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Table of Contents Academic Life Academic Regulations The Academic Programs International and Off-Campus Studies Special Programs Admissions and Financial Aid Life Outside the Classroom People Facts and Figures College Calendar |
English http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/english/ Chair, 2000-01: Jonathan E. Hill, 19th-century British literature Faculty, 2000-01: Jan Allister, writing, journalism; Mark Allister, American literature, American studies, writing; Gene Bauer, English-as-a-second language; Richard C. Buckstead, American literature, Asian literature; Karen Cherewatuk, Anglo Saxon, Medieval literature; John T. Day, Renaissance literature; Richard DuRocher, Renaissance literature, Milton; Olivia Ayres Frey, writing, Victorian literature, education; Joan Hepburn, African American literature, drama; James Heynen, creative writing; Carol Holly, American literature; Joseph Mbele, post-Colonial literature; J. Eric Nelson, 20th-century British and American literature; Diana Postlethwaite, 19th-century British literature; Karen Sawyer, Medieval literature; Mary Steen, writing; Mary Titus, American literature; David Wee, 19th-century British literature; Colin Wells, 18th-century British and American literature English courses explore the power of language to reflect and to shape human experience. Here students can indulge their love of reading and their appreciation of language, develop their critical skills, and even discover and explore their own creative power. The study of literature at St. Olaf crosses and connects national boundaries, historical periods, cultures, and genres. For example, students might read Shakespeare's British drama The Tempest, Polish-born Joseph Conrad's modernist odyssey Heart of Darkness, Nigerian Chinua Achebe's tragedy Things Fall Apart, and African American Toni Morrison's contemporary novel Song of Solomon. Students read, discuss, reflect on, and write about these writers and others, as they shape their own values and prepare to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives. English Department courses count not only towards the major, but toward general education requirements in literary studies, multicultural studies, historical studies, and oral communications. Some courses also contribute to concentrations in Medieval Studies, American Studies, American Racial and Multicultural Studies, and Women's Studies. Within the department, students can pursue an interest in creative writing or teaching English at a secondary school level. English majors find their skills in reading, writing, and speaking useful in a wide variety of future careers. OVERVIEW OF THE MAJOR In contrast to majors that cover only British and American literature, the English Department at St. Olaf places colonial and post-colonial writers from various countries and eras in conversation with influential British and American voices. All majors complete the same four core courses: English 185, 221, 222, and 223. These courses give majors a common experience, enhance their skills in reading, writing, and interpreting literature, and orient them to this new trans-national conception of literatures in English. Beyond the required core courses, in four or more elective courses, students pursue their own interests in individual authors, genres, particular historical periods, topics, and creative writing. In the Major Seminar, students undertake a project of their own design. GENERAL EDUCATION The English Department -- through its faculty and courses -- actively participates in the general education program. All faculty teach First-Year Writing. Level II courses in literature -- listed below under Electives -- are designed with the college's literary studies requirement in mind. Most English offerings -- in both literature and in writing -- provide sustained practice in writing and speaking. PREREQUISITES General Education 111 or its equivalent is a prerequisite for all other courses in the department except English 107, 110, and some Level I Interim courses. While a few courses have additional prerequisites, most Level I and Level II courses are open to all -- majors and non-majors alike -- after General Education 111. Level III courses (numbered 300 or higher) are primarily for English majors and ordinarily build upon prior work. All Level III courses require as a prerequisite English 185 and at least one Level II course in an area of relevant background as confirmed by the instructor or the department. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MAJORS Requirements for the Graduation Major Nine courses beyond General Education 111 or equivalent, including English 185; 221, 222, and 223; 399; four electives (one of which must be at Level III). Supplementary courses in classics, history, philosophy and modern foreign languages are recommended for all majors. Requirements for the Communication Arts/Literature (CAL) Teaching Licensure with an Emphasis in Literature Eight courses beyond General Education 111 or equivalent, including English 185; 221, 222 and 223; 251 or 257; 274, 399 and one English literature elective. Plus four Communication and Theater courses: 100, 120, 140 or 240, and 160 or 260; plus the requirements in professional education, including Education 345. (Consult the CAL Licensure Adviser.) Requirements for the Communication Arts/Literature (CAL) Teaching Licensure with an Emphasis in Communication Arts Four courses beyond General Education 111 or equivalent, uncluding English 185; 251 or 257; 274 and one English literature elective. Plus eight Communication and Theater courses: 100, 120, 140 or 240, 160 or 260, 200, 280 or 384, 389, and one elective. Students must also complete the requirements in profession education. (Consult the CAL Licensure Adviser.) DISTINCTION The English Department awards distinction on the basis of a student's overall record in the department and on the quality of a written project submitted by the candidate in his or her senior year. The written project can be either a critical essay of no more than 25 pages or a creative work whose length is determined by the writer. To be eligible to be a candidate for departmental distinction, a student must have completed a minimum of seven graded English courses (beyond GE 111 or its equivalent) whose combined GPA is no lower than 3.5. Students must apply at the beginning of either the Fall Semester or the Spring Semester of their senior year. Information about the procedures followed in conferring distinction is available in the English Department. Students interested in distinction should seek out a supervisor in the English Department before applying. SPECIAL PROGRAMS Special programs include semester and full-year study in England at Oxford, Lancaster, and East Anglia; study in Scotland at Aberdeen; semester and full-year study in Ireland at Trinity College, University College Dublin, and University College Galway; interim study in the Caribbean and in Ireland; semester and interim study at the Newberry Library in Chicago; Urban Teaching semester in Chicago; Interim theater study in London; internships in writing. (See the Index for further information.) RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GRADUATE AND PROFFESIONAL STUDY Students planning on graduate study in English should take the graduation major and additional courses for a total not to exceed 14. Specific programs should be planned with the student's academic adviser. At least two foreign languages should be included, one of which should be French or German. In recent years, many English majors have been accepted for graduate study in literature (at Berkeley, Chicago, Princeton, Toronto, Minnesota, Washington, Wisconsin) and in writing (at Boston University, George Mason, Iowa, and Virginia). COURSES GENERAL 107 Introduction to Academic Writing This course is intended primarily for second language students to develop English skills required for college level work through an emphasis on composition and the writing process. Other language skills are dealt with as appropriate, in class and through individualized instruction. May not be substituted for General Education 111. Fall Semester only. P/N only. 110 Critical Skills in Composition Students write frequently, respond to one another's writing, and meet often with instructors in conferences. Emphasis is on students learning about the writing process and revision. The course is required of those students placed into it; it may not be substituted for General Education 111. Fall Semester only. INTRODUCTORY Students encounter a selection of literature from many different English-speaking countries. The course offers an introduction to the analysis and interpretation of a variety of literary genres. The writing can include both formal and creative assignments. The course is required of those beginning the English major. It is not recommended for general education students. GE: ALS-L, ORC. CORE HISTORICAL SEQUENCE This sequence of three courses orients majors to literature in English from the Anglo-Saxon period, through the medieval and modern periods, and down to the present day in England, America and around the world. 221 Literatures in English to 1650 Students explore poetry and prose from the earliest periods in the development of the English language and literature -- by Caedmon, the Beowulf poet, Chaucer, Julian of Norwich, Malory, Spenser, Shakespeare, Lady Mary Wroth, Donne, Milton -- and investigate how literary conventions and social history interact. From sermons to sonnets, students examine 1000 years of literary history and ultimately follow the voyage of English from Britain to the Americas. Prerequisite: Prior or simultaneous study in English 185. 222 Literatures in English 1650 to 1850 Students study literary developments from the mid-17th to the mid-19th centuries and explore the exchange of ideas between Great Britain and colonial America. Topics examined include the influence of the Puritan Revolution on literature; satiric modes practiced by Dryden, Pope, and Swift; the rise of the novel; the Romantic movement; Transcendentalism; the development of American identity as seen in writers such as Franklin, Fuller, and Douglass. Prerequisite: English 221. 223 Literatures in English 1850 to the Present Beginning with Victoria's reign in Britain and the American Civil War, students trace the evolution of the modern world through authors as diverse as Walt Whitman, Virginia Woolf, and Chinua Achebe. Definitions of gender, race, nationality, and religion are no longer stable, and the idea of tradition, however conceived, becomes problematic. In the post-colonial era, the study of literature in English embraces writers from around the world. Prerequisite: English 222. SEMINAR In this seminar, students investigate a broad literary topic. In the first part, students examine theoretical dimensions of the topic on the basis of common readings. In the second, they undertake individual research projects, share and respond to each other's work-in-progress, and present their completed project to the seminar. Prerequisites: junior standing, English 185, 221, 222, and 223, or permission of instructor and department. ELECTIVES Majors elect four courses. It is required that one of the electives be at Level III and strongly recommended that two be at that level. Level II courses (numbered in the 200s) are open to all students without prerequisite beyond General Education 111 or its equivalent. Level III courses (numbered in the 300s) are primarily confined to the major, demand control of methods and of basic factual and theoretical knowledge appropriate to English studies, require more advanced work, assume more preparation, and pursue subjects in greater depth than do Level II courses. Level III courses are open to students with the stated prerequisites. Courses in writing provide the opportunity for students to develop their own work in a variety of modes including poetry, journalism, creative nonfiction, drama, and fiction for both beginning and experienced writers. LITERARY STUDIES 108 The Hero and the Trickster in Post-Colonial Literature Students examine various heroic and trickster figures as manifested in post-colonial literature from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, both oral and written, and seek to understand what basic human needs and realities these figures express and fulfill. GE: ALS-L, MCS-G. This course provides an overview of the American short story. Writers covered include early experimenters and theorists (Irving, Poe, Twain, Jewett) through modernist practitioners (Wharton, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Welty) to contemporary writers, particularly those of African, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American heritage who use the short story to delineate the myriad aspects of American culture and individualism. GE: ALS-L. Students analyze the forms, uses, and targets of humor and satire in fiction as well as the genre's social and political purposes during the period of the rise of the novel in Europe. Students explore English, Irish, and French comic fiction by men and women, including Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire's Candide, Fielding's Joseph Andrews, Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, and Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Offered during Interim. GE: ALS-L. Students develop skills to make reading a source of life-long satisfaction. Six to eight works of fiction and nonfiction are read, including such works as Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God, Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and Ondaatje's The English Patient. Students write book reviews, background pieces, and reflective essays. GE: ALS-L. 133 Children's and Young Adult Literature Explores a range of fiction, from 19th-century children's classics that have endured the passage into the electronic age, to contemporary works already deemed modern classics. Students critique children's literature using standards applied to any literature, looking for ingenuity, insight, ambiguity, depth, style; but are encouraged to read for the pleasure that these tales of wonder, resourcefulness, and passage offer to all readers. GE: ALS-L. Explores fiction and drama by 20th-century Southern women against the background of their cultural heritage. The complex and distinctive relations of race, social class, and gender of the South form a rich and highly problematic inheritance for all Southern women. Offering during Interim. GE: ALS-L. Students read detective stories from their earliest forms in Poe and Doyle to their postmodern deconstruction in the hands of Paul Auster, and examine the problematic character of evidence, causality, verification, agency, meaning itself. These matters are understood differently in different times and different places. Thus, a good detective story is also an investigation into culture, race, and gender. GE: ALS-L. 200 Reading and Writing the Personal Essay The personal essay may contain rumination, memoir, anecdote, diatribe, scholarship, fantasy, and moral philosophy. Students will read and write about the personal essay from its origins to the present day as well as craft their own personal essays. Readings range from founding father Montaigne to classic practitioners Charles Lamb and Virginia Woolf; students will also explore multicultural essayists such as Wole Soyinka and American voices from Thoreau to Annie Dillard. GE: ALS-L. Focuses on verbal folklore: narratives, songs, and shorter forms such as proverbs. Explores the intrinsic qualities of each as literary creations and also the ways in which they operate together when combined, or in dialogic relationship. The folktale or the epic, for example, incorporate a variety of these forms, such as the proverb, the song, or the riddle, to form a complex whole. GE: ALS-L, MCS-G, ORC. 212 The Immigrant Experience in American Fiction Students examine the wide range of literary representations of the immigrant experience in the United States. The course surveys literature by early writers and observers (Cooper, de Tocqueville) and 20th-century writers (Malamud, Rølvaag, Mukherjee) and also explores Native American reactions to waves of immigrants. GE: ALS-L. Explores three potent "cultural myths" that were born in the 19th century and that still have a life of their own today: Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Dracula. Texts include the original novels by Shelley, Stevenson, and Stoker, as well as 20th-century "re-tellings" in both literature and film. Offered during Interim. GE: ALS-L. These courses treat specific periods in British literature and examine the relationship between literary texts and movements and their unique cultural, political, and historical contexts. Each offering of this course examines a different literary era and emphasizes specific literary and historical issues. Students may register for the course more than once provided a different era is studied. Offerings include:
238 Historical Approaches to Literature Students examine literary works, forms, and movements as part of a larger cultural history. Each offering of this course emphasizes a different historical issue or period. Students consider the extent to which literary texts are produced by common cultural and historical conditions and how literature shapes the historical accounts we inherit. Recent offerings include "Romanticism" and "Writing America: 1620-1800." GE: ALS-L, HWC. These courses treat specific periods in American literature and examine the relationship between literary texts and movements and their unique cultural, political, and historical contexts. Each offering of this course examines a different literary era and emphasizes specific literary and historical issues. Students may register for the course more than once provided a different era is studied. Offerings include:
Interdisciplinary 233 Ethics in Narrative Ethics, as a subject of serious study, has traditionally been seen as a sub-field of philosophy; the course will begin by examining the different ways moral questions have been framed by philosophers. Logical analysis, however, is not the only resource available for ethical understanding. For most people stories are a more familiar and influential medium. Drawing on stories ranging from parables and folk tale to post-modern film and fiction, this course will look at narrative as ethical discourse. GE: EIN. 245 American Racial and Multicultural Literatures Students explore the histories, cultural patterns, religious practices, key institutions, gender issues, narrative styles, and the significant contributions to our nation of an array of racial and multicultural groups. Such diverse writers as Leslie Silko, Chaim Potok, Amy Tan, and Toni Morrison raise questions about voice and identity, both individual and collective. GE: ALS-L, MCS-D. Students encounter the literatures from former British colonies and from other countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Primary attention is given to literatures in English, but the readings may include some translations. The course examines diverse cultural expressions and the historical and cultural contexts of the works read, including the relationship between oral and written literature, as well as between indigenous and foreign elements. GE: ALS-L, MCS-G. 248 Baseball and American Values Jacques Barzun wrote that "whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball." Students examine the massive impact "the national game" has had on American life, and how it reflects our cultural values. The philosophical, aesthetic, religious, literary, economic, sociological, historical, and strategic elements of the game are explored through reading and discussion of American novels, essays, and biographies, and through films. Offered during Interim. GE: ALS-L. 252 Modern Irish Short Stories (abroad) Students study modern Irish short stories in four distinct Irish settings (ancient city, coastal village, urban capital, lake-country town) where these stories were written. Reading, discussion, and cultural experiences (including theater, museums, and excursions by van) provide the basis for daily journal entries and several short papers. Offered alternate years during Interim. GE: ALS-L. 253 The Moral Vision (off campus) Studies the techniques of fiction, especially the short story, and the ways in which good fiction addresses central and enduring human concerns - those we call moral or religious questions. At Holden Village, a retreat center in the Cascade Mountains devoted to a life of informed, responsible commitment to peace, justice, and wholeness in a Christian context. Offered during Interim. GE: ALS-L. Interdisciplinary 258 Theater in London (abroad) Students explore drama and theater through the reading of dramatic criticism and plays, through attendance at approximately 20 performances ranging from traditional to modern, and through group discussions, guest lectures, and tours. Excursions to Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, and Canterbury are included. Offered during Interim. 259 Hemingway in Cuba (abroad) Students have a close look at the major works of Ernest Hemingway, in Cuba, where he lived from 1939 to 1960, and where he wrote some of his best novels and short stories. Field trips to places associated with novels and stories: the Marina Hemingway, La Habana Vieja, The Plaza de Armas, the Plaza de la Catedral, the Finca Vigia (Hemingway's home), Cojimar (Santiago's village) and others. Offered during Interim. MCS-G. 270 Literature of the Eastern Caribbean (abroad) Students study selected poets, dramatists, novelists, and essayists of the Eastern Caribbean islands of Barbados, Trinidad, and St. Lucia. Examination of the literature is supplemented by guest lecturers in history, music, religion, politics, and folklore, and field trips to sites of cultural and environmental interest. Offered alternate years during Interim. GE: ALS-L. Students explore both the literary features and the social functions of utopias. Readings include Sir Thomas More's Utopia of 1516, the work that set the genre, and a variety of utopias throughout history. As a final project, students imagine or articulate either a utopia or a critique of some existing utopia. GE: ALS-L. 274 English Language and Linguistics Students encounter principles and approaches to linguistic analysis based on phonemics, morphology, and syntax. Students explore aspects of semantics, language acquisition, variation, and change, including grammatical analysis of documents ranging from film clips and advertisements to professional memos and literary texts. The course provides an overview of the history of English, serves as introduction to the linguistics concentration, and fulfills the linguistic requirement of the English Education major. Students explore the complex relationships between literature and film. How do we translate the verbal into the visual? What can novels do that films cannot, and vice versa? Subject matter includes both classic and contemporary fiction and film. GE: ALS-L. 276 Literature and the Environment Through nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, students explore the complex relations between humans and the "natural" world. Students consider questions such as: what does it mean to be connected to a landscape? What is a sense of place? Students also reflect about how they and the writers they read put landscape and experiences into language. GE: ALS-L. 280 Shakespeare and His Contemporaries Students examine a limited number of plays (eight or nine) in order to concentrate on how to read the plays well and how to respond fully to both text and performance. Students attend live performances when possible and view productions on video. The course, designed especially for non-majors, includes some consideration of historical context and background as well as practice in how to write about the plays. GE: ALS-L. Students explore various forms of poetry, including lyric and narrative, both traditional and free verse. Each instructor makes different selections of material to be studied and gives different emphases to various features of the form. The course is appropriate for non-majors with broad interests. Through reading and discussion of a diversity of plays and dramatic events such as play-acting and ritual, students identify the characteristics of drama as a form within a social context and discuss the plays as literary forms, as ideas, and as performance. The course is appropriate for non-majors with broad interests. GE: ALS-L. Explores various forms of prose, including fiction and creative nonfiction. Each instructor selects different material to be studied and emphasizes various aspects of the form. Topics range from the 18th-century novel to African American autobiography. GE: ALS-L. Students study individual texts as well as the development of women's literary tradition(s). How do women writers conform to and/or challenge the dominant paradigm for female identity, women's social roles, and women's literary practice? Topics include women's autobiographies, American women writers and the land, contemporary women's fiction, or major women writers. GE: MCS-D, ALS-L. 290 Authors in English and Contemporaries Students explore the works of major authors writing in English from around the globe, as well as their historical, social, and geographic contexts. GE: ALS-L. 330 Advanced Studies in Literary Eras: British Students explore specific periods in British literature and examine the relationship between literary texts and movements and their unique cultural, political, and historical contexts. Each offering of this course examines a different literary era and emphasizes specific literary and historical issues. Explores comedy very seriously, both as a fundamental literary genre in itself, and as an important way that literary works in general convey their meanings. Students examine various theories of comedy and humor, read comedic and satiric literary works, and view films and performances, paying special attention to the social, political, and psychological elements of comedy. Students write critically about comedy and try writing comedy itself. 340 Advanced Studies in Literary Eras: American Students explore specific periods in American literature and examine the relationship between literary texts and movements and their unique cultural, political, and historical contexts. Each offering of this course examines a different literary era and emphasizes specific literary and historical issues. 345 Topics in American Racial and Multicultural Literatures This course focuses on important issues, images, authors, and modes in an intensive study of racial and multicultural literature in the U.S. The scope of the course can include racial portraiture, sexual politics, field and factory experience, color and class status, and church and family institutions. Authors include Frederick Douglass and Maxine Hong Kingston. Topics announced the previous spring. 347 Topics in Post-Colonial Literatures Students study individuals or groups of authors, or themes such as the individual as cultural hybrid, the place of politics in literature, ethnocentrism and imperialism, the formation of literature from the clashes of culture, or the relationship between non-traditional literary forms and traditional European aesthetics. Topics announced the previous spring. 360 Literary Criticism and Theory This class focuses on defining, classifying, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and understanding literature. Students study both practical criticism (discussion of particular works or writers) and theoretical criticism (principles and criteria appropriate to literature generally). The course, offered every year, introduces a broad range of critical theories, and provides a historical frame work. Students consider in-depth some of Shakespeare's most popular plays and also explore of some of the less-frequently studied classics. Students examine a wide range of genres and types of plays, view videotapes, and attend performances when available. 381 Advanced Studies in Poetry Students explore various forms of poetry, including lyric and narrative, both traditional and free verse. Each instructor makes different selections of material to be studied and gives different emphases to various features of the form. The course may concentrate on an author, subject, period, or form. Emphasis announced the previous spring. The course explores various forms of drama by different authors from a variety of literary eras, and includes background reading. Each instructor chooses different dramatic forms and topics. Emphasis announced the previous spring. This course investigates some of the many forms this genre has taken since its birth in the 18th century. Past versions have included topics such as: The Development of the British Novel from the 18th through 20th Centuries, Southern American Women Writers, and 19th-Century Fiction from Jane Austen to Henry James. Students examine the work of a major British author. Through attention to life experiences, cultural contexts, and the impact of history, the course offers students a rounded and complex understanding of a major author's literary achievement. Recent authors have included Chaucer, Milton, George Eliot, Joyce, Woolf. Because such study is intensive and requires background, students should have prior exposure to the author studied. Authors announced the previous spring. Students examine the work of a major American author. Through attention to life experiences, cultural contexts, and the impact of history, the course offers students a rounded and complex understanding of a major author's literary achievement. Recent authors have included William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and Edith Wharton. Because such study is intensive and requires background, students should have prior exposure to the author studied. Authors announced the previous spring. WRITING Students develop skills in the essay form, often looking at published works as models for essays, often critiquing the writing of fellow students in a workshop format. Topics and approaches will vary with instructors, but students can expect to be challenged toward more in-depth writing than in General Education 111. Students examine critically a variety of national, metro, and local media. Students then learn to write their own news copy, including hard news, features, editorials, art and entertainment reviews, sports, business, and travel stories. Students also learn UPI/AP style copy editing and proofreading, which is important for students applying for internships and print media jobs. This course provides students with the opportunity to gather insights and develop skills in the writing of creative prose, poetry, and/or drama. Literary selections are often used as models and discussions of craft set the stage for the workshopping of student writing. Seminar size allows for maximum interaction between the professor-mentor and the student, occasionally taking place in private conferences. This course is designed to develop and share members' experiments in imagination writing in any genre and at any entry level, beginner to experienced. Possible genres include poetry, short story, novel, drama (stage, screen, video, children's), popular lyric, ballad, hymn text, libretto, children's stories, or picture books. Offered during Interim. 372 Creative Writing II: Poetry and Fiction Students who have already completed a unit in creative writing or produced manuscripts in some other context have the opportunity to deepen and polish their work and to develop and complete individual projects in fiction and poetry. Class sessions are devoted to the discussion of the craft, the examination of literary models, and workshopping of student writing. Emphasis for each section is announced the previous spring. Prerequisite: English 251, 255, 257 or writing equivalent. 373 Advanced Creative Nonfiction Students explore advanced strategies in writing essays. Three areas of emphasis are explored through the semester: the personal essay, lyrical prose, and creative journalism. Many class sessions take the form of workshops in which students critique their peers' work. Prerequisite: English 251, 255, 257 or writing equivalent. OTHER 294 Internship 298 Independent Study 394 Internship 398 Independent Research |