Professor Emeritus: George Soule
Professors: Vern D. Bailey, Susan Jaret McKinstry, Chair, James McDonnell, Frank R. Morral, John F. Schott, Robert G. Tisdale, Constance H. Walker, Ruth Weiner
Associate Professors: Chiara Briganti, Michael J. Kowalewski, David McCandless, Kofi Owusu, Gregory Blake Smith
Assistant Professors: Nancy J. Cho, Disa Gambera, Timothy J. Raylor, Clare Rossini
Visiting Assistant Professor: Gregory G. Hewett
Visiting Instructor: William Perry Marvin
Courses numbered from 100 to 290 (introductory courses) are designed for non-majors and prospective majors alike. With the exception of English 200, Methods of Interpretation, and 260, Introduction to Creative Writing, 270, Crafts of Writing: The Short Story, 271, Crafts of Writing: Poetry and 275, Crafts of Writing: Essay, they have no prerequisites. Literature courses numbered 300 and above (upper-level courses) normally require as a prerequisite ONE course numbered 110-175 or the written permission of the instructor. Prerequisites for upper-level courses in writing (English 370, 371 and 375) are as noted below. Courses that fulfill the "advanced seminar requirement'' have as a prerequisite English 200. First year students normally do not enroll in courses numbered 300 or above.
Students wishing to prepare for public school teaching should consult with the chair of the department and the Department of Educational Studies as soon as possible.
Students considering graduate study in English should be aware that most graduate schools require one or two ancient or modern languages.
A. Sixty-six credits in English (not including English 100, 109, 290) distributed as follows:
Group I: Medieval and Renaissance
Chaucer; Anglo-Saxon; Dante; Medieval Drama; Studies in Medieval Literature:
Poetic Justice; English Renaissance Verse; Shakespeare Histories and Comedies;
Shakespeare Tragedies and Romances; Renaissance Drama
Group II: Epics to Austen
The Faerie Queene; Paradise Lost; Eighteenth-Century Fiction; Jane Austen.
Group III: Nineteenth-Century British and American
English Romantic Poets; Studies in Victorian Literature; Nineteenth-Century
Fiction
Group IV: Modern and Contemporary Literature
African-American Literature; African-American Autobiography; Asian American
Literature; Modern Literature: British and American Twentieth-Century American
Drama; Contemporary European and American Drama; Irish Literature; Literature
of the American West; Studies in American Literature; Rereading the
African-American Novel; Contemporary American Playwrights of Color;
Twentieth-Century Poetry; Contemporary Poetry; Early Modern Drama; Contemporary
Drama; Twentieth-Century Novel
Double-majors considering completing the integrative exercise during the junior year will need written approval from the departmental chair.
The department encourages students to write a long essay (about 20 to 25 pages) on a subject growing out of an upper-level course. Such essays will normally require additional reading and will be written either while taking the upper-level course or within two terms of completing it. Students wishing to write a two-credit essay must obtain the consent of the instructor before enrolling.
The Department of English offers workshop courses in the writing of fiction, poetry, memoir and the essay for those students who wish to gain experience in writing. The writing requirement is a prerequisite for all such courses. Students are encouraged to submit their work to college publications such as The Observer, manuscript, and Breaking Ground.
Writers on the Carleton faculty include poet Clare Rossini, and novelist Gregory Blake Smith. In addition to those courses offered by regular faculty members, the department brings visiting writers to campus to read and to conduct workshops in their specialties. Visitors in recent years have included playwright Lee Blessing, memoirists Carol Bly and Patricia Hampl, poets, Robert Creeley, Michael Harper and Donald Justice, and fiction-writers Paule Marshall, Jane Hamilton, Ann Beattie, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Toni Cade Bambara.
The College's Writing Requirement may be fulfilled in English 100 (Literature Seminar), in English 109 (Writing Seminar) or in a number of introductory courses in English and other departments, or by scoring a "5'' on the College Board's AP English examination. Students should normally fulfill this requirement in their first year. In all cases, the grade a student receives is distinct from fulfilling the requirement; a passing grade does not automatically satisfy the requirement.
For full details, including a list of courses other than English 100 and 109 in which a student may fulfill the writing requirement, consult the Schedule of Classes and the New Student Handbook.
The following courses are not open to first year students except with the
written permission of the instructor, and most have as a prerequisite one
related introductory course in English or American Literature. See "General
Information'' above.