B.A. in Literature

with a liberal arts core curriculum

(120 credit hours, 30 courses)

Rationale

 

The following curriculum is based on a revision of both my current institution's core and major requirements. It assumes a conversion from three credit-hour courses to four credit-hour courses with minimal, if any, change in staffing. The liberal arts core proposes a solid and rigorous curriculum of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, Hard Sciences, Mathematics as well as courses in writing across the curriculum, critical thinking, language, and a minor. The literature major is founded upon a sequence of Writing about Literature, Survey of Critical Theory, and Senior Capstone as well as a Shakespeare course and Linguistics course required of all students. Students choose a British Literature Survey course; a American Literature Survey course; a British Historical Period course; an American Historical Period course; a Genre in an Historical Period course; a Theoretical course; an Identity Literature course; an International, Conceptual, or Thematic course; and a Single Author course.

 

Core

32 hours

8 courses

First-Year Writing Seminar

4 hours

ENGL 1000 Writing across the Curriculum

[freshman only]

(An introduction to college writing, taken during the first year but the opposite semester of GCSU 1000)

First-Year Critical Thinking Seminar

4 hours

GCSU 1000 Critical Thinking: Special Topic

[freshman only]

(A special topics course emphasizing critical thinking in an area of the instructor's choosing, taken during the first-year but the opposite semester of ENGL 1000.)

Second-Year Writing Seminar

(also Major Sequence I)

4 hours

DEPT 1200 Writing in the Discipline

[sophomores only]

(Each department creates its own writing in the discipline class, which will serve both the core as a second writing course and the major as a lower-division requirement for all upper-division courses in the major; in the literature program, it will serve as the first course in the Major Sequence.)

Humanities

4 hours

Choose from X courses

Arts

4 hours

Choose from either X appreciation courses, including ENGL 1500 World Literature or X creative courses like ENGL 1600 Introduction to Creative Writing

Mathematics

4 hours

Choose from X courses

Social Science

4 hours

Choose from X courses

Hard Science

4 hours

Choose from X courses

Language

4-12 hours

1-3 courses

Intermediate Language

4 hours

Choose from

FREN 2002 Intermediate French,

GRMN 2002 Intermediate German,

ITAL 2002 Intermediate Italian,

or

SPAN 2002 Intermediate Spanish

(Students either take DEPT 2000 Beginning DEPT I and DEPT 2001 Beginning DEPT II or a test to place out of the language. If a student places out of any language at the 2002 level, the course may be replaced by any elective.)

Electives

8-16 hours

2-4 courses

Elective

4 hours

Choose any course that does not fulfill any other requirement

(Electives can be used to fulfill credit hours of first two waived language courses if necessary. The number of electives taken depends on the number of language courses taken.)

Elective

4 hours

Choose any course that does not fulfill any other requirement

Elective

4 hours

Choose any course that does not fulfill any other requirement

Elective

4 hours

Choose any course that does not fulfill any other requirement

Minor

16 hours

4 courses

Minor

4 hours

Choose from X courses

(See minors section of the Catalog)

Minor

4 hours

Choose from X courses

Minor

4 hours

Choose from X courses

Minor

4 hours

Choose from X courses

Major

52 hours

13 courses

(At least two courses from each section 1-11 will be taught each semester at two different times.)

1 British Survey

4 hours

ENGL 2000 British Literature I

or

ENGL 2100 British Literature II

[freshman and sophomores only]

(Currently, we offer a survey of all of British literature. We could keep the same staffing, but offer a survey of the first half of British literature in the fall and the second half in the spring.)

2 American Survey

4 hours

ENGL 2200 American Literature I

or

ENGL 2300 American Literature II

[freshman and sophomores only]

(Currently, we offer a survey of all of American literature. We could keep the same staffing, but offer a survey of the first half of American literature in the fall and the second half in the spring.)

3 Shakespeare

4 hours

ENGL 2400 Introduction to Shakespeare

[freshman and sophomores only]

4 Linguistics

4 hours

ENGL 2500 Introduction to Linguistics

[freshman and sophomores only]

5 Historical Periods: American

4 hours

ENGL 4000 American Literature Beginnings-1820

ENGL 4010 American Literature 1820-1865

ENGL 4020 American Literature 1865-1910

ENGL 4030 American Literature 1910-1960

or

ENGL 4040 American Literature 1960-present

[juniors and seniors only]

(Currently, we offer three broad periods, beginnings-1865, 1865-1920, and 1920-Present; we could keep the same staffing but break the periods up further to distinguish between colonial and Transcendental as well as early Modernist and Contemporary.)

6 Historical Periods: British

4 hours

ENGL 4100 Medieval English Literature

ENGL 4110 English Renaissance Literature

ENGL 4120 Restoration and Eighteenth-Century

ENGL 4130 English Romanticism

ENGL 4140 Victorian Literature

ENGL 4150 Twentieth-Century British Literature

[juniors and seniors only]

7 Genre and Period

4 hours

ENGL 4200 Eighteenth-Century English Novel

ENGL 4210 Nineteenth-Century Fiction

ENGL 4220 Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Fiction

ENGL 4230 Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Poetry

ENGL 4240 Development of English Drama

ENGL 4250 Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Drama

or

ENGL 4260 Film & Television

[juniors and seniors only]

(Currently, our drama and poetry focuses on 1900-1945 and our fiction is only British; we could keep the same staffing but allow the study of post-war poetry and drama, twentieth-century American fiction, and film.)

8 Theoretical Approaches

4 hours

ENGL 4300 Special Topics in Literary Criticism

ENGL 4310 Theories of Composition

ENGL 4320 History of the English Language

or

ENGL 4330 Structure of Present-Day English

[juniors and seniors only]

(We need to develop more theoretical approaches.)

10 Identity Literature

4 hours

ENGL 4400 Literary Women

ENGL 4410 Adolescent Literature

ENGL 4420 Southern Literature

ENGL 4430 African-American Literature

ENGL 4440 Multicultural American Literature

ENGL 4450 Native American Literature

or

ENGL 4460 Folklore

[juniors and seniors only]

(We could regroup a section of our offerings as identity-based literatures.)

11 International, Thematic, or Conceptual

4 hours

ENGL 4500 African Literature

ENGL 4510 African Women Writers

ENGL 4520 Special Topics in International Literature

ENGL 4530 Comparative Literature

ENGL 4540 Great Books of the Western World

ENGL 4550 Special Topics

[juniors and seniors only]

9 Single Author

4 hours

ENGL 4600 Chaucer

ENGL 4610 Milton

ENGL 4620 Shakespeare

ENGL 4630 O'Connor

or

ENGL 4640 Single Author

[juniors and seniors only]

12 Major Sequence II

4 hours

ENGL 3900 Survey of Literary Theory

[juniors only]

13 Major Sequence III

4 hours

ENGL 4900 Senior Capstone

[seniors only]

 

Faculty