English
Overview
English is a flexible and capacious field, founded on careful engagement with artistic writing or “literature,” but reaching into all corners of communicating in English including film, digital media, and performance. The field engages questions that intersect with philosophy, cultural anthropology, and the arts. A degree in English can lead in many directions after college—from writing-intensive careers such as publishing and education to less obvious tracks in library or curatorial work, health care, human resources, marketing and business, and public service with non-profit organizations.
At New College, regular courses in literature and culture are offered, ranging from a focus on the medieval period to contemporary print and electronic media, and performance. The Area of Concentration (AOC) in English focuses on intersections between English language literature and its historical and cultural environments. Students graduating in this field should be able to analyze texts from a variety of genres and historical periods; to recognize the role of literature in encounters between cultures across national, ethnic, and temporal lines; and to deploy a variety of critical and theoretical approaches to the study of literature and communication in English. More details about the careers of New College students who graduated with an English AOC are available on the English program's webpage: http://www.ncf.edu/english.
Faculty in English
Melanie Hubbard, Visiting Assistant Professor of English
David Mikics, Professor of English
Nova Myhill, Professor of English and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies
John Park, Assistant Professor of English
Jessica Young, Assistant Professor of Global English (on leave)
Robert Zamsky, Professor of English, Associate Provost
Requirements for the AOC in English
A minimum of ten (10) academic units, with at least two courses each from the categories of Textual Analysis, Historical Approaches, Cross-Cultural Perspectives, and Criticism/Theory. Students should work in American, British, and Global English literary traditions. At least two of the courses should focus on periods before 1900; at least one course should focus on poetry or poetics; at least one course should focus on drama. Up to two Creative Writing courses may also be included, although not more than one per category. Four or more of the courses must be at the 3000-level or above.
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| Textual Analysis 1 | |
| Select two courses that focus on close reading of literary texts. Examples include: | |
| LIT 2005 | Introduction to Literature: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love |
| LIT 2030 | Introduction to Poetry |
| Historical Approaches | |
| Select two courses that use historical methods to explore literature and culture; one course may be from another historical discipline such as History or Art History. Examples include: | |
| ENL 2323 | Introduction to Shakespeare: Language and Identity |
| LITR 2860 | Nineteenth-Century British and American Literature: When Everything Changed* |
| LITR 2161 | Modern American Poetry |
| LITR 2180 | Imagining and Reimagining Early England* |
| ARH 2011 | From Caves to Cathedrals: A Global Introduction to Art History of the Ancient and Medieval World |
| AMH 3420 | Florida History |
| Cross-Cultural Perspectives | |
| Select two courses that explore cultural differences; one course may be from another discipline or literary tradition: | |
| LITR 2690 | Contemporary Korea, a Kafka-esque Inferno |
| LITR 2250 | Transnational Perspectives in Holocaust Memory* |
| LITR 2620 | Introduction to World Literature |
| LITR 3490 | Latin American Storytellers* |
| LITR 3250 | Black, White, and German: Afro-Germans and German Identity* |
| ANT 2410 | Introduction to Cultural Anthropology |
| ANT 3930 | Special Topics in Anthropology |
| Criticism/Theory | |
| Select two courses at the 3000 level or above that focus on literary theory or make heavy use of secondary sources. One course may be from a non-English literary tradition. Examples include: | |
| LITR 3230 | Critical Theory in the United States: An Introduction |
| ENL 3161 | Performing Gender, Class, and Identity in Early Modern Drama |
| LITR 4375 | Realism, Expressionism, Surrealism: Modern Drama in Theory and Practice |
| LITR 4112 | |
| LITR 3260 | Literary Theory: Slavic and East European Approaches |
| Additional Requirement | |
| Senior Capstone Project or Senior Thesis in English and Baccalaureate Exam | |
Requirements for the Joint AOC in English
A minimum of five (5) academic units. Students should include work in two of the following literary traditions: British, American, or Global English. At least two of the courses should focus on periods before 1900. At least one course should focus on poetry or poetics and another should focus on drama; one Creative Writing course may also be included. Three or more of the courses must be at the 3000-level or above.
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| Textual Analysis 1 | |
| Select at least one course that focuses on close reading of literary texts. Examples include: | |
| LIT 2005 | Introduction to Literature: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love |
| LIT 2030 | Introduction to Poetry |
| Historical Approaches | |
| Select at least one course that uses historical methods to explore literature and culture; the course may be from another historical discipline such as History or Art History. Examples include: | |
| ENL 2323 | Introduction to Shakespeare: Language and Identity |
| LITR 2860 | Nineteenth-Century British and American Literature: When Everything Changed* |
| LITR 2161 | Modern American Poetry |
| LITR 2180 | Imagining and Reimagining Early England* |
| ARH 2011 | From Caves to Cathedrals: A Global Introduction to Art History of the Ancient and Medieval World |
| AMH 3420 | Florida History |
| Cross-Cultural Perspectives | |
| Select at least one course that explores cultural differences; the course may be from another discipline or literary tradition: | |
| LITR 2690 | Contemporary Korea, a Kafka-esque Inferno |
| LITR 2250 | Transnational Perspectives in Holocaust Memory* |
| LITR 3490 | Latin American Storytellers* |
| LITR 2620 | Introduction to World Literature |
| LITR 3250 | Black, White, and German: Afro-Germans and German Identity* |
| ANT 2410 | Introduction to Cultural Anthropology |
| ANT 3930 | Special Topics in Anthropology |
| Criticism/Theory | |
| Select at least one course at the 3000 level or above that focuses on literary theory or makes heavy use of secondary sources. Examples include: | |
| LITR 3230 | Critical Theory in the United States: An Introduction |
| LITR 4375 | Realism, Expressionism, Surrealism: Modern Drama in Theory and Practice |
| LITR 4112 | |
| ENL 3161 | Performing Gender, Class, and Identity in Early Modern Drama |
| Elective | |
| Select at least one additional course from one of the categories listed above | |
| Optional | |
| Senior Capstone Project or Senior Thesis in English and Baccalaureate Exam | |
Representative Senior Thesis Projects in English
-
And Your Little Dog Too: Witchcraft in the Cultural Imagination from the 17th to the 21st Century
- Educating the Bodymind in Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend and McCaffrey’s The Ship Who Sang
-
Gothic Fiction and the Sister Arts: Uses of Poetry and Drawing in The Monk, Romance of the Forest, and Jane Eyre
-
The Other Side of Paradise: An Exploration of the Masculine Crisis in the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald
-
Poetry as Exorcism, As Purifier/ It Felt Possible: An Exploration of Ritual Poetics Through Robert Duncan and Caconrad
-
Two Warring Ideals in One Dark Body: The Persistence of the Persephone Myth in 20th Century African American Women’s Literature
-
Very Jewish, Very Middle Class, and Very Straight: Intimacy, Kinship, and the Intersection of Identities in Falsettos and Angels in America in the time of AIDS