying to a school without a faculty member who is capable of supervising your project. Individual advisors are the most important thing to look at for grad school. You do not want to sneak into a program and then trying to convince someone to supervise you.
That said, there is some leeway. If you are doing sexuality in post-colonial childrens lit then it would certainly work to have someone supervise you who does sexuality in post-colonial lit more generally. (and there are a thousand other examples) I would suggest finding people who are *potential* supervisors and then just straight up asking them in an e-mail if they would feel comfortable supervising your topic.
English PhD programs get way more qualified applicants than they can accept, and from my experience and from what I've seen of others', what makes them pick one candidate over another is fit: how well they think your interests and approach will match up with that of professors in the program
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[em]English PhD programs get way more qualified applicants than they can accept, and from my experience and from what I've seen of others', what makes them pick one candidate over another is fit: how well they think your interests and approach will match up with that of professors in the program.[/em]
I'm afraid it's even more mundane than that: often, they choose candidates because they have individual professors who need advisees, and they choose based on who can plausibly fill that role.
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As far as applications go, I don't see anything wrong with saying you have a primary interest in 20th century lit, with a secondary interest in children's lit.
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That said, there is some leeway. If you are doing sexuality in post-colonial childrens lit then it would certainly work to have someone supervise you who does sexuality in post-colonial lit more generally. (and there are a thousand other examples) I would suggest finding people who are *potential* supervisors and then just straight up asking them in an e-mail if they would feel comfortable supervising your topic.
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I'm afraid it's even more mundane than that: often, they choose candidates because they have individual professors who need advisees, and they choose based on who can plausibly fill that role.
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