Loyola University Chicago

• Advising and Preregistration
• After Graduation
• The English Major
• The English Minor
• Course Catalog
• Creative Writing
• General Rules of the Undergraduate Program
• Honors
• Internships
• Introduction to Writing at Loyola
• Undergraduate Admission

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INTRODUCTION

The undergraduate major program trains students in the careful practice of sound literary analysis; presents literature written in English in the relevant social and historical contexts; and enhances students' abilities to write clearly, gracefully and forcefully.

In carrying out its aims, the program retains traditional strengths: a strong writing program; the critical study of texts from various periods of American and British literature (including Shakespeare); and an introduction to literary theory. It also allows for five electives and encourages students to use those electives to "concentrate" in areas of current concern to the discipline such as world literature in English and cultural studies. Students may also take courses in advanced writing or creative writing and pursue internship opportunities.

THE ENGLISH MAJOR: SEQUENCE OF COURSES AND REQUIREMENTS

Please note: As the discipline of English studies has evolved over the course of the past decade, the English department at Loyola has adjusted the requirements for the major. If you first entered Loyola University Chicago as a freshman or a transfer student before Spring 2001 (regardless of when you declared your English major), then you may graduate under the 1997 major or the current major.

THE MAJOR

Twelve courses (36 hours), of which no more than four courses (12 hours) may be taken at the 200-level and of which at least one must be among those designated by the department as "multicultural." These courses must also meet the following criteria:

• Literary Theory (to be fulfilled by English 354, though some substitutions may be possible with written permission)

• Shakespeare (to be fulfilled by English 326; note that English 274 will not fulfill this requirement for English majors)

• Advanced Seminar (English 390, which is open to students with junior or senior standing; students may take an additional 390 if they wish)

• Three courses in literature in English before 1900, including:
  • At least one course prior to 1700 to be selected from English 297, 304, 320, 321, 322, 323, 325, 327, 328, 329 and 365

  • At least one course after 1700 to be selected from English 298, 305, 330, 333, 335, 338, 340, 343, 375, 376 and 380

• One course in literature in English since 1900, to be selected from English 278, 344, 345, 348, 349, 351, 361, 367, 371, 377, 385 and 388

General Note: Depending on the specific subject matter specified for a given section, the following courses may meet any of the historical period distribution requirements described above: English 282, 306, 307, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 359, 360, 362, 366, 368, 369, 372, 379, 381, 382, 384, 389 and 395. This makes it particularly crucial that students work with the advisor in planning their semester-by-semester schedule (see Advising and Preregistration).

• Five elective courses
  The department offers several "concentrations" that allow students to use their electives within the major to specialize in areas of current interest in English studies. Each concentration has its own requirements, which may include the option of taking a course from a neighboring discipline. Students electing to take a concentration must consult with their academic advisor and file a brief declaration form with the director of undergraduate programs at the earliest possible date. Taking a concentration is not a requirement for completing the major.
  
  The concentrations available will vary from year to year, though students who declare a concentration will be guaranteed the opportunity to complete that concentration by the time they graduate. At the present, the department offers the following concentration opportunities:
  • The American Studies Concentration: This concentration permits students to experience the range of issues, topics, approaches and interdisciplinarity of the long-established field of American studies.

    379: Studies in American Literature
    381: American Literature in a Comparative Context
    382: Studies in American Culture
    384: Studies in African-American Literature

    Students must select any two from the above list of four American field courses. Students must select a third course in American studies offered in another discipline. The department will list courses in other departments that treat American topics so that the student will have guidance in selecting that third course. The student's academic advisor will give final approval.

  • The Cultural Studies Concentration: This concentration allows students to focus on questions central to the theory and practice of cultural studies. What are the relationships between "high" and "low" culture? What are the relationships between literature and other forms of media (print, electronic, filmic, etc.)? How does culture circulate (and circulate among) identities based on race, class, gender, sexuality or nation? What forms of power and resistance are possible within and through culture? The concentration seeks to enhance students' understanding of literature within a broader cultural field, while challenging the assumptions that define what constitutes a "literary" text. Combining theory and material analysis, the concentration provides skills enabling students to read the world they encounter beyond the classroom.

    358: Cultural Theory
    359: High and Low Culture
    360: Topics in the Study of Culture
    382: Studies in American Culture

    Students must take ENGL 358 (Cultural Theory). In addition, they will select two other courses from the list above. With the approval of their academic advisors, student-concentrators may substitute other 300-level English courses when those courses focus on topics in cultural studies. With the approval of their academic advisors, they may also substitute one course offered by another department (for example, anthropology/sociology or communication).

  • The Drama Concentration: This concentration allows students to specialize in the study of dramatic literature and theatre, ranging from the Greeks to the present, and to address in a variety of contexts (for example, ancient, Renaissance, modern, contemporary) the perennial theoretical issues raised by the drama. Such issues include the relationships between text and performance, performance and audience, actor and part, and theatre and culture. In addition to offering students a great variety of courses, the drama concentration will draw on the rich resources of the Chicago theatre.

    327: Studies in Shakespeare
    365: Drama: Medieval and Renaissance
    366: Drama: Restoration to Twentieth Century
    367: Modern Drama
    368: Studies in Drama
    369: Women in Drama

    In addition to ENGL 326, the Shakespeare course required of all English majors, students in the drama concentration may take any three courses from the list above. ENGL 309 (Irish Literature) or ENGL 379 (Studies in American Literature) may be substituted when they are offered with a focus on drama. With the approval of the student-concentrator's academic advisor, one course offered by another department (for example, theatre or classical studies) may also be substituted.

  • The Modernist Studies Concentration. Modernism today is a rapidly changing and expanding field of study, as new critical approaches, new canons and even "new" (global/minority) literatures enlarge and alter the meaning of modernism. Cultural studies, feminist criticism, multiculturalism and other forces have set familiar writers and themes in fresh contexts and have deepened our understanding of both modernity and the modernist response to it. Once conceived as a high-aesthetic phenomenon manifested in the experimental work of a few select artists, modernism now seems inextricable from broader cultural developments: the ascent of mass culture; the empowerment of women in political and everyday life; the rise of modern psychology and philosophy and the changing notions of subjectivity that depended on them; and the advent of cultural relativism. Students in the modernist studies concentration will have the opportunity to explore the issues, contexts, and approaches that have created the "New Modernism" of current scholarship.

    345: English Literature: The Twentieth Century
    344: Studies in Modernism
    361: Modern Poetry
    367: Modern Drama
    371: The Modern Novel
    377: American Literature 1914-1945

    Students must take ENGL 344 (Studies in Modernism). In addition, they will select two other courses from the list above. With the approval of their academic advisors, student-concentrators may substitute other 300-level English courses when those courses focus on modernist authors or topics. With the approval of their academic advisors, they may also substitute one course offered by another department (for example, history or modern languages and literatures).

  • The Feminist and Gender Studies Concentration: This concentration allows students to take courses in feminist and gender theory and methodology and to explore historically specific conceptions of gender and sexuality in literary works within and across literary periods and traditions. Courses offered address such topics as sex and gender roles in historical periods (Medieval, Romantic, Victorian); sex and politics in contemporary British, American and world literature; the cultural politics of sexual identity; feminism and women's literature; and feminist and queer theory.

    306: Studies in Women Writers
    307: Topics in Feminist and Gender Studies
    369: Women in Drama

    Students must take three approved 300-level courses. ENGL 306 (Studies in Women Writers) and ENGL 307 (Topics in Feminist and Gender Studies) may be taken twice for credit if the course content changes. With the approval of the student-concentrator's academic advisor, one course offered by another department or program (notably WOST 397: Special Topics in Women's Studies) may be substituted.

  • The World Literature in English Concentration: This concentration offers students the opportunity to study literature written in English by authors from outside Britain and the U.S. and by authors within those nations that belong to diaspora communities. Students fulfilling this concentration will explore how such literatures, and their accompanying theories, revise our assumptions about "English literature." This concentration offers courses in literature, culture and theory that engage questions about nationalism, globalization, Third World feminism, diasporic experience, political resistance and cultural power in a transnational context.

    381: American Literature in a Comparative Context
    312: Studies in World Literature in English
    313: Border Literatures
    314: African Literatures in English
    315: South Asian Literatures in English
    316: Caribbean Literatures in English

    Students must select three courses from the list above. ENGL 312 (Studies in World Literature in English) may be taken twice for credit if the course content changes.

    Note: The preceding concentrations within the general English major program are complemented by the creative writing concentration.

 THE ENGLISH MINOR

The English minor consists of six courses (18 hours) ranked as English 270 or higher, three of which must be ranked above English 300.