English Literature

Major, Minor

How we work

1. We make connections. We read the canon, but we don’t always read it alone. We’re interested in the vast, endless literary tradition. Courses like “Jane Austen and Lizzie Bennet” and “The Immigrant Author in America” explore the threads that connect contemporary and classic works.
2. We read widely. With the varied interests of our faculty members, you’ll be exposed to a broad range of literary styles and criticism. You might study children’s and young adult literature with Barbara Tannert-Smith, British Modernism with Beth Marzoni, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman with Rob Smith, Shakespeare with Roya Biggie, or the Bible in literature with Gina Franco—just to name a few.
3. We read deeply. Some of our courses allow students to delve into a single author’s body of work. By pairing the study of an author with criticism, students track the trajectory of a life and the expanse of a period. Recent authors include Flannery O’Connor, William Blake, Maurice Sendak, William Carlos Williams, and Virginia Woolf.
4. We read the world. You’ll take courses that explore the vast array of cultural and historical perspective literature offers us, including “Border Crossers” and “American Poetry and the Women’s Movement,” among others. Our “Literature and Power” course, for example, with its rotating themes such as “Literature and Medicine” or “The Artist and Power,” teaches not just about literature, but about the world in which literature is made and read. Your studies in other departments, such as film, gender and women’s studies, Africana studies, theatre, modern languages, and more, will enrich your exploration.
5. We know that books matter. Senior Seminar, the capstone of your English literature experience, is a testament to our belief that reading make us better people. The seminar focuses on issues in literature and society that are currently being discussed locally, nationally, or internationally. The term culminates with a conference at which you’ll present your paper and field questions from the audience.
6. Our Grads Find Success. Caleb Fridell ’16 is pursuing a Ph.D. in literature at the City University of New York. Amanda Axley ’14 is studying for her MLIS at the University of Iowa. Lauren Assaf ’10 is an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. B.J. Hollars ’07 is the author of nine books and associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.