Half of the twelve courses you'll take as a major will constitute the "core" of your study of English. We strongly advise majors to begin by taking a few core courses before mixing in more advanced seminars. Doing so is the best way to find out whether you wish to do advanced work within a specific historical period or kind of literature.

While the respective cores for the Standard English Major and the tracks emphasizing Creative Writing and Cinema Studies differ from one another slightly, they all function in essence the same way. For all versions of the English major, the core consists of six distributional sectors, as follows:

 

• Sector 1: Theory and/or Poetics, because we want all majors to take at least one course in those essentials of literary study, critical theory and poetry and poetics.

   

• Sector 2: Difference and Diasporas, because we want all English majors to take at least one course concentrating on the great diversity of literary experience: linguistic, ethnic, gendered, geographical, socioeconomic, historical, sexual.  The sector thus encompasses a wide range of courses, including those on the history of the English language and on its many variant forms, on Ethnic and Diasporic literatures, on Anglo-Saxon and Medieval cultures, and on Gender and Sexuality.
  

   

• Sector 3: Early Literatures to 1660, for early historical coverage of the amazingly rich body of writing that constitutes Medieval and Renaissance literature and culture.

   

• Sector 4: Literature of the long 18th century (1640-1830), to insure at least one course that covers this age of civil war, enlightenment, and revolution.

   

• Sector 5: Literature of the 19th century, to insure coverage of this essential century of social reform, literacy, political conflict, and popular culture.

   

• Sector 6: Literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, to follow the historical sweep of literature in English through the recent past and down to the present day.

Note: For most sectors, students should take intermediate-level surveys (English 017-096) to insure they receive broad coverage and a solid foundation. For up to two sectors, however, they may substitute an advanced 200-level or 300-level seminar, so long as it ends in the same two numbers. Thus, for Sector 3, a student could elect to take English 320 instead of English 020. BFS students may substitute advanced seminars for up to four sectors.

Second Note: Since students will have at least seven courses from which to choose to complete a given sector, we will not make exceptions for the sector requirements. You must take one of the eligible courses to fulfill a given sector.

To see which courses satisfy a given sector, please see the templates for the Standard English Major, the English Major emphasizing Creative Writing. and the English Major emphasizing Cinema Studies.