Undergraduate Models
British Literature
The British Literature model is the primarily historical model traditionally followed by most English departments. It remains central to preparation for much English graduate study. It provides a traditional background for teaching and for law. It enhances what has been called “cultural literacy.” Above all, it introduces students to the excellence and variety of British literature. The core courses of this model regard great literature as part of the history and culture of a people and also as the product of individual minds. These courses, accordingly, try at once to acquaint the student with many samples and varieties of works and to engage the student in an intensive scrutiny of particular works.
Before setting out on this academic journey it would be desirable for the student to take one or both of the following:
- ENL 2012 Survey of English Literature: Medieval to 1750
- ENL 2022 Survey of English Literature: 1750 to the Present
The model includes:
one course in literature written before 1500:
- ENL 3210 Medieval English Lit.
- ENL 4311 Chaucer
one course in literature written between 1500-1660:
- ENL 4220 Renaissance Lit. 16th Century
- ENL 4221 Renaissance Lit. 17th Century
- ENL 4333 Shakespeare
one course in literature written from 1660 to 1800:
- ENL 3112 English Novel 18th Century
- ENL 3230 Age of Dryden & Pope
- ENL 3231 The Age of Johnson
one course in literature written from 1800 to 1900:
- ENL 3122 English Novel 19th Century
- ENL 3241 The Romantic Period
- ENL 3251 Victorian Literature
one course in literature written after 1900:
- ENL 3132 English Novel 20th Century
- ENL 3154 20th Century British Poetry
- ENL 4273 20th Century British Lit.
- LIT 4188 World English Language Literatures
- LIT4194 African Literature in English
one course in American Literature:
- AML 3031 Am. Literatures I
- AML 3041 Am. Literatures II
- AML 3270 African-Am. Lit I I
- AML 3271 African-Am. Lit II
- AML 3284 Am. Women’s Lit
- AML 3285 Var. Surveys of Am. Lit.
- AML 4170 Amer. Literary Forms
- AML 4213 Am. Lit/Culture Before 1800
- AML 4225 19th-C Am. Lit/Cult
- AML 4242 20th-C Am. Lit/Cult
- AML 4282 American Genders/Sexualities
- AML 4685 Race & Ethnicity in Am. Lit.
- AML 4311 Major Figures of Am. Lit.
- AML 4453 Am. Lit & Culture
The remaining four courses are taken from those offered by the English department including theory, writing, film, etc.
The student should consult the English website before selecting variable topics courses.
Faculty
Department of English faculty who regularly teach courses in this model include:
- Donald Ault – Romantic Poetry (William Blake), Literature & Mathematics, Literary Theory, Comics & Animation
- Richard Brantley – 19th-Century British & American Literature, History of Criticism, Bible as Literature
- Marsha Bryant – 20th-Century Literature & Culture (American & British), Poetry, Women’s Literature, Visual Culture
- Richard Burt – Shakespeare & Renaissance Drama; Film, Mass Media & Digital Media; Literary & Media Theory
- Pamela Gilbert – Victorian Literature & History, The Novel, Women’s Literature, Cultural Studies
- Norman Holland – Literature & Psychology, Reader-Response Theory, Shakespeare, Film
- Sidney Homan – Drama (Shakespeare & Modern), Theatre, Acting & Directing
- Kenneth Kidd – 19th-Century Literature & Culture, Children’s Literature & Media, Lesbian & Gay Studies
- R. Brandon Kershner – 20th-Century British Literature, Popular Culture, Cultural Studies, James Joyce, Creative Writing (Poetry)
- Judith W. Page – Romanticism, British Women Writers of the 18th & 19th Centuries, Wordsworth, Judaism
- James Paxson – Medieval Literature, Critical Theory, Medieval Drama, Literature/Science/Technology
- John Perlette – English Renaissance
- Peter L. Rudnytsky – Freud Studies, History of Psychoanalysis, Shakespeare, Renaissance
- R. Allen Shoaf – Medieval Studies, Early Modern Studies, Milton, Literary Theory, Dante
- Chris Snodgrass – Victorian Literature & Art, esp. 1880–1900; Fin-de-Siècle “Decadence”; Cultural Studies; Poetry
- Robert Thomson – Folklore, The Ballad, The Folktale/Myth/Legend, Shakespeare, New Zealand Literature
- James Twitchell – Commercial Culture, Romanticism, Advertising
