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Jun 24, 2025
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[PRELIMINARY] Course Catalog 2025-2026
English Major
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The major consists of a minimum of 11 full courses (or the equivalent) and language competency.
Note: Students must earn minimum grades of C- or P for all courses that apply toward the major.
View the catalog page for the English department.
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, media, editing and publishing, law, theater, etc.) and those who want a humanistic base in reading, thinking, and writing for a liberal arts education without established career plans. The English major has proven to be valuable training—in attentiveness, complex thinking, interaction, communication—for virtually all professions. Many students realize that English is a complementary second major, given that it aims to educate a person broadly, rather than train for a specific path.
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Note(s) on Requirements
- Students must complete a minimum of eight courses with the ENGL prefix (including courses with a different prefix that are cross-listed with an ENGL course). That is, a maximum of three literature and critical studies courses outside of ENGL are allowed.
- In lieu of taking courses outside of English, students can complete additional 200-level, 300-level, and/or 400-level English courses to meet the minimum number of courses required for the major.
- A maximum of one 100-level ENGL course may count toward the 11 full courses required for the major, but is not required.
- FYSP courses do not apply to the major.
- Application for a 400-level course will be required of rising seniors in the second semester of the junior year.
Declaring the Major
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, including a brief narrative explaining the student’s motivations and goals; and
- the declaration of major form (available from the AARC/Registrar’s Office).
These plans are important and will be revisited and revised across the student’s career at Oberlin. There is not a single English major sequence. Instead, students, in consultation with their advisors and other faculty, are asked to co-create a customized track through the major. The plan will be updated regularly, giving the student a chance to articulate choices, goals, and to refine both over time. Transfer of Credit Toward the Major
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. Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Credit
AP/IB transfer credit received for ENGL 600 does not count toward the English major. Course of Study
The department offers a flexible major that can be customized to student interest, within certain limits of course type and level. Students interested in graduate work in English should consult with their advisors about crafting a pathway to that goal. Honors in English
The Honors Program 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 may 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 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. Detailed Major Requirements
English Major Course Lists
200-Level Courses
Return to the summary of requirements. - AAST 263 - Black English and Voice: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 263
- CAST 242 - Asian American Literature at the Crossroads ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 242
- CAST 279 - Imagining Borders ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 279
- CIME 290 - What is Cinema? ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 291
- CLAS 222 - Ovid in the Middle Ages ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 222, ENGL 209
- CMPL 200 - Introduction to Comparative Literature ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 275
- CMPL 265 - Anglophone Postcolonial Literatures ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 265
- CMPL 287 - ”Bollywood“‘s India: An Introduction to Indian Cinema ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 287
- ENGL 201 - Rethinking Gender in American Literature
- ENGL 202 - Lyric Poetry
- ENGL 203 - Early British Literature: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton
- ENGL 204 - Comically Serious: Graphic Novels and the Art of Storytelling
- ENGL 205 - The Environment and American Fiction
- ENGL 206 - Shakespearean Tragedy
- ENGL 208 - Diaspora Stories
- ENGL 209 - Ovid in the Middle Ages ⇒ cross-listed with CLAS 222, CMPL 222
- ENGL 210 - (Imagined) African American Geographies
- ENGL 211 - Black Cleveland in Migration (Narrative)
- ENGL 213 - Modernism and the Manifesto
- ENGL 215 - Thinking with Renaissance Literature
- ENGL 216 - Art, War, and Abstraction
- ENGL 217 - Transgender Literature: Transition, Narrative, and Desire ⇒ cross-listed with CAST 217, GSFS 217
- ENGL 218 - Shakespeare and the Limits of Genre
- ENGL 219 - Person and Impersonation
- ENGL 223 - Meaning and Being
- ENGL 227 - Jane Austen and Company: Romantic Revolutions
- ENGL 229 - The Poets’ Bible
- ENGL 234 - The Postcolonial Novel
- ENGL 238 - Contemporary American Fiction
- ENGL 242 - Asian American Literature at the Crossroads ⇒ cross-listed with CAST 242
- ENGL 243 - Promise and Peril: Race and Multicultural America
- ENGL 246 - Comparative Global South Literatures
- ENGL 253 - Pens and Needles: Gender and Media in Early America ⇒ cross-listed with GSFS 253
- ENGL 258 - August Wilson: The Century Cycle
- ENGL 260 - Black Humor and Irony: Modern Literary Experiments
- ENGL 261 - Constructing the Subject: African American Women and Auto/Biography
- ENGL 263 - Black English and Voice: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics ⇒ cross-listed with AAST 263
- ENGL 265 - Anglophone Postcolonial Literatures ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 265
- ENGL 267 - Ethnic Experiments
- ENGL 275 - Introduction to Comparative Literature ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 200
- ENGL 279 - Imagining Borders ⇒ cross-listed with CAST 279
- ENGL 287 - ”Bollywood“‘s India: An Introduction to Indian Cinema ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 287
- ENGL 289 - Shakespeare in Italy
- ENGL 290 - Shakespearean Comedy
- ENGL 291 - What is Cinema? ⇒ cross-listed with CIME 290
- ENGL 292 - Shakespeare and Social Justice
- ENGL 293 - Acquired Taste: Literature and Colonial American Foodways
- ENGL 299 - What is Literature: Introduction to the Advanced Study of Literature
- GSFS 217 - Transgender Literature: Transition, Narrative, and Desire ⇒ cross-listed with CAST 217, ENGL 217
- GSFS 253 - Pens and Needles: Gender and Media in Early America ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 253
300-Level Courses
Return to the summary of requirements. - CIME 307 - American Cinema in the 1970’s ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 307
- CIME 325 - Imagining Immanence ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 322
- CIME 360 - Strange Cinema ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 361
- CIME 372 - Contemporary Literary Theory: Post-Modernity and Imagination ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 372, ENGL 372
- CIME 375 - Realism, 1800 to the Present: The Mirror Up to Nature ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 376, ENGL 375
- CIME 381 - Hopeful Monsters: (Mixed-)Media Studies ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 381
- CMPL 304 - Shakespeare and Metamorphosis ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 304
- CMPL 306 - Literature and the Scientific Revolution ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 306
- CMPL 308 - Visuality, Materiality, and Renaissance Literature ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 308
- CMPL 319 - Films of the Global Diaspora ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 319
- CMPL 372 - Contemporary Literary Theory: Post-Modernity and Imagination ⇒ cross-listed with CIME 372, ENGL 372
- CMPL 376 - Realism, 1800 to the Present: The Mirror Up to Nature ⇒ cross-listed with CIME 375, ENGL 375
- CMPL 377 - Migrant Subjects and the Postcolonial Novel ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 376
- CRWR 332 - Song and Book
- ENGL 300 - A Queer Self-Assembly
- ENGL 301 - Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
- ENGL 302 - The Wild West, the New West, and the Weird West
- ENGL 303 - Wonder and Invention in the Renaissance
- ENGL 304 - Shakespeare and Metamorphosis ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 304
- ENGL 305 - James Joyce
- ENGL 306 - Literature and the Scientific Revolution ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 306
- ENGL 307 - American Cinema in the 1970’s ⇒ cross-listed with CIME 307
- ENGL 308 - Visuality, Materiality, and Renaissance Literature ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 308
- ENGL 309 - The Poetry of Love and Seduction in the Renaissance
- ENGL 310 - Medieval European Literature: From Virgil to Dante
- ENGL 317 - Postapocalyptic Pacific Rim
- ENGL 318 - From Don Quixote to Persepolis: History of the Novel
- ENGL 319 - Films of the Global Diaspora ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 319
- ENGL 320 - From Frankenstein to Dracula: At the Margins of 19th-Century Britain
- ENGL 322 - Imagining Immanence ⇒ cross-listed with CIME 325
- ENGL 323 - Six Poets
- ENGL 324 - Six Poets: 1945-Present
- ENGL 329 - Louise Erdrich
- ENGL 330 - Modernist Chicago: Urban Literature and Sociology
- ENGL 332 - Song and Book
- ENGL 333 - Just Sayin’: The African American Essay
- ENGL 343 - American Gothic
- ENGL 360 - The End: Globalization and Literature
- ENGL 361 - Strange Cinema ⇒ cross-listed with CIME 360
- ENGL 363 - Gaines, Morrison, Wideman: Textualizing Orality and Literacy
- ENGL 372 - Contemporary Literary Theory: Post-Modernity and Imagination ⇒ cross-listed with CIME 372, CMPL 372
- ENGL 375 - Realism, 1800 to the Present: The Mirror Up to Nature ⇒ cross-listed with CIME 375, CMPL 376
- ENGL 376 - Migrant Subjects and the Postcolonial Novel ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 377
- ENGL 377 - Migrants and Postcolonial Novels
- ENGL 379 - Welfare Queens and Tiger Moms: Narratives of the Maternal
- ENGL 381 - Hopeful Monsters: (Mixed-)Media Studies ⇒ cross-listed with CIME 381
- ENGL 399 - Teaching and Tutoring Writing Across the Disciplines ⇒ cross-listed with WRCM 401
- LOND 907 - A History of London
- LOND 908 - The London Stage
- THEA 316 - Modern Drama II: Brecht to Pinter ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 328
- THEA 348 - Modern Drama I: Ibsen to Pirandello ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 348
- THEA 349 - Contemporary Drama: 1980 to the Present ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 349
- WRCM 401 - Teaching and Tutoring Writing Across the Disciplines ⇒ cross-listed with ENGL 399
Hispanic Studies Courses
Return to the top of the list of outside courses. - HISP 306 - Introduction to Literary Analysis
- HISP 309 - Concoctions, Poisons, and Spells: Making Life Livable in Early Modern Spain
- HISP 310 - The Struggle for Modernity
- HISP 313 - Advanced Conversation and Communication in Spanish
- HISP 315 - Crossing the Line: Early Modern Spain and Spanish America
- HISP 317 - Beyond a World of Wonders: Questioning Narratives of the Conquest
- HISP 318 - Survey of Latin American Literature II - La ciudad
- HISP 319 - Grandes Novelas Chicas: The Latin American Novella
- HISP 325 - Caos y Destrucción: Literatura Transatlántica de Ciencia Ficción
- HISP 327 - Surrealism Narrative from Center to Margins ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 327
- HISP 335 - Melodrama and Cultural Anxiety in Latin America
- HISP 337 - Cien Años de Soledad
- HISP 341 - Inquisitorial Practices: Heretics, Torture & Fear
- HISP 359 - Mexican-U.S. American Border Stories
- HISP 365 - Love and Death: Jewish Literature and Culture of the Americas ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 365, JWST 365
- HISP 416 - Constructs of Machismo and Marianismo in the Mexican Literary Canon
- HISP 417 - Saints, Sinners and Other Cursed Women
- HISP 419 - Big Old Funny Books: Cervantes, Rabelais, Sterne ⇒ cross-listed with CMPL 419
- HISP 421 - Julio Cortázar’s Rayuela
- HISP 439 - Spread the Word: Letters, Newspapers and Pasquines
- HISP 445 - Crime, Sex, and Ghosts of the Past: Contemporary Spanish Fiction and Film
- HISP 458 - Borges to Cortázar: Fantasy and Violence in Argentine Literature 1930-1955
- HISP 461 - Wild Laboratories: Political Experiments in 19th Century Latin America
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