SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

English Curriculum

Course Descriptions

Course Sampler

A minimum of 121 credits is needed to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. A minimum of 125 credits is needed to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Students must earn a grade of C or better in each 300- and 400-level course in the major field.

Students must schedule a First Year Seminar during their first semester and Rhetoric and Composition during their first year. Beyond that, a student and an adviser work together to meet General Education, college, and major requirements in communication, natural science, math, health and physical education, art, humanities, foreign language, and social and behavioral sciences.

Both degrees require additional elective and supporting courses to be drawn from three areas: The Canon and its Critics, Cultural Studies, and Globality and Literature. Creative Writing students also participate in writing workshops for credit.

Selected Course Descriptions

ELISH 002: Literary Magazine Practicum. A practicum in the editing and publishing of the student literary magazine Lake Effect.

ELISH 130 (GH): Reading Popular Texts. Popular texts (printed, visual, and aural texts) and their social, political, and cultural significance in the contemporary world.

ELISH 201: Creative Writing. An introductory course in creative writing for students interested in a variety of genres.

ELISH 300: The Canon and Its Critics. History and formation of literary canon, and challenges to canon ideology by writers and critics, through readings in English and American literature.

ELISH 301: Globality and Literature. An examination of the relationships between literature and culture, through the study of major literary texts written in English by writers of various cultures.

ELISH 401: Advanced Creative Writing. An advanced course in creative writing for students interested in a variety of genres.

ELISH 420: Nonfiction Workshop. Advanced work in nonfiction through workshop.

ELISH 426: Advanced Fiction Writing. Advanced workshop in fiction writing.

ELISH 427: Advanced Poetry Writing. Advanced poetry writing, including prose poems; regular writing and revising of poetry.

ELISH 429W: Fiction Workshop. Advanced work in fiction writing through workshop and revision.

ELISH 430: Advanced Poetry Workshop. Advanced workshop exercises leading to a chapbook; practice in metrical forms; discussion of schools, movements, themes; research on poet or issue.

ELISH 434: The American Renaissance. Studies in the works and interrelationships of writers such as Emerson, Hawthorne, Poe, Thoreau, Whitman, and Dickinson.

ELISH 440: The American Novel to 1900. Studies in the works of such writers as Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, James, Crane, and others.

ELISH 442: The American Novel: 1900-1945. Studies in the works of such writers as Dreiser, Cather, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Barnes, Faulkner, and others.

ELISH 448: Shakespeare. Advanced comparative study of the writing of William Shakespeare, with emphasis on his recurring forms, themes, structure, and imagery.

ELISH 461: Romanticism. Readings in major authors, primarily British and American, who can be defined as "Romantic," including British romantics and American transcendentalists.

ELISH 482W: Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory. Introduction to some of the major works in the evolving canon of contemporary literary and cultural theory, and the application of contemporary literary and cultural theory to both "high" and "popular" works of literature.

ELISH 484W: Creative Writing Theory. Theories of art and creativity which inform the making of literary works.

ELISH 485 (GI): The World Novel in English. Studies in the novel, written in English, by writers outside of the United States and Great Britain.

ELISH 487(GI): Women Poets. Study of major writings by women poets.

ELISH 488: American Fiction Since 1945. Studies in the fiction of such writers as Barth, Bellow, Carver, Erdrich, Morrison, O'Brien, O'Connor, Walker, and others.

ELISH 489: Literary Modernism in English. Survey of literary modernism in English as seen in the work of Eliot, Joyce, Pound, and Stein.

ELISH 492: James Joyce. Analysis of principal works and their background.

ELISH 494A: Senior Thesis in English. Senior English (ELISH) majors write a thesis arranged with in-charge person and submit it to a faculty committee for appraisal.

For additional course descriptions, go to http://www.psu.edu/bulletins/bluebook/$crmenu.htm

 


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Updated July 26, 2007
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