English - Literature (BA)

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Program Title

Degree

Bachelor of Arts

Program Description

The English Literature major is designed to prepare students for a successful, fulfilling life and career in the 21st century by training them to understand the theoretical implications and historical context of all forms of writing and become expert writers. A graduate from this program will have superb analytic and problem-solving skills, powerful methods to understand cultural context and meaning, and the ability to perform advanced research in any text-based field, such as law, education, government, library science, publishing, editing, marketing and public advocacy.

Learning Goals

Critical thinking: originality and appreciation of nuance
Interpretation: history, theory and criticism
Literacy: reading, intertextuality and cosmopolitanism
Style: rhetoric, genre and audience

Double-counting Restriction

Students in the English & Creative Writing Department may, with department head approval, complete more than one major and/or minor in the department. Students may double-count a maximum of 28 semester hours toward another major in the department.

Students in English & Creative Writing study literature from four different perspectives: as creative writers, readers, editor-entrepreneurs, and professional writers. Foundational courses taken by students in the first and second years show how literary history, literary theory, and literary diversity are integral to formal concerns and to emerging digital contexts. These provide a common learning experience. After the foundational courses, English-Literature and English-Secondary Education majors take advanced seminars in literary history and theory; English-Publishing & Editing majors take advanced courses in literary criticism and professional skills; Creative Writing majors take advanced writing workshops in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; and Professional and Civic Writing majors take advanced courses in grant, community, and democratic writing. Coursework in each major is completed through a capstone experience. English-Literature and English-Secondary Education majors pursue an independent research project; English-Publishing & Editing majors take a course in which they reflect on the cultural, political, and commercial functions of publishing; Creative Writing majors prepare a portfolio of their original work; and Professional and Civic Writing majors participate in a class that prepares job application materials and considers the connections between political and workplace writing.