English Major with a Literature Concentration

Literature Concentration

In addition to the core English Major requirements, students with a concentration in literature must complete:

Required courses:
Consideration of fundamental questions such as the definition of literature, the value of literature, and the validity of the literary canon. Provides an introduction to a variety of critical approaches to literary interpretation, on both a theoretical and practical level. Usually offered alternate spring semesters.
† indicates a required course

Three of (ENG 221-229)

A survey of selected major American authors from the colonial period to about 1900. Usually offered fall semester.
A survey of selected major American authors from about 1900 to the present. Usually offered spring semester.
A survey of selected major English authors from the Middle Ages to about 1800. Usually offered alternate spring semesters.
A survey of selected major English authors from about 1800 to the present. Usually offered alternate spring semesters.
A survey of selected major writers from earliest literate hisory to about A.D. 1000. This includes literature from western Europe and non-western cultures. Usually offered fall semester.
A survey of selected major writers from about A.D. 1000 to about 1800. This course includes literature from western Europe and non-western cultures. Usually offered spring semester.
A survey of selected major writers from about 1800 to the persent. The course includes literature from Europe and Russia, as well as non-western cultures. Usually offered fall semester.

Three of

A study of one of the various forms of literature, such as narrative poetry lyric poetry, novel, short story, drama, film, essay, biography, and autobiography. The genre will vary from semester to semester. May be repeated for credit when involving a genre that the student has not previously studied.
Intensive study of one or two major literary figures. Recent subjects have included Faulkner, Joyce, Milton, Morrison, O?Connor, Woolf, Pound, and Yeats. The authors will vary from semester to semester. May be repeated for credit. Usually offered fall semseter.
This course aims to develop critical thinking skills through analysis and critique of a broad range of foreign and American films, and to enable an understanding of film's history as a form of political, social, and cultural expression. Students will acquire a critical vocabulary, and will be exposed to a variety of critical approaches to film.
Study of important topics from the viewpoint of literature, communications, or a combination of the two. Past topics have included Sports Literature, Writing the Environment, Native American Literature, Film Criticism, Small Town Life, and Creative Nonfiction. May be repeated for credit when involving a topic not previously studied. Usually offered every semester.
An examination of African-American literature as a lens through which students may more clearly view the ways that African Americans have contributed to, been influenced by, appropriated and transformed notions of American identity, specifically conceptions of freedom, equality, gender, sexuality, religion, class, and literature. This course includes the study of slave narratives, fiction, poetry, and/or drama.
An investigation of the ways in which women from a broad diversity of cultural backgrounds respond to and reshape a tradition of literature that has typically been gendered as masculine. Exploration of the effects of culture, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and religion on women's writing. Special emphasis on the history and construction of gender roles, power, and sexuality. Usually offered alternate fall semesters.

Total: 21 credits