General Education Courses
The Literature program at Pitt offers a wide variety of courses designed for both non-English majors and English Lit majors. These courses can satisfy "W" requirements and/or General Education Literature ("L-1") breadth requirements. From the small classes of our 300-level writing-intensive courses to the more advanced and thematic 600-level courses, this curriculum has something for most literary interests.
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Murder in the Cathedral: General Education students perform a scene from Richard III in Professor Curt Breight's Englit 0580: Introduction to Shakespeare class. |
Below find a list of courses offered regularly and the General Education requirements they satisfy.
First-Level Literature Requirement
All courses examine significant works of literature and introduce students to the techniques of literary analysis. Courses in bold may be offered as "W" (writing intensive)
Courses marked * offered every year
Courses marked ** offered every semester
300-level courses introduce students to ways of thinking about literary genre(s):
ENGLIT 0300 Introduction to Literature**
ENGLIT 0310 The Dramatic Imagination**
ENGLIT 0315 Reading Poetry**
ENGLIT 0321 Forms of Prose ** (new course in 2007)
ENGLIT 0325 Short Story in Context**
ENGLIT 0350 Literature, Tradition and the New
ENGLIT 0354 Words and Images
ENGLIT 0365 Literature and the Contemporary**
ENGLIT 0370 Literature and Ideas
ENGLIT 0399 Narrative and Technology ** (new course in 2006)
500-level courses introduce students to a particular field of study within literature:
ENGLIT 0500 Introduction to Critical Reading**
ENGLIT 0505 Lectures in Literature**
ENGLIT 0570 American Literary Traditions**
ENGLIT 0573 Literature of the Americas**
ENGLIT 0580 Introduction to Shakespeare**
ENGLIT 0590 Formative Masterpieces
ENGLIT 0597 Bible as Literature**
600-level courses explores the development of a particular theme or genre in literature:
ENGLIT 0610 Women and Literature**
ENGLIT 0615 Literature and Race*
ENGLIT 0616 Literature and Migration*
ENGLIT 0625 Detective Fiction**
ENGLIT 0626 Science Fiction**
ENGLIT 0627 Literature of Sports*
ENGLIT 0628 Working Class Literature**
ENGLIT 0629 The Wild West*
ENGLIT 0630 Sexuality and Representation**
ENGLIT 0635 New Literature*
ENGLIT 0636 The Gothic Imagination*
ENGLIT 0640 Allegory*
ENGLIT 0641 Tragedy*
ENGLIT 0642 Comedy*
ENGLIT 0643 Satire*
ENGLIT 0644 Myth and Folktale*
ENGLIT 0645 Fantasy and Romance*
Second-level Literature Requirement (Creative Expression)
ENGLIT 1020 History of Literary Criticism*
ENGLIT 1028 Literature and Psychoanalysis*
ENGLIT 1100 Medieval Imagination*
ENGLIT 1126 Advanced Shakespeare*
ENGLIT 1153 British Drama: Restoration to WWI
ENGLIT 1210 The American Renaissance
ENGLIT 1212 The American West*
ENGLIT 1255 American Theatre
ENGLIT 1325 The Modernist Tradition*
ENGLIT 1370 Makers of Modern Drama
ENGLIT 1372 Contemporary Drama
ENGLIT 1380 World Literature in English**
ENGLIT 1704 Women Novelists
ENGLIT 1738 Irish Literature