English

Major

The English major is designed to meet the needs of students with various goals, including those seeking a foundation for postgraduate work or study in fields related to English (e.g., education, communications, editing and publishing, law, theater); those who want a humanistic base in reading, thinking, and writing for a liberal arts education; and those who desire training in English in preparation for graduate study in the field.

Students interested in graduate work in English should be aware that their candidacy will be strengthened by the following: readiness to define a likely direction or area of ongoing scholarly interest; evidence of the ability to conduct successful independent research and extended critical writing; reading knowledge of at least one foreign language; and a more ample distribution of historical period courses than that minimally required by the major. Students should consult with their advisors about the decision to go on for graduate work in English.

Before declaring the major in English, students must complete the following, in consultation with an advisor (a faculty member in the Department): a one-page Plan for the Major; a Majors Checklist (available from the Department office and web site); and the Declaration of Major form (available from the Office of the Registrar). Although the format of the Plan for the Major is flexible, it should describe the student’s intentions and goals for the major, as well as a strategy for achieving those goals. The student and advisor should re-visit the Plan for the Major several times during the student’s work in the Department and revise it as appropriate.

The Department offers two types of majors, regular and concentration majors, described in detail below. The regular major is primarily a course of study within the discipline of English; the concentration majors are interdisciplinary.

Courses in which a student has earned a letter grade lower than a C- or P cannot be used to fulfill the requirements of the major or minor.

Standard Major

The regular major in English consists of at least nine full course equivalents (thirty-six credits) in English, including:

• two 200-level courses, including ENGL 299 Introduction to the Advanced Study of Literature;

• one course outside the English Department in a literature other than British, American, or Irish, which may be taught either in English or in another language (under normal circumstances such courses do not count toward the historical requirements or the diversity requirement for the English major);

• four courses at the 300 level;

• one course at any level; and

• a 400-level course – the Senior Tutorial, a Senior Seminar, or Honors in English. 

Distribution Requirements

In order to assure cultural breadth, English majors must take at least one course designated as American, one as British, and one as Diversity – a category that encompasses areas of traditionally under-represented cultures. Furthermore, English majors must take at least one course in each of the following historical periods: Pre-1700, 1700-1900, and Post-1900. An individual course may satisfy several requirements. The Senior Tutorial does not satisfy distribution requirements.

Distribution category designations are included as part of individual course descriptions for 200-level and advanced courses in the online catalog.

English majors are urged, but not required, to take at least one course in poetry and one in drama. 

Checklists for working out these requirements are available from the Department office (Rice 130) or on the website.

Concentration Majors

The English Department allows students to declare a major with a concentration which allows them to bring studies in other disciplines to bear on their work in English.  A concentration major is the regular English major with three courses outside the major, usually at the 200 level or above, in the area of the concentration for a total of twelve full courses.  The student must also designate three courses in the English Department that are related to the area of concentration.  The Department has supported concentration in such areas as Africana Studies, American Literature and Culture, Creative Writing, Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, Linguistics, Modern Culture and Media, The History of the Book, and Theater and Drama.  In consultation with their advisor and the Department Chair, majors may devise other concentrations to meet their particular interests.  The concentration major should be declared by the end of the student’s junior year.  Students who choose a concentration major have no guaranteed access to courses outside the English Department required for that major.

Minor

An English minor consists of at least five full course equivalents (twenty credits) in English, including:

• two courses at the 200 level;

• two courses at the 300 level;

• one course at any level.

In order to assure cultural breadth, English minors must take at least one course designated as Diversity – a category that encompasses areas of traditionally under-represented cultures – as well as at least one course in one of the following historical periods: Pre-1700 or 1700-1900. An individual course may satisfy several requirements.

Honors

Honors in English is an intensive year-long program that will also fulfill the requirement for a 400-level course for the major. The two-semester program will include supervised research with a faculty member, submission of a 35-page essay (or equivalent project), and an oral examination on that project. During the Fall semester, Honors students will meet in a seminar to discuss their projects and common issues in literary criticism and theory.  Successful work in the Honors Program will render a student eligible for consideration for Honors at graduation, but it does not guarantee such Honors.

Students hoping to do Honors are advised to complete the majority of their major requirements, including distribution requirements and any specific requirements for a concentration major, and to have done significant work at the advanced level (in 300-level courses) by the end of their junior year.

Qualified students may apply for the Honors program during the second semester of their junior year on the basis of their previous record in English. Students should confer with potential faculty supervisors to design a project proposal. Acceptance into the Honors program will be based on a minimum major GPA of at least 3.33, the availability of faculty supervisors, the coherence and feasibility of the proposal, and a strong writing sample. 

Transfer of Credit

No more than three full courses of transfer credit in English literature may be applied to the Oberlin English major. (Note: “English Literature” generally excludes basic composition, creative writing, and more than one course in literature not written in English.) To have transfer credit approval toward the major and/or toward meeting prerequisites for upper-level courses, students should consult the faculty member in charge of Transfer of Credit (inquire at the Department office), with relevant materials in hand.

Winter Term

Winter Term projects sponsored by English faculty will be offered according to the interests and availability of staff.

Composition Courses

Students interested in taking introductory-level courses in expository writing should see the “Rhetoric and Composition” section of this catalog. Descriptions of writing-oriented courses and procedures to be followed in order to meet the college-wide writing requirements may be found there.

First-Year Seminars

Although first-year seminars do not count toward the English major (which begins with classes at the 200 level), they are an excellent preparation for introductory literary study. For descriptions, please see “First-Year Seminar Program.”

• FYSP 066 - Jane Austen Then and Now
• FYSP 108 - The Uses of Literature
• FYSP 129 - Coming of Age in African Literature
• FYSP 134 - Crossing Borders: The Mysteries of Identity
• FYSP 136 - Ways of Seeing, Ways of Knowing
• FYSP 187 - Ars Moriendi: Death and the Art of Dying
• FYSP 193 - Beyond Disbelief: Can Literature Tell the Truth?

Courses Primarily for Non-Majors

The English Department offers several 100-level courses intended to serve a general audience interested in learning about literature from topical approaches.  Such courses do not normally qualify as Writing Intensive classes.

• ENGL 112 - One Hundred Poems
• ENGL 123 - Introduction to Shakespeare

200-Level Courses

Courses at the 200 level are designed for students interested in the discipline of literary study in English.  These courses focus on fundamental issues and methods of interpretation in critical reading and writing, substantial coverage of texts, and instruction in the conventions of genre, period, and region as appropriate.

Prerequisites: These courses are open to students who have completed any Writing Intensive course, or have gained Writing Certification in any course in the Humanities. They are also open to those who have achieved a 5 on the AP exam in English Language/Composition or English Literature/Composition; a score of 710 or better on the SAT II writing test; or a score of 6 or 7 on the International Baccalaureate (IB). Other students may be admitted by consent of the instructor, with the understanding that students should be able to demonstrate skills typically taught in Writing Intensive classes (e.g. writing, discussion, and textual analysis).

• ENGL 209 - Ovid in the Middle Ages
• ENGL 223 - Meaning and Being: Nature in 19th-Century American Narrative
• ENGL 227 - Romantic Revolutions
• ENGL 228 - Modern British and Irish Fiction
• ENGL 229 - The Poets’ Bible
• ENGL 238 - Contemporary American Fiction
• ENGL 242 - Asian American Literature at the Crossroads
• ENGL 243 - Promise and Peril: Race and Multicultural America
• ENGL 251 - Coquettes & Confidence Men in Early America
• ENGL 254 - 19th Century New York: Writing the Modern City
• ENGL 255 - In Search of America: The Concept of Nature in Early American Literature
• ENGL 258 - August Wilson: The Century Cycle
• ENGL 260 - Black Humor and Irony: Modern Literary Experiments
• ENGL 265 - Anglophone Postcolonial Literatures
• ENGL 275 - Introduction to Comparative Literature
• ENGL 277 - American Drama
• ENGL 282 - Shifting Scenes: Drama Survey
• ENGL 290 - Shakespearean Comedy

Required Course for the Major in English

Intended to prepare students for the English major and advanced work in literary study, this course is required by English majors.  Students who are interested in majoring in English should take this course by the end of their sophomore year and before they declare the English major.

Prerequisite: See headnote for 200-Level Courses (above).

• ENGL 299 - Introduction to the Advanced Study of Literature

Advanced Courses

Courses at the 300 level are designed to broaden students’ experience of literature in English while also deepening the study of the discipline through focused reading of texts, criticism, literary history and theory.

Prerequisites: ENGL 299 or two 200-level courses or consent of instructor.

• ENGL 301 - Chaucer
• ENGL 304 - Shakespeare and Metamorphosis
• ENGL 309 - The Poetry of Love and Seduction in the Renaissance
• ENGL 312 - Milton
• ENGL 320 - From Frankenstein to Dracula: At the Margins of 19th-Century Britain
• ENGL 323 - Six Poets: 1855-1955
• ENGL 343 - American Gothic
• ENGL 353 - US Literature 1825-65: “To Write Like an American?”
• ENGL 357 - Inventing America: Histories of the Book, Archive, and Empire
• ENGL 360 - Globalization and Diaspora
• ENGL 363 - Gaines, Morrison, Wideman: Textualizing Orality and Literacy
• ENGL 366 - Nature and Transcendentalism
• ENGL 370 - Seminar: Itineraries of Postmodernism
• ENGL 372 - Contemporary Literary Theory: Post-Modernity and Imagination
• ENGL 375 - Realism, 1800 to the Present: The Mirror Up to Nature
• ENGL 378 - Contemporary British and Irish Drama
• ENGL 379 - Welfare Queens and Tiger Moms: Narratives of the Maternal
• ENGL 385 - Women in/and “Bollywood”
• ENGL 393 - Selected Authors: James Joyce and Virginia Woolf
• ENGL 399 - Teaching & Tutoring Writing Across the Disciplines

Senior Tutorials and Seminars

Senior Tutorials and Senior Seminars are designed primarily for English majors, and fulfill the 400-level requirement for the English major. Rising senior English majors should apply for tutorials and seminars through a common application available at the Department office, not through individual instructors. Some places in seminars may be available for other qualified students after all English majors have been accommodated, by application to the Department.

Prerequisite: Admission based on a completed application form (available at the Department office, Rice 130).

• ENGL 400 - Senior Tutorial
• ENGL 448 - Senior Seminar: Words and Things

Honors and Private Readings

Honors in English is only open to students who have been admitted through the application process.  Private Readings are available to students who have completed introductory coursework in the Department.

• ENGL 995F - Private Reading - Full
• ENGL 995H - Private Reading - Half

London Program

Frequently an English Department faculty member serves as co-director of the Danenberg Oberlin-in-London Program, thereby facilitating applications for English majors interested in that semester’s program. For further information, see the section of the catalog entitled ‘London Program.’

• LOND 908 - The London Stage