Nov 03, 2024  
2024-2025 University Catalog 
    
2024-2025 University Catalog

English Literary Studies, B.A.


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English Literary Studies

This interdisciplinary major invites students to read, discuss, analyze and write about texts from Beowulf to #BLM. Whether we are analyzing Shakespeare’s plays, or Lord of the Rings, or deconstructing commercials according to symbolic content, etc., we read deeply and closely.  Our program is exceptionally interdisciplinary - including choices from theatre, the arts, creative writing, communication, history, and professional writing.  Majors may choose to focus their elective courses on a wide range of topics including but not limited to the following:

  • African American/Africa Diaspora Studies
  • American Literature & Culture
  • British Literature & Culture
  • Children’s Literature
  • Creative Writing
  • Cultural Studies
  • Drama/Theater
  • Feminisms, Genders, & Sexualities
  • Film & Media Studies
  • Folklore/Fairy Tale
  • Genre studies (e.g., from epic to romance, and from film noir to the sitcom)
  • Historical contextualization
  • Mythology
  • Popular Culture
  • Postcolonial Studies

 

 

Introduction to Literary Form (3 credits)


Choose one from the list.  Note: Secondary Education/English Literary Studies double majors must choose ENG 100 Mindful Reading

Literary Methods - Criticism and Theory (3 credits)


ENG 220 is required for the English Literary Studies major, the English Literary Studies/Secondary Education double major, the English Literary Studies Minor, and the Cultural Studies Minor.

British Literature (6 credits)


Choose any two courses listed below (e.g., two different topics from ENG 280 or two different topics from ENG 350, or one topic from each). Courses, but not topics may be repeated for credit.  Note:  Secondary Education/English Literary Study double majors must choose one of each:  ENG 280 and ENG 350.

Further Coursework (12 credit hours)


In addition to the other requirements for the English Literary Studies major, choose four 3-credit courses from the list to total 12 credit hours. Variable topics courses may be repeated to count for electives if the topic varies. Variable topics courses, but not topics, may be repeated for credit.

Note:  Secondary Education/English Literary Studies double majors must choose the following courses:

  • CW 110: Form in Poetry
  • ENG 210: Myth, Fantasy and Imagination
  • ENG 280: British Literature (choose a different variable topic than your other ENG 280 British Lit course)
  • EDU 412: Adolescent Multicultural Literature

Capstone Thesis I & II


Take ENG 480 in the Spring semester of your Junior year.  Take ENG 481 sequentially, in the Fall semester of your Senior year.

Experiential Learning Requirement (3 credits, may be double-dipped)


The experiential learning requirement may be met either by taking one of the courses on the list for three credits, or by participating in one of the experiences on the list via permission, sign-off and documentation with your English Literary Studies advisor and/or Department Chair.  Note:  It is possible to “double-dip” this requirement.  For example, Secondary Education/English Literary Studies double majors taking EDU 450 Student Teaching will simultaneously satisfy this requirement for both majors.  Likewise, an English Literary Studies major who takes three credits of an experiential Open Elective simultaneously satisfies both an Elective requirement and the Experiential requirement.  For example, if a student takes CW 450 as an Open Elective, they will satisfy both the elective requirement and the experiential requirement.

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