English

Chairman and Professor: JUSTIN A. JACKSON
Professors: CHRISTOPHER S. BUSCH, STEPHEN SMITH, DAVID M. WHALEN
Associate Professors: PATRICIA BART, BRENT CLINE, KELLY FRANKLIN, ELIZABETH FREDERICKS, DUTTON KEARNEY, DWIGHT LINDLEY, LORRAINE MURPHY, JASON PETERS, BENEDICT WHALEN
Assistant Professors: CHRISTINA LAMBERT, PATRICK TIMMIS

English 104-105 is a two-semester sequence that is foundational to the liberal arts curriculum. Major literary works of the Judeo-Christian, Greco-Roman, and the British and American traditions serve as the basis for instruction in close reading, thinking, and writing. Students take English 104 (Great Books in the Western Tradition: Ancient to Medieval) the spring semester of the freshman year, and English 105 (Great Books in the British and American Traditions) the fall semester of the sophomore year.

All students choosing English as their field of concentration should consult with the chair of the Department as soon as possible and choose a major advisor. English majors are strongly recommended to take ENG 201 to round out a full and robust Great Books experience in the major.

Departmental Honors                             

Those who wish to seek Departmental Honors in English must meet the highest standards of excellence, in terms of both departmental GPA and the quality of the thesis. No matter which of the two options below the student chooses, the successful Honors thesis needs to integrate secondary scholarship into the main argument of the essay. An excellent honors thesis situates one’s own close reading within the wider scholarly conversation and demonstrates how one’s work contributes to it. The student working toward Honors must also have the support of the Department generally, as well as the help of a particular faculty member as a thesis advisor. The Honors thesis may be completed in one of two ways: either a) as an original work of research and writing, completed over the course of one’s senior year; or b) as a revision of a previously-written seminar paper, written during the junior or senior year. For the first option, the student must have a departmental GPA of 3.6 or higher at the time of application. In the spring semester of junior year, the student must secure an advisor and submit a formal thesis application and proposal (see the chair for detailed instructions) no later than April 1. If the department approves the proposal, the student may register for English 575 in the fall semester of senior year. Completed by the end of the fall semester, the successful thesis must be 20-25 pages long and demonstrate proficient understanding of the relevant scholarly work in the field. If the advisor and a second reader determine that the essay earns an A minus or better, and the student is projected to maintain a 3.6 departmental GPA until graduation, the final step will be to give a public lecture on the thesis, sometime early in the spring semester.

The second way to earn departmental honors requires the major to improve upon a successful seminar paper from a 400-level course, according to the following guidelines. The student must have a departmental GPA of no less than 3.6 at the time of graduation. The student must be nominated by an English faculty member on the basis of outstanding performance on a 400-level research paper, written for a class that takes place no later than fall semester, senior year. Should the student accept the nomination, be willing to do the work of revision, and have an excellent chance of achieving a 3.6 departmental GPA come graduation, the nominating professor will immediately submit the seminar paper to a three-member faculty committee for consideration. By the beginning of the following semester, the committee (not including the nominating professor) will read the essay and give one of four judgments: rejected; revise and resubmit; accepted but with revisions; or accepted as is. Should the student be asked to revise, he or she will have six weeks to make the necessary revisions. When the final, revised draft has been turned in, the thesis will be judged once again. On successful completion of the revision process, the student will give an honorary public lecture on the topic of the thesis, as soon as possible after its acceptance. Should the student retain a 3.6 departmental GPA until graduation, he or she will be awarded departmental honors in English.

Degrees

Courses of Instruction

ENG 104: Great Books in the Western Tradition

Credits 3

This course will introduce the student to representative Great Books of the Western World from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and will teach the principles of close reading and literary analysis. Selections may include the Bible and works by authors such as Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Vergil, Ovid, Augustine, and Dante. The writing content includes a variety of writing exercises that incorporate traditional rhetorical and research skills.

ENG 105: Great Books in the British and American Traditions

Credits 3

A continuation of English 104 but with a focus on Great Books in the British and American traditions.  English authors may include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Swift, Wordsworth, Dickens, and Yeats; American authors may include Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Dickinson, Twain, Frost, Hemingway, Faulkner, and O’Connor.  The writing emphasis continues with a variety of writing exercises that incorporate traditional rhetorical and research skills.

ENG 201: Great Books in Continental Literature

Credits 3

This course will introduce the student to Great Books of European literature from the Renaissance to modern times. Some emphasis will be placed on this literature in the context of general historical and artistic periods and movements: Renaissance Humanism, Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, and Modernism. When appropriate, the function and form of literary works (for instance, the lyric, the novel, the short story) will be discussed. Authors studied may include Petrarch, Erasmus, Montaigne, Cervantes, Voltaire, Racine, Goethe, Schiller, Rousseau, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Aleichem, Kafka, Camus, Bernanos, Sartre, Undset, and Solzhenitsyn. The writing requirement for the class will be at least one 5-page paper.

ENG 310: Old and Middle English Literature: 600-1500

Credits 3

A literary survey of Old and Middle English literature in the context of its age. Readings may include authors such as Augustine, Boethius, Caedmon, Bede, Alfred the Great, the anonymous poets of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Marie de France, the medieval dramatists and mystics, Chaucer, Langland, Malory, and selections from the 15th century.

ENG 320: Renaissance British Literature: 1500 to 1660

Credits 3

A literary survey of English Renaissance literature in the context of its age. Readings may include authors such as More, Wyatt, Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Donne, Herbert, Marvell, and Milton.

ENG 401: Special Studies in British Literature

Credits 3

ENG 401 provides an upper-division study of the particular authors, themes and periods initiated in the 300-level courses. Regular offerings include courses on major authors such as Chaucer, Spenser, Milton and Shakespeare, or special studies on subjects such as Old English language and literature, Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, 18th-century literature, Romantic poetry, Victorian literature, 19th-century novel or 20th-century literature. Please consult the Departmental Bulletin for details.

ENG 402: Special Studies in American Literature

Credits 3
ENG 402 provides an upper-division study of the particular authors, themes and periods initiated in the 300-level courses. It includes the traditional array of American literature courses from Colonial and Early National American literature, to 20th-century American literature and the American novel. ENG 402 also offers the opportunity to relate American literature to British and Continental literatures for parallels and contrasts. Please consult the Departmental Bulletin for details.

ENG 403: Special Studies in Literature

Credits 3

ENG 403 provides an upper-division study of one of the following areas: the Western literary tradition (including courses on major authors from Italian, French, Spanish, German, Scandinavian, Yiddish, and Russian traditions); one or more of the traditional genres (epic, romance, lyric, tragedy, comedy, essay, novel, short story); literary criticism and theory; history of the English language; or advanced writing (creative, research, expository). Please consult the Departmental Bulletin for details.

ENG 453: Teaching of English

Credits 3
Topics in language, literature and composition designed to assist the prospective elementary and/or secondary school teacher to understand new approaches and to meet curricular problems in the teaching of English at the elementary and secondary levels. It does not count toward an English field of concentration.

ENG 575: Senior Thesis

Credits 3
Students wishing to graduate with honors in English must write a substantial thesis under the direction of a Department member. The thesis must address some narrowly defined topic proposed by the student in the spring semester of the junior year and be approved by the Department.

ENG 597: Special Problems

Credits 1 Max Credits 3
An independent study course designed for work on a topic not covered in other courses in the Department.