Go to class! As a discipline, English is defined by both materials and methods. While students can certainly access the materials—texts of many kinds, defined in many ways—on their own, the methods require participation in a community of scholars, which is the role of the classroom lecture and discussion. Students learn from each other as well as from faculty, and miss a significant portion of the educational experience when they miss class meetings or fail to participate in discussions. The English Department therefore affirms the importance of regular class attendance and supports penalties for non-attendance as indicated on the syllabi of individual faculty members.
The principles that define form and meaning in a literary text are examined. Emphasis is on close reading and on acquiring a critical vocabulary and methodology.
4 credit hours
The assumptions we make when we read and write about a literary text are examined. Fundamental issues of literary interpretation and various contemporary contexts for studying literature are considered.
4 credit hours
Representative works of British literature from the Middle Ages through the eighteenth century are studied.
4 credit hours
Representative works of British literature of the 19th and 20th centuries are studied.
4 credit hours
Major authors and literary movements of American literature from the beginning to the present are studied.
4 credit hours
Students read material from early folklore to current literature in order to develop discrimination in the selection of books for children at the elementary school level. Focus is on methods of interpreting and evaluating children’s literature.
3 credit hours
Themes are explored in various genres that are appropriate to adolescent tastes at differing levels of sophistication. Included is available resource material on the subject of adolescent literature.
3 credit hours
Basic techniques of writing fiction and poetry are introduced. Emphasis is on fundamental methods and forms basic to contemporary fiction and poetry.
3 credit hours
Students practice the forms of writing appropriate to business and industry (e.g., reports, proposals, memoranda, and letters).
3 credit hours
Principles of rhetoric and style are studied and applied to the writing and revision of expository, critical, and argumentative essays. The research paper is also considered.
3 credit hours
Study includes principles of gathering and writing news, developing article ideas, writing news stories and feature articles, and submitting articles for publication.
3 credit hours
Students examine cultural contact narratives, both “factual” and “fictional,” between European “explorers” of the Arctic and native peoples in the comparative context of European colonialism and emergent native literatures.
4 credit hours
Representations are examined in fiction, nonfiction, film, and television of women as criminals, as crime victims, and as detectives. Emphasis is on twentieth-century Western and non-Western texts.
4 credit hours
Students explore Zen and its way of mindful “unknowing” in Eastern and Western expressions. Examined are literary works, the works of Zen Buddhism, and Catholic mysticism to discover the “negative way” in the literary experience.
4 credit hours
Various approaches are used to trace the origins, evolution, diversity, and significance of human notational and writing systems. Students cannot receive credit for both English 264 and Anthropology 264.
4 credit hours
Contemporary narratives by women from various Western and non-Western cultures are examined. Focus is on women’s struggles for identity and agency within a global context and their diverse strategies of finding and telling their stories.
4 credit hours