The English Department offers studies in literature, linguistics (language studies), and rhetoric. The department serves all undergraduate students in two L.A.P.-required courses designed to develop their skills in writing, reading and the analysis of literature and other discourses. English majors and minors take courses in three areas of competence?language, literature, and composition/writing?to prepare them to participate in a variety of discursive contexts as writers, teachers and graduate scholars. Majors may choose an emphasis in one of these three areas; regardless of emphasis, they are required to take a Senior Seminar (ENG 400) in literature or linguistics that introduces them to advanced studies in the field of English.
The Mission of the English Department
Like Hastings College as a whole, the English Department is committed to high academic standards and provides an environment which helps students
- to think critically and express themselves clearly and intelligently as a result of the reading, writing, lectures, and discussion in their English courses;
- acquire a knowledge and understanding of the history and cultural achievements (and mistakes) of humanity, as well as a sense of values reflected in a responsibility toward God and society through the literature they read, the discussions they participate in, and the lectures they hear in their English courses;
- to gain respect and appreciation for the achievements, mistakes, and identities of human beings both like and unlike themselves by reading literature from the ancients to the contemporary;
- to use this knowledge and these skills in critical thinking, reading, and writing in preparation for a life of creativity, curiosity, and change.
All English courses numbered 300 and above may be taken for graduate credit. Courses numbered 300-399 should be enrolled as 500-599; courses numbered 400-499 should be enrolled as 600-699, if graduate credit is desired.
Major with an emphasis in literature (35-36 hours) including 200, 301, 302, 303, 344, 383, 400, and one of the following: 231, 272/372, 364, or 365. 100 level ENG courses and ENG 420 do not apply to the major.
Major with an emphasis in writing (34-36 hours), including 200, 301, 302, 303, 383, 400, two of the following: ENG 384, 385, 387, or THR 387, and one of the following: 231, 272/372, 364, or 365. 100 level ENG courses and ENG 420 do not apply to the major.
Major with an emphasis in language and linguistics (35-36 hours), including 200, 231, 301, 302, 303, 364, 365, 400, and one of the following: 272/372, 366 or 367. 100 level ENG courses and ENG 420 do not apply to the major.
7-12 English Subject Endorsement (35-36 hours in addition to Professional Education Requirements), including 200, 301, 302, 303, 354, 364, 383, 400, and one of the following: 231, 272/372, or 365. ENG 420 is required, but does not count towards the 35/36-hour requirement. Students are strongly encouraged to take additional literature courses.
7-12 English Language Arts Field Endorsement (67-68 hours in addition to Professional Education Requirements), including all the courses required for the English Subject Endorsement, as well as ED 410 (2 hours): CMA 100 (and 100L); JRN 100, 230, 240, 250 or 260, and 420; 6 hours of Communication chosen from COM 100, 201, 211, 241, 304 and 314; and 9 hours of Theatre Arts, including two courses,THR 221 and 234, and including one course chosen from THR 302, 305, and 306. Students are strongly encouraged to take additional courses in the Language Arts Field Endorsement areas.
Minor for students majoring in another discipline and desiring a concentration in English: 5 courses (19-20 hours), with no more than one at the 100-level, 4 at the 200-level or above. ENG courses 100 and 410 do not apply towards the minor.
ENG 100 Composition — 4 hours
Expository and critical writing related to reading and class discussion. Different emphases. (Every semester)
ENG 110 Introduction to Literature — 4 hours
Analysis of poetry, fiction and drama. Emphases on literary themes and genres. (Every semester)
ENG 120 Modern Short Fiction — 4 hours
Reading and discussion of short stories of the 20th and 21st centuries. (As needed)
ENG 200 Literature of the Western World — 4 hours
European literature in translation from Ancient Greece to 1800, including epic, drama and fiction. (Every semester)
ENG 220 Contemporary Poetry — 4 hours
Survey and analysis of modern and contemporary poetry in English. Varying emphases. (Offered infrequently)
ENG 226 Contemporary Fiction — 4 hours
Survey and analysis of modern fiction in English. Varying emphases. (Fall or spring semester, as needed)
ENG 231 Introduction to Language and Linguistics — 4 hours
General survey of the principles of linguistics and the nature of language as a structured system of human communication. (Spring semester, odd-numbered years)
ENG 252/352 Literature and the Film — 3 hours
Analysis of literary texts (short stories, novels, plays) and films related to these texts. Offered during interim with varying topics, such as the detective story (Most interims).
ENG 253 Film and Literature — 4 hours
Emphasis on film theory and analysis of literary texts (short stories, novels, plays) and films related to these texts. Offered during interim with varying topics (Offered infrequently).
ENG 256 Literature of Fantasy — 4 hours
Classic fairy tales and selections from ancient, medieval and modern literature that departs from reality into fantasy. (Fall or spring semester, as needed)
ENG 272/372 North American English Dialects — 3 hours
An introduction to variation in American English from regional and social perspectives. (Most Interims)
ENG 301 Survey of British Literature 731-1700 — 4 hours
From the beginning of English literature to Milton. Emphasis on Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton. (Every fall semester)
ENG 302 Survey of British Literature 1700-present — 4 hours
From the Enlightenment in British literature to late 20th century, including Pope, Fielding, Austen, the Brontës, Wilde, Woolf, T.S. Eliot, and varying contemporary British writers. (Spring semester, as needed)
ENG 303 Survey of United States Literature — 4 hours
From colonial times to 1900, including Franklin, Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, Dickinson, Whitman and Twain. (Every spring semester)
ENG 305 Religion and Literature — 4 hours
(See REL 305)
ENG 307 Literature by Women — 4 hours
Analysis of women?s writings in several genres that pays attention to women?s shared experiences and to the diversity of their experience. Varying emphases, but usually with a focus on 20th-century women writers. (Fall or spring semester, as needed)
ENG 311 The Bible as Literature — 4 hours
A close reading of the major books of the Old and New Testaments with special attention to their literary qualities. (Spring semester, as needed) (Also listed as REL 311)
ENG 313 Shakespeare — 4 hours
Study and analysis of selected Shakespearean comedies, histories, and tragedies, often with an emphasis on film adaptations. (Spring semester, as needed)
ENG 314 18th-Century British Literature — 4 hours
The major poetry, drama and prose, including both essays and fiction. Varying emphases and writers from Pope and Swift to Wollstonecraft and Blake. (Spring semester, as needed)
ENG 315 19th-Century British Literature — 4 hours
The major poetry and prose of the Romantic and Victorian Eras. Varying emphases on poets such as Wordsworth, Byron, Keats, Tennyson, and Rossetti, and novelists such as Dickens, the Brontës, Thackeray, Eliot, Trollope, Hardy. (Spring semester, as needed)
ENG 316 20th-Century British and United States Literature — 4 hours
Shorts stories, novels, and poetry by such writers as Lawrence, Woolf, Joyce, Yeats, Thomas, Fowles, Dreiser, Cather, Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Updike and Bellow. Varying emphases and writers. (Fall or Spring semester, as needed)
ENG 324 The British Novel — 4 hours
Selected British novels from Defoe in the early 18th century to Hardy in the late 19th. Varying emphases and novels. (Spring semester, as needed)
ENG 325 Irish Literature — 4 hours
Selected topics in the history of Irish literature from the medieval period through the 20th century. (Fall or spring semester, as needed)
ENG 334 19th-Century United States Fiction — 4 hours
Short stories and novels by Irving, Cooper, Melville, Hawthorne, Douglass, Twain, James, Chopin and others. Varying emphases and writers. (Fall semester, as needed)
ENG 344 Writing Literary Criticism — 4 hours
Selected reading of major critical texts from Aristotle to the present. Practice in applying the principles of literary criticism to writing about literary texts. (Every fall semester)
ENG 346 Philosophy and Literature — 4 hours
(See PHL 346)
ENG 354 Literature of the North American Minorities — 4 hours
Including 20th-century literature of African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, and of minorities with diverse religious backgrounds and sexual orientations. Varying emphases and writers. (Every fall semester)
ENG 364 The Structure of English — 4 hours
A systematic investigation of English syntax, not necessarily confined to any one particular theory or approach. Emphasis on how the language is put together and how it works. (Every fall semester)
ENG 365 History of the English Language — 4 hours
Origins and development of the English language from Indo-European to the present. (Spring semester, even-numbered years)
ENG 366 Introduction to Old English — 4 hours
Grammar basics, historical contexts and translation of literary texts. (As needed)
ENG 367 Introduction to Middle English — 4 hours
Grammar basics, historical context and translation of literary texts. (As needed)
ENG 383 Advanced Composition — 4 hours
Development of writing skills, using principles from contemporary rhetoric. Prerequisite: Junior or Senior standing. (Every spring)
ENG 384 Creative Writing: Fiction — 4 hours
Instruction and practice in fiction writing, including the short story, novelette, and one-act play. (Fall semester, alternate years)
ENG 385 Creative Writing: Poetry — 4 hours
Instruction and practice in poetry writing, including lyric, narrative and dramatic forms of poetry. (Spring semester, alternate years)
ENG 387 Creative Writing: Nonfiction — 4 hours
Instruction and practice in writing creative nonfiction, with varying emphases on memoir, biography, and the essay. (Fall or spring semester, as needed)
ENG 400 Senior Seminar — 4 hours
Capstone course for all English majors, with a substantial research and writing requirement. Intensive study of a literary theme, writer or period, or of a topic in linguistics. Examples: Plains Literature; California Literature; Medieval Celtic Literature; Arthurian Literature; The Gothic Tradition; Jane Austen; George Eliot and Thomas Hardy; F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway; Barbara Pym; Wallace Stevens; Dark Satanic Mills: Literature and the Industrial Revolution; Women in 19th Century Literature; Literature of Modernism; Literature of American Women Minorities; Properties of Human Language. Senior English majors and graduate students, juniors and non-majors by permission. Limited to 15 students. (Every spring semester)
ENG 410 Studies in Linguistics — 3 hours
A topics seminar in linguistics for upper-division students (As needed).
ENG 420 Teaching English: Methods-Measurements — 3-4 hours
Emphasis on modern approaches to teaching literature, language, composition, and reading. (Spring semester)
