English majors gain a wealth of knowledge beneath the dome of Neville Hall, but the PC faculty is quick to point out that the learning experience is not limited to the classroom. Classes may be held as close as the steps of Neville Hall — where the poetry of Walt Whitman takes on new meaning in the morning air — or as far away as England, Spain, or Australia. Students are encouraged to study abroad — and at least half of all English majors at PC take advantage of that opportunity to get a first-hand look at significant literary and historic sites.

110. Composition and World Literature I (3) (Required of all students)
Students will develop proficiency in composition through a thematic study of works that may be selected from ancient to modern world literature.

111. Composition and World Literature II (3) (Required of all students)
A detailed exploration of selected genres. Possible topics include Introduction to Film, Introduction to Autobiography, Introduction to the Novel, Introduction to the Short Story, and Introduction to the Graphic Novel. (Spring)

*English 110-111 are prerequisites for all upper-level English courses*

201-202. Survey of English Literature (3 each sem) (Required of English majors)
Individual works by major writers from the entire body of British literature are studied critically in chronological order, with some attention to backgrounds and characteristics of respective literary periods. First term: English literature from Beowulf to 1798. Second term: the literature from 1798 to the present. (201 Fall; 202 Spring)

206. Survey of American Literature I (3) (Required of English majors)
A survey of American literature from the Age of Faith to the Age of Reason to the Romantic Age with emphasis on the essays, poems, and fiction of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman. A communication and evaluation of the history of ideas revealed in early American literature and relevant today. (Fall)

207. Survey of American Literature II (3)
A discussion and evaluation of the history of ideas in America from the Civil War to the present, including readings from Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson to Louise Erdrich and August Wilson. Realistic, naturalistic, existentialistic, modern, and contemporary thought and literature will be studied. (Spring)

210. Introduction to World Cinema (3) (Cross-listed with interdisciplinary studies and theatre)
A survey of the important genres, theories, techniques, and international movements of film history. Representative films from the silent era to the present, and from America to Europe and Asia, will be covered. (Spring, even years)

213. Literary Methods (3)
An introduction to scholarship in the English discipline, covering such areas as genres, terms, and theories; research methods; and various writing forms (including critical analyses, annotated bibliographies, and documented essays). (Fall, even years)

215. Creative Writing: Poetry (3) (Only one course, 215 or 216, may count toward the major)
A study of and an involvement in the creative process of writing poems. Extensive reading of modern and contemporary poems as models of the craft. Students will write free verse and traditional forms. Honest but tactful criticism of fellow students’ poems will be expected from each student. Short essays on contemporary poetry will be required. (Fall)

216. Creative Writing: Fiction (3) (Only one course, 215 or 216, may count toward the major)
A study of and an involvement in the creative process of writing fiction. Extensive reading of contemporary short stories and novels. All students will write several pieces of fiction. Honest but tactful criticism of fellow students’ work will be expected from each student. (Spring)

219. Studies in Linguistics (3) (Required of all English majors)
A survey of the history of the English language, an introduction to modern theories of English grammar, and a rigorous review of usage rules for written English. (Spring)

220. Writing Tutor Practicum (1) (Prereq: consent of instructor; selection as a writing center tutor; cross-listed with interdisciplinary studies; offered on a pass/fail basis and may not be counted toward the English major)
A practical course in how to help others with writing through a writer-centered approach. Students will study methods for effective tutoring in writing with actual experience in the writing center.

258. Special Topics (3). See page 37 in Book of Majors.

305. Eighteenth Century Poetry and Prose (3) (Prereq: ENGL 201 or 202)
An examination of the chief works of Dryden, Swift, Pope, Johnson, and others against the background of eighteenth century society and thought. Collateral reading; term project. (Spring, odd years)

306. Poetry and Prose of the Romantic Period (3) (Prereq: ENGL 201 or 202)
An examination of the chief poems and essays of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Lamb, Hazlitt, Wollstonecraft, and De Quincey. Collateral reading; critical essays and analyses. (Fall, odd years)

310. Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism (3)
A survey of major works of literary theory and criticism, beginning with classical criticism and ending with contemporary theory. Organized by historical period, the course evaluates the evolution of critical practices, emphasizing the interconnectedness of literature and theory while developing awareness of diverse methods of interpretation. (Fall, odd years)

313. Adolescent Literature (3) (Cross-listed with education)
A survey of adolescent literature (including print and nonprint media) and informational materials suited to the use of junior and senior high school students. Attention given to reading interests and needs of the adolescent. Also considered is the relation of the teacher to the school library program or media center and current trends in teaching with books. (Fall, even years)

314. Southern Literature (3) (Prereq: ENGL 206 for English majors and minors or INTD 205 for Southern studies minors; crosslisted with interdisciplinary studies)
A survey of significant Southern writing from Colonial days to the present. Particular attention will be paid to the writers of the twentieth century. (Spring, odd years)

317. Chaucer (3)
A study of the works of England’s first major poet, with special attention to the Canterbury Tales. The course will include collateral readings about sources for Chaucer’s work and the cultural milieu of fourteenth century England. (Spring, even years)

318. Topics in Medieval Literature (3) (May be taken more than once for credit)
A survey of significant works from the medieval period, excluding Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The course will focus on one unifying theme, such as Arthurian Literature, Medieval Romance, Women in the Middle Ages, et. al. (Fall, even years)

319. Twentieth Century American Literature and Ethnic Identity (3)
A survey of the diverse cultures of many American ethnic groups with emphasis on African-American, Jewish, Native American, Latino-American, and Asian-American literatures. (Fall, even years)

322. Women’s Literature (3)
A critical study of American and British women writers, which may examine the following themes: myths of the female, the woman artist, the female bildungsroman, love and friendship, communities of women, women and war, women’s place in the nation, and female spirituality. (Spring, odd years)

323. Film and American Culture (3) (Cross-listed with interdisciplinary studies)
A study of the way in which social, political, economic, and cultural forces in America have influenced or been depicted by or in American film. Selected directors whose films will be viewed include Griffith, Chaplin, Hitchcock, Altman, Levinson, Tarantino, and others. (Spring,
odd years)

324. Women’s World Literature (3)
A complement to ENGL 322. An introduction to women’s literature written by artists from across the globe (including Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America) that focuses on texts composed after 1900. (Spring, even years)

325. Renaissance Poetry and Drama (3) (Prereq: ENGL 201 or 202)
An application of Renaissance intellectual history to the study of the overreacher and the Petrarchan and Ovidian love traditions in 16th and 17th century English poetry and non-Shakespearean drama. (Spring, odd years)

326. Practicum in the Writing Center (1) (Prereq: ENGL 220/INTD 220; cross-listed with interdisciplinary studies; may be taken more than once for credit. The course will be offered on a pass/fail basis and may not be counted toward the English major.)
A practical course in helping other students with writing through a writer-centered approach. The course includes mentoring beginning tutors, tutoring writers, and working on projects in the Writing Center.

329. The Victorian Age (3) (Prereq: ENGL 201 or 202)
An examination of the chief writers and their work against the background of nineteenth century life and thought, including Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Ruskin, Carlyle, Mill, the Rossettis, Morris, Wilde, and others. Critical essays and analyses. (Spring, even years)

332. Advanced Writing (3)
A study of the advanced rhetorical strategies that inform a variety of writing styles, with particular emphasis on academic writing. Students will write several essays, revise them regularly, and assemble a final portfolio of their best written work.

336. The American Renaissance (3) (Prereq: ENGL 206)
A comprehensive survey of the literary flowering of 1850-1855 that produced the transcendentalist poetry and prose of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman and the novels of Hawthorne and Melville. (Spring, even years)

341. Postcolonial Literature (3)
A critical study of postcolonial literature, focusing on writers of the formerly British and European colonized worlds. The reading list includes works by authors such as C.L.R. James, Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Michelle Cliff, Nadine Gordimer, Salman Rushdie, Bharati Mukherjee, Jamaica Kincaid, and others. The course follows a discussion format and requires several short response papers and one long paper. (Fall, odd years)

350. Shakespeare (3) (Required of English majors; cross-listed with theatre)
A critical study of representative histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances, with emphasis on Shakespeare’s development as a dramatic artist. (Fall)

356. Modern and Contemporary Drama (3) (Cross-listed with theatre)
This course explores the influence of realism, naturalism, expressionism, and finally absurdism on contemporary drama, while paying particular attention to American and British playwrights. (Spring, even years)

361. The English Novel to 1900 (3)
A study of the English novel from its emergence in the eighteenth century through its eminence in the nineteenth century, including such novelists as Fielding, Richardson, Austen, the Bront‘s, Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, and others. (Fall, even years)

365. The Modern British and American Novel (3)
A critical survey of the development of the novel in the twentieth century, focusing on major authors. The reading list is determined from the following authors of the Modern Period: Forster, Joyce, Conrad, Woolf, Lawrence, Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. Post WWII and Postmodern authors represented may include Ellison, Morrison, Pynchon, M. Amis, Fowles, Flannery O’Connor, Bellow, and Barth. (Fall, odd years)

371. Modern Poetry (3)
A survey of modern British and American poets, with particular attention to W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, and Robert Frost. Collateral readings and selected analyses. (Fall, even years)

381. The Teaching of Composition (3) (Cross-listed with education)
Beginning with a brief review of grammar, the course introduces future secondary English teachers to composition theory and the teaching of writing. Students will gain practical experience in working individually with students and grading essays. (Fall, odd years)

398. Honors Research (3-6). See page 44.
Available for students during the junior and senior years with approval of the departmental faculty. Students with a 3.20 GPA in all courses and a 3.40 GPA in major courses may undertake an honors research program. Oral and written presentations of the results of the project will be required. Students who successfully complete the departmental honors research program will graduate with honors in the major discipline. (Fall or Spring, or Fall and Spring)

402. Studies in Literature (3) (Open to juniors and seniors with the consent of the instructor)
An intensive study of the works of a major fiction writer or of selected works by a group of related fiction writers.

410. Creative Writing Seminar (3) (Prereq: ENGL 215-216 or consent of instructor)
An intensive study of the process of creative writing for advanced students. Students will work on large-scale, individual writing projects (poetry portfolio, short-story collection, novel, screenplay, etc.), as well as read extensively in their chosen genre. Honest but tactful criticism of fellow students’ work in class workshops will be required from each student. (on demand)

420. Senior Capstone in English (3) (Required of English majors during their senior year; may be taken in junior year if necessary or with consent of department)
Readings in literature selected by the English faculty. Course uses a seminar format in which students engage in discussion, conduct original research on a topic of their choice, and present to the class their findings in both oral and written reports. Stresses students’ skills in analysis, research, and communication. (Fall or Spring)

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