English (ENG)
Professors Bender, Palmer, Selmon and Stargardt; Associate Professors Chen and Vivian; Assistant Professor von Wallmenich.
English Department courses challenge students to engage with the traditions and methods of literary study to become powerful critical and creative thinkers. Students balance thinking broadly with reading closely, building knowledge in world literatures and cultures to appreciate and understand their own.
The Department's course offerings include introductory and advanced level courses in composition, creative writing and journalism; introductory surveys and advanced studies in literature and critical theory; and a senior seminar. The Department regularly offers opportunities for independent, off-campus and overseas study.
Several of our recent graduates have successfully completed M.A. and Ph.D. programs in literature and composition. More generally, English graduates are well prepared for professional opportunities in media, the law, public relations, public and private education, and for jobs with non-profit foundations and research organizations.
Major Requirements
Thirty-six credits which must include:
- Four credits in English 130, 131, 132, 133, or 134.
- English 250 or 251; and 260 or 261.
- Twelve additional credits of upper-level literature; at least eight credits must be at the 300 level.
- English 320.
- Four credits in English 200, 220, 270, 290, 291, 292, 293, or 370.
- English 420.
- Required cognate: four credits of foreign language at or above the 112 level to help students appreciate sounds, structure and beauty of a language different from their own.
- Students who meet Alma's requirements for honors and who present a senior thesis judged to be of honors caliber are eligible for English Department honors.
- Note: English 100, 101 and 190 do not count in the English Major.
Minor Requirements
Twenty-four credits which must include English 130, 131, 132, 133, or 134; 250 or 251; 260 or 261; 200, 220, 270, 290, 291, 292, 320, or 370; and two additional upper-level literature courses, at least one at the 300 level. Please note: English 100, 101 and 190 do not count in the English Minor.
Program Considerations
Potential majors are advised to schedule English 133 in the first year and English 320 in the sophomore or junior year. English 320 is a prerequisite for and may not be taken concurrently with English 420 Senior Seminar. Note: the English Major also requires one foreign language course at or above the 112 level.
All students planning a teaching career are advised to take COM 111 Fundamentals of Speech Communication and at least one course in diversity literatures. Those planning to teach secondary education with an English minor are advised to complete all English coursework prior to student teaching. Elementary teaching minors are encouraged to take ENG 220 General Linguistics.
Students considering graduate school are urged to complete more than the required number of 300-level literature classes and ENG 500 Senior Thesis.
The English Department encourages students to gain as much writing experience as possible in creative writing courses, workshops with visiting writers, involvement with Alma student publications, and internships on or off campus.
| ENG 100. | College Rhetoric I | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 credits | ||
| Development of writing as a process of thinking and communication that involves stages of generating, drafting and revising. Emphasis on writing in several forms for a variety of purposes and audiences. Review of basic paragraph, sentence and spelling skills. Regular conferences to discuss writing. | ||
| ENG 101. | College Rhetoric II | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 100 | ||
| Developing critical thinking and reading skills with emphasis on analytical, persuasive and research writing. Development of style and voice. Evaluation of writing from various disciplines and contemporary issues. | ||
| ENG 130. | Poetry (AH-2) | |
 |
4 credits | |
| Developing an understanding and appreciation of poetry. Analyzing kinds, techniques and effects of poetry. | ||
| ENG 131. | Prose (AH-2) | |
|
4 credits | |
| Developing an understanding and appreciation of prose fiction and nonfiction. Reading and analyzing representative works of short and long fiction, personal essays and other prose pieces. | ||
| ENG 132. | Drama (AH-2) | |
|
4 credits | |
| Developing an understanding and appreciation of drama. Reading and analyzing a wide range of dramatic texts in English, American and world literatures. | ||
| ENG 133. | Introduction to Literary Analysis (AH-2) | |
|
4 credits | |
| Understanding the features common to the experience of literature in a variety of literary genres with focus on the vocabulary, critical approaches and writing strategies employed in literary analysis. Strongly recommended for majors and minors in English. | ||
| ENG 134. | Studies in Literature (AH-2) | |
|
4 credits | |
| A thematic approach to understanding, analyzing and appreciating literature, drawing on at least two genres. Themes vary from Victorian writers and the city to gothic fiction and environmental literature. | ||
| ENG 180-*380. | Studies in Literature and Language | |
| 1-4 credits | ||
| The study of various topics such as Holocaust literature, the dramas of AIDS, contemporary Scottish literature and travel literature. Students may register for more than one course under this number. Sections of 180 taken at Alma College may receive AH-2 credit. Prerequisite for 380: two courses in literature. | ||
| ENG 181-*381. | Diversity Studies in Literature | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Studies of literature beyond the American and British canon: Asian American literature, Black women writers, Eastern European and non-Western world literature, and postcolonial writers. Students may register for more than one course under this number. Individual topics may receive AH-2 credit. Prerequisite for 381: two courses in literature. | ||
| ENG 182-*382. | Off-Campus Studies in the American Experience: Literary and Cultural Voices (AH-2) | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Special emphasis on travel to develop historical and cultural awareness as it adds to the richness of the American literary experience such as writers of the Southwest in Taos, New Mexico, New England writers in Martha's Vineyard and Key West writers in Florida. Genres, periods and authors vary. Prerequisite for 382: two courses in literature. | ||
| ENG 183-*383. | Off-Campus Studies in British Literature and Culture | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Special emphasis on travel to develop historical and cultural awareness as it adds to the richness of the British literary experience such as Shakespeare and Company in London and Medieval Literature in England. Genres, periods and authors vary. Prerequisite for 383: two courses in literature. | ||
| ENG 190. | Introduction to Creative Writing (AH-1) | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Writing in different genres, including poetry, short fiction, drama and creative nonfiction. Critiquing of student and professional writing. | ||
| ENG *200. | Advanced Rhetoric | |
|
4 credits | |
| ENG 101 or Proficiency | ||
| Exploring the principles of invention, arrangement and style beyond the level of English 101. Emphasis on connections between what writers say and how they say it. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. | ||
| ENG 210. | Teaching Writing | |
| 2 credits | ||
| Development of written fluency and critical evaluation skills; introduction to central theories of reading and writing instruction. Designed for future teachers in any discipline, writing center advisors, or those going into any field that requires evaluation of writing such as editing and publishing. | ||
| ENG *220. | General Linguistics (AH-4) | |
|
4 credits | |
| Understanding the function and structure of language through analysis of its subdivisions: phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, language usage, dialect and historical development. | ||
| ENG 230. | Shakespeare on Film (AH-4) | |
|
4 credits | |
| Study of Shakespeare's plays from the perspective of text and film. Emphasis on understanding selected plays, comparing different interpretations, and comprehending different cinematic styles. | ||
| ENG *240. | Survey of Continental European Literature I (AH-2) | |
|
4 credits | |
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Study of representative literary works produced in continental Europe from classical Greece through the Renaissance. | ||
| ENG *241. | Survey of Continental European Literature II (AH-2) | |
|
4 credits | |
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Study of representative literary works produced in continental Europe from the 17th century to the present. | ||
| ENG *250. | Survey of British Literature I (AH-2) | |
|
4 credits | |
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Exploring British literature from its beginning to the end of the 18th century, from Medieval period through the Neo-Classical period. | ||
| ENG *251. | Survey of British Literature II (AH-2) | |
|
4 credits | |
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Exploring British literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, from the Romantic era to the present. | ||
| ENG *260. | Survey of American Literature I (AH-2) | |
|
4 credits | |
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Analyzing American literature from its beginnings to the Civil War, including the Puritan and Romantic periods. | ||
| ENG *261. | Survey of American Literature II (AH-2) | |
|
4 credits | |
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Examining American literature from the Civil War and the Realistic movement to the present | ||
| ENG *270. | Journalistic Writing | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 101 or Proficiency | ||
| Techniques of gathering and presenting information for the print media. Extended practice in reporting and news writing; writing complex news stories and in-depth reports, feature and editorial writing. | ||
| ENG *290. | Poetry Workshop I | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 190 and Permission | ||
| Exploring the craft of writing poems and practicing the habit of art. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. | ||
| ENG *291. | Fiction Workshop I | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 190 and Permission | ||
| Exploring the craft of writing short fiction and practicing the habit of art. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. | ||
| ENG *292. | Playwriting Workshop (AH-1) | |
|
4 credits | |
| Permission | ||
| Exploring the craft of writing short plays and practicing the habit of art. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. (Also listed as THD 292.) | ||
| ENG *293. | Creative Nonfiction Workshop | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 190 and Permission | ||
| Exploring the craft of writing creative nonfiction and practicing the habit of art. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. | ||
| ENG *299. | Independent Study | |
| 2-4 credits | ||
| Permission | ||
| ENG *320. | Critical Theory | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Surveys modern literary and critical discourse with emphasis on understanding and applying different theoretical approaches to literature.
Prerequisites for advanced studies in literature (ENG 340 through 368) are ENG 130, 131, 132, 133, or 134; and ENG 240, 241, 250, 251, 260, or 261. |
||
| ENG *340. | Women's Literature | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Studies in the literature of women from its beginnings in Julian of Norwich through Bradstreet and Woolf to the present. Includes historically and internationally diverse authors in a variety of genres. | ||
| ENG *351. | Chaucer | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of Chaucer's major works, including the Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde, and/or selected works of Chaucer's contemporaries. | ||
| ENG *353. | The English Renaissance | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Selected study of English Renaissance texts ranging from More's Utopia to Milton's Paradise Lost. Includes works by authors such as Marlowe, Spenser, Donne, Herbert, Jonson and Marvell. | ||
| ENG *354. | Shakespeare | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of Shakespeare's plays offering a representative survey of the major histories, comedies and tragedies. | ||
| ENG *355. | British Romantics and Victorians | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of the major 19th-century British writers from Blake to Hopkins. Includes such authors as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats and the Brownings, and such essayists as Wollstonecraft, Hazlitt, Carlyle and Pater. | ||
| ENG *356. | Modern British and Irish Literature | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of major British and Irish authors since 1900, including Yeats, Joyce, Eliot, Woolf and Beckett. | ||
| ENG *361. | Major American Writers to 1865 | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Examines in depth selected writers from the Revolution to the Civil War, with a special focus on the struggle to define an "American" literature. Includes such authors as Brown, Irving, Poe, Douglass, Jacobs, Dickinson, Melville, Hawthorne, Whitman and Stowe. | ||
| ENG *362. | Major American Writers, 1870-1940 | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Examines in depth the major writers that emerge at the turn of the century and the social and literary movements associated with them — including realism, naturalism, regionalism and the "New Negro" and women's movements. Includes such writers as Twain, Chesnutt, Hopkins, Wharton, James, Chopin, Crane, Norris and Dreiser. | ||
| ENG *364. | Studies in Drama | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Studies of issues and developments in English language drama from the Restoration to the present. Individual sections might be organized by themes, by period (i.e., Restoration or 20th-century drama), or by focusing on multiple works by playwrights such as Dryden, Behn, Farquhar, Shaw, O'Neill, Williams, Albee, Churchill, or Fugard. | ||
| ENG *365. | Studies in the Novel | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Studies of issues and developments in the English-language novel. Individual sections might be organized by themes, by periods (Victorian or modern novels), or by focusing on multiple works by authors as diverse as Defoe and DeLillo, Richardson and Rushdie, or Melville and Morrison. | ||
| ENG *366. | Modern American Literature | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Studies in American literature from post WWII to the present. Includes authors such as Stein, Hemingway, Cather, Hurston, W.C. Williams, Faulkner, Cummings, Wright, Steinbeck, Plath, Morrison and Walker. | ||
| ENG *367. | African American Literature | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of African American literature as a distinct tradition beginning with the experience of enslavement and influenced by African and African American oral cultural heritage. Examines the emergence of a Black Aesthetic across many genres, including poetry, fiction, autobiography, sermons, speeches and criticism. | ||
| ENG *368. | American Indian Literatures | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of the rich and varied literary tradition's roots in oral culture and its modern and contemporary expressions. Explores authors of diverse tribal affiliations and genres who address significant themes such as mixed-blood identity, reservation and urban life, the impact of near genocide, cultural preservation and resistance, and survival humor, among other topics. | ||
| ENG *370. | Journalistic Studies and Projects | |
|
4 credits | |
| ENG 270 or Permission | ||
| Variable topics: magazine article writing and marketing, extended literary journalism, history of journalism, print promotion and group publicity. | ||
| ENG *385-*386. | Practicum | |
| 2-6 credits | ||
| Permission | ||
| Application of concepts in language and writing through participation in journalistic, public relations and other work settings. Supervision by faculty and sponsoring organization. Includes interpretive journal and summarizing paper. | ||
| ENG *390. | Poetry Workshop II | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 190, 290 and Permission | ||
| Advanced workshop in the art and craft of writing poems. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. Creating a chapbook of poems and giving a public reading. | ||
| ENG *391. | Fiction Workshop II | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 190, 291 and Permission | ||
| Advanced workshop in the art and craft of writing fiction. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. Creating a chapbook of fiction and giving a public reading. | ||
| ENG *399. | Independent Study | |
| 2-4 credits | ||
| 24 credits completed in the Department with "B" average and Permission | ||
| ENG *420. | Senior Seminar | |
 |
4 credits | |
| ENG 320, 12 additional upper level English credits, and Senior Standing | ||
| A sustained investigation in the study of language and literature that draws upon the expertise developed in previous English courses. Topics will vary each term. Students will complete a seminar project and submit a portfolio of their writing in the major. | ||
| ENG *490. | Independent Study in Creative Writing | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 390 or 391, and Permission | ||
| ENG *499. | Independent Study | |
| 2-4 credits | ||
| 30 credits completed in the Department with "B" average and Permission | ||
| ENG *500. | Senior Thesis | |
|
1-4 credits | |
| Permission | ||