The ACTUAL Life of a Literature PhD 

youre the kinda person that we wish we could be friends with to go drink something and talk about books.

"everyone is terrified, noone knows shit" lol so tru in general

I want you to know that you look like the European hipster that American hipsters write their novels about.

Thanks so much for this. I walked away from this kind of life during my first semester as a Teaching Assistant. I realized I loved reading but visual art was the stronger calling. I have great respect for literati. You are brilliant ~ you have me reading things I stopped reading years ago (Mason & Dixon currently). Love your jags. Keep 'em coming.

I like that a lot of the information in this video applies to PhD studies in general and not just Lit PhDs. I'm a Linguistics major still working on my undergrad and from my understanding, the process is very similar to what you've described. Personally, I'm looking forward to independent work, as I've found traditional classroom teaching to be something of a chore. Best of luck to you and that for your channel!

Watching this has been really helpful way to reframe my master's, thanks. I feel like I've been going about it the wrong way, and I really like the way you conceptualize it.

Thanks! Really interesting to hear what it's really like, I'm still finishing my BA so I've got a while yet to figure out if it's something I want to persue. Will definitly check out the Umberto Eco book!

I'm a high school student with a ten page term paper on Thomas Pynchon and I am so confused

Thank you for this video, I am English honours student from Calcutta. This helped a lot.

Love the analogy you make with cooking - bang on correct.

I just started my PhD career in Literaturwissenschaft in Vienna Austria. In Germany and Austria things are totally different. It’s hard for us to get a position at the Uni like TA. We don’t have to get so much ETCs(maybe only around 30). We don’t even have so many meetings with other peers. So principally you organize EVERYTHING by yourself, even the meeting with your supervisor. (We always discuss about how many days would it take to let our supervisor know that we died.)Your only aim is to write a decent dissertation and get a job in academia after 4/5 years. Currently I just run from home to library everyday and have zero social contact, for I’m new here and now it’s summer break, which is the most struggling part I think.

I'm a second year anthropology PhD in Australia (currently in Thailand doing fieldwork though). I'd certainly agree with pretty much everything you've said. I'm more of a night person, but I try to make it into the office during the day a few times a week when I'm in Canberra just so that the staff and students in the department actually get to know who I am and I can feel a little less alienated by the whole ordeal. Hoping to get an academic position at the end of it, although consultancy type work is probably more abundant for anthropologists than literature graduates. Treating the PhD like a job for now helps though. My government scholarship isn't a huge amount, but it is regular income coming in every fortnight that's basically double what I was used to living on throughout undergrad. It's not like my life is completely on hold while I'm doing the PhD (although it certainly feels that way at times, and this is an issue I have to find ways to work around moving forward).

Hi there..thanks for this video...it is really helpful for someone starting out on a PhD journey like me

Adoro il modo in cui racconti, ti ho appena scoperto e mi sono già iscritta! Potesti fare un video su come sei stato accettato nella tua università per il dottorato? Quando hai cominciato a contattare i professori e secondo quale criterio? In generale su come funziona fare un dottorato all'estero, nel tuo specifico caso in Inghilterra :)

Thinking about a PhD...this video is very helpful. Thank you!

As a PhD student in clinical psychology, i can totally relate to what you're talking about, specifically the impostor syndrome part... I started teaching this month and it's soo new to me, i have to completely reorganize myself to find time to do both. I struggle a lot with perfectionism and procrastination... Would you have some tips since you have the experience of working alone ?

"Sweet fuck nothing", great usage of a literature phd.

Thanks for the book Recommendation :)

Can you do a video on PhD admissions? How to write a Personal Statement, letters of recommendation, writing sample, etc. How should one go about it? How did you do it? Also, can you talk about your time as a Bachelor student, and as a Master student? Which classes / readings you liked?

Thank you!

It would be really nice if you could share with us a little bit more on how you're dealing with anxiety and mental health issues while being a PhD student. I'm currently doing my masters in Linguistics and anxiety has been a struggle. Great video!

thanks for the book recommendation

PhD studies and that life is certainly interesting to me. I am a third of the way through my Humanities graduate program now and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it when I'm done. Over the past few months, I've considered continuing on for a PhD, however, I am not built for such a competitive life.

yaaay i'm a phd student in literature too now !

Im 20 and this is my first semester for Masters in Comparative Lit. Just trying to find motivation since there can be days when I doubt myself especially bec Literature wasnt my undergraduate degree.

If I want to research on 'crime fiction' then what all things should I do? Will I have to read more novels of crime fiction? How can I get more information or knowledge about this topic?

academia is not for the faint hearted . Personally I know a PhD or doing a Thesis based masters is not for me but the dedication that PhD students put in is remarkable well done !

your awesome Mate

I need to show this to people who ask me, um so what dyou do in your lit PhD? And the video is so relatable. Im also doing my PhD abroad, in Renaissance lit. I think the main difficulty of a lit phd is reading a great deal of books, which can be discouraging sometimes because of the impossibility of reading all the books we need.

P.S: I can't really picture myself as a university professor. I'm doing my lit PhD exactly because I wanna do my research and I'm NOT rich. So it's like a freelance, paid, 3-year-long, job for me. Might not be the best but not so bad.

Literature, i love it. Lot's of money in that game

I'm doing a PhD in history but I'm not looking for an academic job out of it. My PhD is fully funded so the only thing I'm investing into it is time. I'm just doing it for a cool three/four year job and then I'll go and do something else.

So YOU hope to be a university professor? Any preferences for which country?

As a classical musician looking for a career in the orchestral field, I don't even technically need a degree. Generally, the only reason classical musicians go to conservatory or university is to learn to teach or to study performance under a master teacher. Irrelevant question: You're a writer, yes? Is any of your writing available online? If so, how much, and where could I find it?

Mate you are my inspiration. Btw, I am 39, worked as accountant whole life. But planning to quit my job in 2 yrs to do masters n PhD in Russian literature in Moscow state uni. I m not rich but saved enough to afford this adventure for 10 yrs. Started learning Russian via Skype (preply.com) recently n will do so till next 2 yrs and also catching up on reading I missed early on in life. What advise you have for me? Thanks in advance

I wanna know a better research university from where i can begin my phd journey in english literature. Please help me with this. And can pursue my post doc.as well.

Hahaha I died when he said that the structure should be clear at the beginning of the PhD, I wanna die. I've changed the structure at least four times and I'm on my third year now!

How does phd of literature impact on your writing style,thinking and would you encourage students to major in this field and especially for intentional who speak other language? Personally , I love to communicate my ideas and express my self throughout writing . In addition, the most important thing that writing a piece of English is a dream. Such as kids stories,films, and other things. Nowadays, technology is playing a major role when it comes to learning, specifically English writing and culture. I mean that learning independently could make a difference to smart learner.

Nice shirt

i want to do phd. in english litrature and my topic is related to modern world. plz guide me what to do?

I like this guy, he is real and truthful! I see the video was posted 4 years ago, did you graduate @thebookchemist ? Can I refer to you as Doctor :)

im 29 ,and i want to start literature in uni ,is it too late for me ?do you think im wasting my time ?

Hi. Love your hair.

How old are you, sir ? Mind uf I ask. I just want to be inspired. I'm 26 and just taking my masters. Ty

Im still a high school student but im aspiring to study lit in further education.

New subscriber

i am also a phd student in eng literature, but I am really struggling with a topic. its been more than 5 months that I am still unable to find it. can you plz suggest something????

My life is more like the previous video. (I'm not a PhD student.)

"If you go for a PhD, for example, you're not going to get out from under the authorities ... You can always tell an author who is still working under the authorities by the number of footnotes he provides to his text." Joseph Campbell

Hey ; I have recently done my master's in English literature, I m passionate about phd in any ivy league university, can u plz guide me ,I m an Indian

what is your specific thing then? im very curious to know your thesis or read your dissertation

What did you do your undergraduate in? Also what is the pathway like to get to phd level?

hello. I am a Master's student and will be doing my PhD in literature. I am currently looking for universities outside India to apply to. Any suggestions?

So what is your research based around?

Your hair is so pretty reminds me of an anime character 🤩✨✨✨

Great video, what is you occupation?

We have imposter syndrome in computer science. Sometimes you'll feel like you don't belong or you aren't qualified to be doing the work. It's interesting but I think eventually it affects you less as you get your hands dirtier and become more familiar with the brutal reality of your limitation as an individual. And by familiar I mean you accept it as reality and ideally form a sense of humor about it. I wonder if the happens in PhD studies as well?

Do you think getting a PhD in Linguistics will help me get a job in a publishing company?

Stammerer but want to do PhD pls advise me

Conoscevi qualcuno dell'Università in Inghilterra? Hai preso contatti precedentemente col professore che ti segue adesso?

Hlw sir... can I do ph.d in english literature from IIT university..

I'm looking forward to one day being a Literary Theory/Criticism PhD so the idea of reading so many critical texts/secondary sources/articles that have "sweet fuck nothing to do with what [I'm] researching" is..... kind of exciting? Does that make me a nerd? LOL

ma dove lo fai? ti ho visto a ca' foscari tipo l'anno scorso!

Was there a class about how to talk with your hands?

How much time are you obligated to spend on campus if you're doing a comp lit phd?

We in the hard sciences do have an initial hypothesis, but we don't look for evidence to prove ourselves right. In order for a hypothesis to be valid, it must be falsifiable, so, generally, we just find something we can test and then do the test so that we can figure out whether or not our hypothesis is wrong or right. Walking into it with the idea to just find evidence to prove it right is the opposite of science and extremely dishonest, dishonorable, and poor practice. You find something you can test and then you test it. You don't just look for any bit of information you feel proves it one way or the other. Like, for example, looking up statistics or previous experiments to back up your hypothesis can be done as a precursor and we call that a "literature search", but an experiment or series of experiments is necessary afterwards or it's dishonest. To clarify, you can publish a literature search and it's no different than just organising all of the research papers, but you publish it as a literature search, of course, and don't really use it to back up or disprove a hypothesis; you can call for research to be done, but you can't draw a conclusion at that point. Then again, computational analysis of already existing data is many times used to draw conclusions in some fields, but robots are unbiased machines and humans aren't.

"I believed I was better than Harold Bloom" awww honey 😂😂😂 I'm only at A-level but so far Bloom is my holy grail, especially when it comes to Shakespeare

They're right, there is no future for us :)

how do u find a perfect topic ?

What is your PhD thesis about?

I love teaching...I hate grading.

why did your uni threaten to sue you

How about writing those peer-reviewed articles and getting horrible feedback again and again?

Which university you at?

why do you have Grey hair

Nice depression division t

Why does your graduate school want to sue you?

Has Brexit effected you?

"Take the hard sciences. People who do research in the hard sciences already have a theory and they know what they're looking for when they do research [so it's OK to do the same in the humanities]." This is a dishonest "but STEM does it too", because scientists aim to prove that their ideas are false. When they can't prove that their ideas are false, they assume with a high degree of confidence that they are true.

Do you use your RU-vid money on skinny jeans?

I can't tell if you're like 20 or 40

Being a Phd in Lit sounds horribly tedious and lonely. It seems very uncreative. It almost feels like a scientific relationship to literature rather than an artistic relationship.

Please stop saying "FUCK" so much.