For students who entered the English major in Autumn 2012 and later.
If you entered the English major in Spring 2012 or earlier, please see the pre-Autumn-2012 requirement set.
The English Major Core requirement within the English major draws courses from among three groups, Theories and Methodologies of Language and Literature, Forms and Genres of Language and Literature, and Histories of Language and Literature (below).
Histories & Materials of English Language and Literature
Description: These courses foreground historical contexts, including questioning how “history” is produced as a concept and as a method of periodization. They explore how the historical periodization of cultural and aesthetic artifacts have influenced the production, practice or study of literature, language and culture in English. It is expected that the exploration of cultural and aesthetic artifacts within historical periods of varying range (such as modernity/modernism, the long eighteenth century, the Age of Revolution, and so forth) will address intellectual and aesthetic debates prevalent at the time, the influence of contemporary writers and artists on one another, and/or related political, legal, and economic conditions.
Course Goals: While core courses may not achieve every goal, they will participate in the conversations represented in these goals as a central feature.
- To identify major social, cultural, linguistic, or technological conditions that shape the production, significance, and reception of texts
- To interrogate and interpret readings of historical context by situating texts in relation to other documents or artifacts
- To understand the institutional histories of English language and literature as an academic discipline, including period-based organization of English language and literature
- To understand the institutional histories of English language and literature within public culture, including material histories of the book and other textual and visual media such as manuscript, print, or electronic writing
- To explore how texts act as historical agents within specific social, cultural, linguistic, or technological contexts
- To explore how social groups or identities emerge through or participate in historical and material production and circulation of texts
Course list for students who entered the major in Autumn 2012 and later:
- ENGL 307 (Cultural Studies: Literature and the Age)
- ENGL 311 (Modern Jewish Literature in Translation)
- ENGL 312 (Jewish Literature: Biblical to Modern)
- ENGL 313 (Modern European Literature in Translation)
- ENGL 314 (Transatlantic Literature and Culture)
- ENGL 315 (Literary Modernism)
- ENGL 316 (Postcolonial Literature and Culture)
- ENGL 317 (Literature of the Americas)
- ENGL 318 (Black Literary Genres)
- ENGL 319 (African Literatures)
- ENGL 320 (English Literature: The Middle Ages)
- ENGL 321 (Chaucer)
- ENGL 322 (English Literature: The Age of Elizabeth)
- ENGL 323 (Shakespeare: to 1603)
- ENGL 324 (Shakespeare: after 1603)
- ENGL 325 (English Literature: The Late Renaissance)
- ENGL 326 (Milton)
- ENGL 327 (English Literature: Restoration & Early 18th Century)
- ENGL 328 (English Literature: Later 18th Century)
- ENGL 329 (Rise of the English Novel)
- ENGL 330 (English Literature: The Romantic Age)
- ENGL 331 (Romantic Poetry I)
- ENGL 332 (Romantic Poetry II)
- ENGL 333 (English Novel: Early & Middle 19th Century)
- ENGL 334 (English Novel: Later 19th Century)
- ENGL 335 (English Literature: Age of Victoria)
- ENGL 336 (English Literature: The Early Modern Period)
- ENGL 337 (Modern Novel)
- ENGL 338 (Modern Poetry)
- ENGL 339 (English Literature: Contemporary England)
- ENGL 340 (Modern Anglo-Irish Literature)
- ENGL 342 (Contemporary Novel)
- ENGL 343 (Contemporary Poetry)
- ENGL 344 (20th-Century Dramatic Literature)
- ENGL 350 (Traditions in American Fiction)
- ENGL 351 (American Literature: The Colonial Period)
- ENGL 352 (American Literature: The Early Nation)
- ENGL 353 (American Literature: The Later 19th Century)
- ENGL 354 (American Literature: The Early Modern Period)
- ENGL 355 (American Literature: Contemporary America)
- ENGL 357 (Jewish American Literature and Culture)
- ENGL 358 (Literature of Black Americans)
- ENGL 359 (Contemporary American Indian Literature)
- ENGL 360 (American Political Culture: to 1865)
- ENGL 361 (American Political Culture: 1865 - Present)
- ENGL 362 (U.S. Latino/a Literature)
- ENGL 364 (Literature and Medicine)
- ENGL 366 (Literature and Law)
- ENGL 368 (Women Writers)
- ENGL 370 (English Language Study)
- ENGL 373 (History of the English Language)
- ENGL 376 (Middle English)
- ENGL 422 (Arthurian Legends)
- ENGL 430 (British Writers: Studies in Major Authors)
- ENGL 431 (Topics in British Literature)
- ENGL 451 (American Writers: Studies in Major Authors)
- ENGL 452 (Topics in American Literature)
- ENGL 478 (Language and Social Policy)
- ENGL 479 (Language Variation and Language Policy in North America)