Changes to the Literature Major
In our efforts to make the Literature program curriculum more coherent and exciting, two years ago we initiated a number of changes to the structure of the major and to the elective and lower-level courses as well. First and foremost, a new lecture survey course called ENGLIT 0505, "Lectures in Literature," was launched in Fall 2004 and is being offered every Fall and Spring semester. This year Professor John Twyning will be the chief lecturer in the Fall, and Professor Marah Gubar will take over in the Spring, and each term several guest lecturers will be invited to expound upon their areas of special interest. Assisting these lecturers are a team of recitation section leaders and undergraduate teaching assistants. For more information, please review "lectures in lit" page.
For a detailed explanation of the requirements of the Literature major after the introduction of Lectures in Lit, please review the Literature Major page.
Junior Seminars and Senior Seminars offer an always-changing variety of topics that, in a more intimate discussion group format, invite more intensive study of an author, genre, or literary-historical concept and formal research and critical writing. For news on upcoming seminars, please review the Literature Seminars page.
New Courses for This Year: [we’ll link these courses to sample syllabi]
- Lit 0321, Forms of Prose: A small-enrolment “W” course that introduces prose (i.e. not-poetry and not-drama) literature in the competing and overlapping forms of fiction and non-fiction narrative (novels, stories, memoirs, essays, etc.).
- Lit 0399, Narrative and Technology: This “W” course considers new media in literature—such as graphic novels/comics, film, Internet fan fiction, blogging, and so on—and how it changes the ways we read and write. Literary texts include classic and new works that explore issues of technology.
- Lit 0615, Literature and Race: Formerly called “Black Literature,” this course has a higher (or normal) enrolment of 35 and satisfies the General Education Literature requirement. The course deals more generally with the cultural and historical factors of race and its effects on writers and their worlds.
- Lit 0616, Literature and Migration: Formerly called “The Immigrant Experience” and satisfying the Gen Ed Lit 1 requirement, this course considers the impact of displacement and mobility—not only immigration to America but also the pioneers’ westward movement, for example, or expatriation in foreign lands—on the cultural imagination of writers.
Watch for additional postings and updates!
