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Earn a Bachelor of Arts in English
Love reading? Want to become a more effective writer? The English program at Albertus
offers both a major and minor in English, with the further option to concentrate in
Creative Writing or Dramatic Studies.
English majors at Albertus can also pursue teacher certification concurrently through
our Education Program. For creative writers, the department offers a five-year MFA in Writing. The English
department also offers courses toward a minor in Drama.
The English Department serves the wider college community through its foundational
writing classes for all first-year students and its upper division literature classes
in General Education. Throughout our programs, the Department emphasizes clear and
well-organized writing, persuasive argument, and the attentive reading of literary
texts.
What Makes English at Albertus Different?
Engaged
Students
- Hands-on, experiential learning
- Interdisciplinary perspectives
- Emphasis on collaborative work
Great
Teaching
- Personally invested professors
- Small class sizes
- Innovative, well-rounded programs
- Resources and opportunities for research
Vibrant
Communities
- Lively extracurricular activities
- Campus-wide events
- Service and community engagement
Successful
Outcomes
- Active career counseling
- Opportunity-building networks
- Access to internships and professional experiences
The professors in the English program at Albertus are dedicated to their students and to their field. I went to Albertus so that I could become an English teacher; I have never once regretted that decision.
Esther Hartzell, '17
The Albertus English Faculty
English Five-Year Master's Degree Program
Earn a Bachelor of Arts in English and an MFA in Writing in Five Years
The Department of English offers its undergraduates the opportunity to pursue an MFA
in Writing by completing an additional year after graduation. Interested students
with a minimum 3.0 G.P.A. will submit a writing portfolio to the Director of the MFA
Program in the Spring semester of their junior year.
During their senior year as undergraduates, students provisionally accepted into the
MFA program will undertake a 1.0 credit portfolio each semester (2.0 credits total),
as well as take a 4.0 credit graduate course (to be determined by the Director) in
addition to their undergraduate degree requirements. They would then take an additional
4.0 credit course (to be determined by the director) during the summer after graduation.
During their graduate fall and spring semesters, students accepted into the M.F.A.
program complete 9.0 credits of graduate work each semester, then an additional 8.0
credits during the graduate summer semester.
Please consult the course catalogue for full program details.
Where Will Your English Degree take You?
Possible career paths with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English include:
English Courses
Majors in English all take core classes in British and American literature, Shakespeare, and Literary Theory and Criticism. English majors find that training in their academic discipline enables them to excel in many fields such as: education, publishing, law, library science, civil service, business, and journalism. Through completing the English program, students will possess the writing and research skills, and the literary knowledge, necessary to flourish in the liberal professions and relevant graduate programs.
| Required Courses | ||
|---|---|---|
| EN 225 | Masterpieces of American Literature I | This introductory survey traces the development of a distinctly American literary tradition in relation to questions of national identity, selfhood, gender, and race. Drawn from contact and colonial writing through the ante-bellum period, readings may include Native American myths; exploration and captivity narratives; religious writing; poems by Bradstreet, Taylor, Whittier, and Longfellow; autobiographies by Franklin and Douglass; essays by Emerson and Thoreau; fiction by Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville. (3 credits) |
| EN 226 | Masterpieces of American Literature II | The second part of Masterpieces of American Literature introduces students to major American achievements in poetry, fiction, drama, and non-fictional prose from post-Civil War era through the second half of the twentieth century. Readings may include the poetry of Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Stevens, Hughes, and Bishop; the fiction of James, Twain, Wharton, and Faulkner; the drama of O’Neill and Williams; the prose of Washington and DuBois. (3 credits) |
| EN 227 | Masterworks of British Literature I | Introduces students to the treasures of British literature: the tales of Chaucer; sonnets of Shakespeare; poems of Sidney, Spenser, Donne, Marvell, Milton, Dryden, Pope; essays of Swift and Samuel Johnson. Making use of some of the most beautiful and suggestive literary texts in English, this course helps students to become confident and responsive readers of literature. (3 credits) |
| EN 228 | Masterworks of British Literature II | The second half of Masterworks of British Literature explores selections from among the prose and poetry of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats; the works of Tennyson, Arnold, the Brownings, Ruskin, Mill, Newman, Carlyle, Pater; and such modern poets as Yeats, Eliot, Auden, and Heaney. (3 credits) |
| EN 317 | Literary Theory and Criticism | What is literature? Who decides what we should read and why? How should we read a literary text? These are just a few of the questions about literature that this course will explore. Focusing on one major literary text, students will learn to apply a variety of critical perspectives to their reading and be introduced to the practice of literary criticism and major contemporary critical theories. (3 credits) |
| EN 380 | Internship | A 3 to 6 credit field work experience open only to senior majors. Requires permission of Department Chair, with whom hours and credits are to be arranged. (3-6 credits) |
| EN 391 | Senior Seminar in British and American Literature | This is the culminating seminar for English majors which invites in-depth study of selected seminal literary texts. Past seminars have focused on the question: How does reading and knowing poets of the past relate to our reading and knowing of poets of our own time? Generally offered every year. (3 credits) |
| One course from the following: | ||
| EN 283 | Shakespeare I | Explore the literary and theatrical genius of one of the world’s greatest and most controversial artists. We will read, discuss, and watch performances (both film and live) of Shakespeare’s major plays. EN 283 focuses on the turbulent history plays (Richard II, Henry IV Part I and Part II, Henry V); sparkling romantic comedies (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It); and two of the most popular and poignant tragedies (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet). Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 284 | Shakespeare II | Explore the literary and theatrical genius of one of the world’s greatest and most controversial artists. We will read, discuss, and watch performances (both film and live) of Shakespeare’s major plays. EN 284 focuses on three great tragedies (Macbeth, Othello, King Lear); two mind-bending, problematic plays (Antony and Cleopatra, Measure for Measure); and the fas ci nat ing and beautiful final plays (The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest). Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 383 | Shakespeare Seminar | This seminar, designed for students who have some previous college experience of Shakespeare, offers an opportunity to study, compare, and perform scenes from a small number of Shakespeare’s plays, in conjunction with a staged production, whenever possible. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
Students will also need to complete 15 credits of English electives.
| Required Courses | ||
|---|---|---|
| EN 143 | Introduction to Creative Writing | A writing course designed as a general introduction to the strategies of literary composition. Through sustained and systematic practice in the techniques that stimulate and refine creative writing, students will exercise and develop intuitive and critical abilities essential to significant artistic achievement. May be waived with permission of Department Chair or Director of Creative Writing Concentration. Generally offered once a year. (3 credits) |
| EN 225 | Masterpieces of American Literature I | This introductory survey traces the development of a distinctly American literary tradition in relation to questions of national identity, selfhood, gender, and race. Drawn from contact and colonial writing through the ante-bellum period, readings may include Native American myths; exploration and captivity narratives; religious writing; poems by Bradstreet, Taylor, Whittier, and Longfellow; autobiographies by Franklin and Douglass; essays by Emerson and Thoreau; fiction by Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville. (3 credits) |
| EN 226 | Masterpieces of American Literature II | The second part of Masterpieces of American Literature introduces students to major American achievements in poetry, fiction, drama, and non-fictional prose from post-Civil War era through the second half of the twentieth century. Readings may include the poetry of Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Stevens, Hughes, and Bishop; the fiction of James, Twain, Wharton, and Faulkner; the drama of O’Neill and Williams; the prose of Washington and DuBois. (3 credits) |
| EN 227 | Masterworks of British Literature I | Introduces students to the treasures of British literature: the tales of Chaucer; sonnets of Shakespeare; poems of Sidney, Spenser, Donne, Marvell, Milton, Dryden, Pope; essays of Swift and Samuel Johnson. Making use of some of the most beautiful and suggestive literary texts in English, this course helps students to become confident and responsive readers of literature. (3 credits) |
| EN 228 | Masterworks of British Literature II | The second half of Masterworks of British Literature explores selections from among the prose and poetry of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats; the works of Tennyson, Arnold, the Brownings, Ruskin, Mill, Newman, Carlyle, Pater; and such modern poets as Yeats, Eliot, Auden, and Heaney. (3 credits) |
| EN 244a/b | Creative Writing: Poetry, Short Fiction, Short Theater Pieces | This course invites students with a serious interest in writing to compose various forms of poetry, short fiction, and/or theater pieces. Through weekly writing and class workshops, this course helps students discover material, find and develop an authentic voice, and experiment with different kinds of writing. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 317 | Literary Theory and Criticism | What is literature? Who decides what we should read and why? How should we read a literary text? These are just a few of the questions about literature that this course will explore. Focusing on one major literary text, students will learn to apply a variety of critical perspectives to their reading and be introduced to the practice of literary criticism and major contemporary critical theories. (3 credits) |
| EN 391 | Senior Seminar in British and American Literature | This is the culminating seminar for English majors which invites in-depth study of selected seminal literary texts. Past seminars have focused on the question: How does reading and knowing poets of the past relate to our reading and knowing of poets of our own time? Generally offered every year. (3 credits) |
| One course from the following: | ||
| EN 283 | Shakespeare I | Explore the literary and theatrical genius of one of the world’s greatest and most controversial artists. We will read, discuss, and watch performances (both film and live) of Shakespeare’s major plays. EN 283 focuses on the turbulent history plays (Richard II, Henry IV Part I and Part II, Henry V); sparkling romantic comedies (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It); and two of the most popular and poignant tragedies (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet). Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 284 | Shakespeare II | Explore the literary and theatrical genius of one of the world’s greatest and most controversial artists. We will read, discuss, and watch performances (both film and live) of Shakespeare’s major plays. EN 284 focuses on three great tragedies (Macbeth, Othello, King Lear); two mind-bending, problematic plays (Antony and Cleopatra, Measure for Measure); and the fas ci nat ing and beautiful final plays (The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest). Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 383 | Shakespeare Seminar | This seminar, designed for students who have some previous college experience of Shakespeare, offers an opportunity to study, compare, and perform scenes from a small number of Shakespeare’s plays, in conjunction with a staged production, whenever possible. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| Three of the Following Courses - 9 credits | ||
| EN 245a/b | The Composing Process | Making use of class exercises, workshops, and individual conferences, this course will guide students to discovering materials, affecting audiences, and writing creatively with clarity and power. Generally offered every year. (3 credits) |
| EN 343a/b | Seminar in Poetry Writing | This seminar explores and develops students’ interest in different kinds of poetic forms. It includes a final portfolio in the form of a collection of poems or a single long poem. Students can expect to submit their more accomplished work to various literary publications (including Breakwater) and poetry competitions. P: EN 244a/b or permission of instructor. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 344a/b | Seminar in Fiction Writing | An intensive class in composing and evaluating short stories and longer fiction. Students will work on a variety of brief exercises and one major project in narrative composition. P: EN 244a/b or permission of instructor. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 345a/b | Seminar in Composing Autobiography | This seminar uses readings, class exercises, and workshop activities to help students begin the process of exploring different versions of writing one’s self as a literary text. Issues addressed include becoming the “author” of oneself; autobiography as the “rewriting” of the self; confession and deception as “autobiographical” impulses; the relation between autobiography and fiction. Students compose autobiographical poems or narratives as their final portfolio project. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 346a/b | Seminar in Playwriting | This seminar introduces the student to different kinds of dramatic texts and encourages experimentation in more than one theatrical mode. Students will complete either a one act play or several scenes from a work-in-progress by the end of the course. If possible, completed dramatic texts written by members of the class will be given workshop productions. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 392 | Writing Seminar | This advanced course is aimed at preparing upperclass students to meet successfully the kinds of writing they will encounter in the work place and in graduate study. After an intensive review of the stylistic and other formal aspects of business, technical, journalistic, and scholarly writing, students will concentrate on writing projects keyed to their career plans. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
Students may take a second session of any creative writing course above the introductory level (EN 143). The letters “a/b” following the course numbers indicate the first (“a”) and the second (“b”) semester for which a student enrolls in a course so designated.
| Required Core Courses | ||
|---|---|---|
| EN 225 | Masterpieces of American Literature I | This introductory survey traces the development of a distinctly American literary tradition in relation to questions of national identity, selfhood, gender, and race. Drawn from contact and colonial writing through the ante-bellum period, readings may include Native American myths; exploration and captivity narratives; religious writing; poems by Bradstreet, Taylor, Whittier, and Longfellow; autobiographies by Franklin and Douglass; essays by Emerson and Thoreau; fiction by Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville. (3 credits) |
| EN 226 | Masterpieces of American Literature II | The second part of Masterpieces of American Literature introduces students to major American achievements in poetry, fiction, drama, and non-fictional prose from post-Civil War era through the second half of the twentieth century. Readings may include the poetry of Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Stevens, Hughes, and Bishop; the fiction of James, Twain, Wharton, and Faulkner; the drama of O’Neill and Williams; the prose of Washington and DuBois. (3 credits) |
| EN 227 | Masterworks of British Literature I | Introduces students to the treasures of British literature: the tales of Chaucer; sonnets of Shakespeare; poems of Sidney, Spenser, Donne, Marvell, Milton, Dryden, Pope; essays of Swift and Samuel Johnson. Making use of some of the most beautiful and suggestive literary texts in English, this course helps students to become confident and responsive readers of literature. (3 credits) |
| EN 228 | Masterworks of British Literature II | The second half of Masterworks of British Literature explores selections from among the prose and poetry of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats; the works of Tennyson, Arnold, the Brownings, Ruskin, Mill, Newman, Carlyle, Pater; and such modern poets as Yeats, Eliot, Auden, and Heaney. (3 credits) |
| EN 317 | Literary Theory and Criticism | What is literature? Who decides what we should read and why? How should we read a literary text? These are just a few of the questions about literature that this course will explore. Focusing on one major literary text, students will learn to apply a variety of critical perspectives to their reading and be introduced to the practice of literary criticism and major contemporary critical theories. (3 credits) |
| EN 391 | Senior Seminar in British and American Literature | This is the culminating seminar for English majors which invites in-depth study of selected seminal literary texts. Past seminars have focused on the question: How does reading and knowing poets of the past relate to our reading and knowing of poets of our own time? Generally offered every year. (3 credits) |
| Dramatic Studies Concentration (Choose 6 Courses)* | ||
| EN 230 | Tragedy | This course explores the nature of tragedy by looking at recurrent patterns in plays that have haunted the imagination of generations. It intends to raise questions about the relationship between tragic drama and “the tragic vision of life” and to consider if it is possible to write tragedy today. Readings may include plays by Sophocles, Shakespeare, Shelley, Ibsen, O’Neill, Brecht, and Ionesco, as well as selected criticism. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 231 | Comedy | Like tragedy, comedy has its roots in ancient myth and ritual, but its spirit is one of celebration. Comedy is a genre versatile enough to encompass social commentary, psychological observations, and philosophical issues. This course focuses principally on the works of playwrights such as Aristophanes, Plautus, Shakespeare, Moliere, Congréve, Wycherley, Wilde, Shaw, Chekov, Beckett, and Pinter. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 232 | Modern Drama | This course introduces students to the excitement and variety of modern drama. It begins with the roots of modern drama in the nineteenth-century (Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekov, and Shaw) and continues into the present with such playwrights as O’Neill, Eliot, Miller, Williams, Beckett, Albee, and Pinter. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 244a/b | Creative Writing: Poetry, Short Fiction, Short Theater Pieces | This course invites students with a serious interest in writing to compose various forms of poetry, short fiction, and/or theater pieces. Through weekly writing and class workshops, this course helps students discover material, find and develop an authentic voice, and experiment with different kinds of writing. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 280 | Practicum | The English Department offers suitably prepared students the opportunity to apply and develop reading and composing skills in work environments such as hospital administration, marketing, publishing, television news studios, and newspaper offices. Requires permission of Department Chair, with whom hours and credits are arranged. (3 credits) |
| EN 283 | Shakespeare I | Explore the literary and theatrical genius of one of the world’s greatest and most controversial artists. We will read, discuss, and watch performances (both film and live) of Shakespeare’s major plays. EN 283 focuses on the turbulent history plays (Richard II, Henry IV Part I and Part II, Henry V); sparkling romantic comedies (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It); and two of the most popular and poignant tragedies (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet). Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 284 | Shakespeare II | Explore the literary and theatrical genius of one of the world’s greatest and most controversial artists. We will read, discuss, and watch performances (both film and live) of Shakespeare’s major plays. EN 284 focuses on three great tragedies (Macbeth, Othello, King Lear); two mind-bending, problematic plays (Antony and Cleopatra, Measure for Measure); and the fas ci nat ing and beautiful final plays (The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest). Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 346a/b | Seminar in Playwriting | This seminar introduces the student to different kinds of dramatic texts and encourages experimentation in more than one theatrical mode. Students will complete either a one act play or several scenes from a work-in-progress by the end of the course. If possible, completed dramatic texts written by members of the class will be given workshop productions. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 380 | Internship | A 3-to-6 credit field work experience open only to senior majors. Requires permission of Department Chair, with whom hours and credits are to be arranged. (3 - 6 credits) |
| EN 383* | Shakespeare Seminar | This seminar, designed for students who have some previous college experience of Shakespeare, offers an opportunity to study, compare, and perform scenes from a small number of Shakespeare’s plays, in conjunction with a staged production, whenever possible. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
| EN 390 | Independent Study | A course of study for superior students with well-developed reading plans and research projects. Requires permission of Department Chair, with whom hours and credits are to be arranged. Generally offered every year. (3 credits) |
| EN 393 | Seminar in Dramatic Literature | This seminar, required for English majors concentrating in Dramatic Studies, is open to any upperclass student with an interest in drama. The seminar focuses on several provocative issues, including the relation between classical myth and mythic tragedy; the relation of action and inaction in the theater; plays which subvert their own form; political versus apolitical theater. Generally offered every other year. (3 credits) |
*Six additional courses must be chosen from the Dramatic Studies concentration list. One of these six courses must be either EN 283, EN 284, or EN 383.
The letters “a/b” following the course numbers indicate the first (“a”) and the second (“b”) semester for which a student enrolls in a course so designated.
Any student who wishes to minor in English may do so by taking 18 credits in English courses, excluding EN 106 and EN 107. Students seeking to complete a minor select English courses in consultation with, and guidance from, a faculty member in the Department of English.
A college education isn't about an end goal, but rather gaining the skills you'll need for your professional development. For me, a major in English created who I am today. I gained skills in critical thinking, literature analysis, storytelling, communication, teaching, and even public speaking, all of which I use every day at work.
Annemarie Tompsen, '13
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