Program Overview

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English Language and Literature

The University of Chicago's English Language and Literature program provides students with the opportunity to study works of literature and other expressive media. Courses address fundamental questions about topics such as the status of literature within culture, literary history, the achievements of a major author, the defining characteristics of a genre, the politics of interpretation, the formal subtleties of individual works, and the methods of literary scholarship and research.

Program of Study

The undergraduate program in English Language and Literature offers two tracks: the Standard Track and the Intensive Track. The Standard Track requires 12 courses, one of which may be taken outside the English Department. The Intensive Track qualifies students for Departmental Honors and requires 14 courses, two of which can be taken outside the English Department.

Program Requirements

• The Standard Track: Twelve English courses meeting the following distribution requirements:
  • One Introductory genre course (Poetry, Fiction, Drama, or Literary Criticism)
  • One English Course in Fiction
  • One English Course in Poetry
  • One English course in Drama
  • One English course in Literary or Critical Theory
  • One English Course in Medieval/Early Modern Literature
  • One English course in 18th/19th-century Literature
  • One English course in 20th/21st-century Literature
  • Four to eight English electives
  • Statement of Concentration in the Major (worth 0 units)
• The Intensive Track with Consideration for Departmental Honors: Twelve English courses meeting the following distribution requirements:
  • One Introductory genre course (Poetry, Fiction, Drama, or Literary Criticism)
  • One English Course in Fiction
  • One English Course in Poetry
  • One English Course in Drama
  • One English Course in Literary or Critical Theory
  • One English course in Medieval/Early Modern Literature
  • One English course in 18th/19th-century Literature
  • One English course in 20th/21st-century Literature
  • Four to eight English electives
  • Statement of Concentration in the Major (worth 0 units)
  • One of the following options:
    • Option A: BA Thesis
      • One English Research Methods course (ENGL 21312)
      • One BA Paper Preparation course (ENGL 29900)
    • Option B: Seminars
      • Two Advanced Seminars (ENGL 30000 level or above)

Course Distribution Requirements

• Introductory Genre Courses: Students must take at least one introductory genre course, which introduces students to techniques for formal analysis and close reading.
• Genre Distribution Requirements: Students are required to take at least one course in each of the genres of fiction, poetry, and drama, as well as in literary or critical theory.
• Historical Period Distribution Requirements: Students are required to study a variety of historical periods, including Medieval/Early Modern, 18th/19th-century, and 20th/21st-century literature.

Statement of Concentration in the Major

The purpose of the Statement of Concentration in the Major is to help students organize and give coherence to their individual program of study. By the end of the third week in Spring Quarter of their third year, students should submit their one-to-two-page statement to their departmental advisor and the Student Affairs Assistant, outlining their emerging scholarly interests.

BA Thesis

The BA Thesis is one option for students wishing to complete the Intensive Track of the English Major. To support the writing of the BA Thesis, students enroll in a Research Methods course (ENGL 21312) and the independent BA Project Preparation course (ENGL 29900) for one quarter credit.

Honors

Completion of an Intensive Major (with either a BA Project or Advanced Seminars) does not alone guarantee a recommendation for departmental honors. For honors candidacy, a student must have at least a 3.25 grade point average overall and a 3.6 GPA in the major.

Courses Outside the Department Taken for Program Credit

The student must meet with the Student Affairs Administrator, who will advise on petitioning the Director of Undergraduate Studies for course approval. Such courses may be selected from related areas in the University or taken from a study abroad program.

Creative Writing

Students who are not majoring in English Language and Literature or Creative Writing may declare the minor in English and Creative Writing. The minor requires six courses (600 units), with at least three creative writing courses and three English or Creative Writing electives.

Minor in English and Creative Writing

The minor in English and Creative Writing requires:

• One Fundamental Course
• One Beginning Workshop
• One Advanced Workshop
• Three CRWR or ENGL electives
• Total Units: 600

Reading Courses

ENGL 29700 (Reading Course) and ENGL 29900 (Independent BA Paper Preparation) require approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies. These courses may count as requirements for the major if they are taken for a quality grade and include a final paper assignment.

Grading

Students majoring in English must receive quality grades in all courses taken to meet the requirements of the program. Non-majors may take English courses for Pass/Fail grading with consent of instructor.

Advising

Students are encouraged to declare a major in English as early as possible, ideally before the end of their second year. Students who declare the major after their second year should contact the Student Affairs Administrator, who will make departmental advising arrangements.

The London Program

The London Program provides students with an opportunity to study British literature and history in the cultural and political capital of England. The program includes a number of field trips and a project-oriented course.

English Language and Literature Courses

A wide range of courses are offered, including:

• ENGL 10104: Reading Nonfiction Genres
• ENGL 10110: Intro to Porn Studies
• ENGL 10124: Poverty, Crime, and Character: 18th Century and Now
• ENGL 10134: Gertrude Stein
• ENGL 10144: Jane Austen and Literary Style
• ENGL 10158: The Origins of Modern Horror
• ENGL 10402: Reading the Rom-Com: Renaissance and Modern
• ENGL 10404: Introduction to Poetry
• ENGL 10405: Fantastical London: Literature, Film, Psychogeography
• ENGL 10411: Survival Guides: Apocalypse, Dystopia, and the End of the World
• ENGL 10412: Climate Fiction, Modernism, and the Future
• ENGL 10415: The Arts of Enchantment: Occultism and Modern Culture
• ENGL 10418: The Invention of Lesbian Literature
• ENGL 10422: Body Problems: Theorizing Fat and Thin in Early Modern English Literature
• ENGL 10426: Literature vs. AI
• ENGL 10432: Literature and the Law
• ENGL 10433: Chicago's World Fairs: Memory Work and the Archive
• ENGL 10434: Moby-Dick
• ENGL 10435: Black Noise
• ENGL 10438: Lies, Mess, Gossip
• ENGL 10440: Black Noise
• ENGL 10455: Madwomen
• ENGL 10600: Intro to Drama
• ENGL 10620: Literature, Medicine, and Embodiment
• ENGL 10709: Intro to Fiction
• ENGL 10800: Introduction to Film Analysis
• ENGL 11004: History of the Novel
• ENGL 11200: Intro to Literary Criticism
• ENGL 12125: Living Queer: Experiences, Encounter, Affinities
• ENGL 12143: Trans Literature in the United States
• ENGL 12320: Critical Videogame Studies
• ENGL 13000: Academic and Professional Writing (The Little Red Schoolhouse)
• ENGL 13404: From Serving to Sex Work: Fictions of Unproductive Labor
• ENGL 13512: The Future
• ENGL 13580: Introduction to Asian American Literatures
• ENGL 13582: Crime in Fiction
• ENGL 15600: Medieval English Literature
• ENGL 16500: Shakespeare: Histories and Comedies
• ENGL 16600: Shakespeare: Tragedies and Romances
• ENGL 17001: Shakespeare's Sonnets
• ENGL 17504: John Milton's Paradise Lost
• ENGL 17950: The Declaration of Independence
• ENGL 18250: Irish Literature and Cinema
• ENGL 18252: British and Irish Cinema Since 1930
• ENGL 18600: Zizek on Film
• ENGL 18660: The World's a Stage: Performance in Politics, Culture, and Everyday Life
• ENGL 18860: Black Shakespeare
• ENGL 19205: Poetry in the Land of Childhood
• ENGL 19500: Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley
• ENGL 20000: History of the English Language
• ENGL 20030: Short Russian Novels
• ENGL 20035: Graphic Design and Social Movements
• ENGL 20072: Frankenstein
• ENGL 20144: London Program: Institution and Revolution in Romantic Arts
• ENGL 20163: 9 Walks: Romantic London on Foot
• ENGL 20164: Speculative Aesthetics in Black British Art and Literature
• ENGL 20242: Structural -isms
• ENGL 20250: Means of Production I: Contemporary Literary Publishing (Books)
• ENGL 20252: Means of Production II: Contemporary Literary Publishing (Magazines)
• ENGL 20305: The Form of the Book
• ENGL 20306: Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
• ENGL 20308: Advanced Typography
• ENGL 20360: Shrews! Unladylike Conduct on Stage and Page in Early Modern England
• ENGL 20464: The Lives of Others
• ENGL 20565: Postcolonial Aesthetics
• ENGL 20566: Performing Skateboard Poetics: Style, Motion, and Space
• ENGL 20615: Aesthetic Encounters
• ENGL 20707: Dramaturgy: Theory & Practice
• ENGL 20818: Female Complaint from Sappho to Aphra Behn
• ENGL 21213: Literature and Philosophy: Knowing, Being, Feeling
• ENGL 21215: Hamlet: Adventures of a Text
• ENGL 21301: James Joyce: Ulysses
• ENGL 21312: Research Methods
• ENGL 21370: Ships, Tyrants, and Mutineers
• ENGL 21401: Advanced Theories of Gender and Sexuality
• ENGL 21420: Futures Other Than Ours: Science Fiction and Utopia
• ENGL 21701: The Power and Politics of Description: Ethnography, Documentary and Modernist Literature
• ENGL 21710: Rocks, plants, ecologies: science fiction and the more-than-human
• ENGL 21720: Science fiction against the state
• ENGL 21730: Rewild, repair, restore! Science fictions of life-making in the aftermath
• ENGL 21770: Ectogenes and others: science fiction, feminism, reproduction
• ENGL 21785: Black in Colonial America: Three Women
• ENGL 21822: Photography, Modern Literature, and the Archive
• ENGL 21854: Reading Capital
• ENGL 21882: Virginia Woolf: Love, Life, Writing
• ENGL 22011: Nabokov: Three Novels
• ENGL 22021: Collage Poetics
• ENGL 22048: Girlhood
• ENGL 22212: Special Topics in Criticism and Theory: Gender and Sexuality
• ENGL 22352: Black Game Theory
• ENGL 22408: Trans Genres
• ENGL 22434: Extinction, Disaster, Dystopia: Environment and Ecology in the Indian Subcontinent
• ENGL 22505: Seeing Islam and the Politics of Visual Culture
• ENGL 22560: Staging the University
• ENGL 22671: Orhan Pamuk
• ENGL 22680: Queering the American Family Drama
• ENGL 22817: Pale Fire
• ENGL 22930: Intro to Critical Race Theory
• ENGL 23002: Technê and Technique
• ENGL 23101: Indigenous Feminisms
• ENGL 23288: Black and White and Red in the City
• ENGL 23421: Transcontinental Romanticism
• ENGL 23550: Sorry, Not Sorry: The Literary and Political History of Apologies, Confessions and Defense Speeches
• ENGL 23600: Documentary Literature in the 20th and 21st Century
• ENGL 23708: The Poetry and Prose of Thomas Hardy
• ENGL 24024: Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Writing Reading
• ENGL 24240: Drama Queens: Women Playwrights in the Renaissance
• ENGL 24252: Black Quietude
• ENGL 24326: Politics and the Novel
• ENGL 24503: 20th Century American Drama
• ENGL 24510: Kawaii (cuteness) culture in Japan and the world
• ENGL 24526: Forms of Autobiography
• ENGL 24550: The Symbolic in the Age of Computation
• ENGL 24655: Forgeries and Flippancies: Literary "Fakes"
• ENGL 24788: Getting the 90s We Deserve
• ENGL 24951: Animals, Ethics and Religion
• ENGL 25318: Literary Radicalism and the Global South: Perspectives from South Asia
• ENGL 25540: New Caribbean Writing
• ENGL 25630: Family Sagas: Women's Writing from Africa and the African Diaspora
• ENGL 25700: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the Middle Ages
• ENGL 25805: Popol Vuh, Epic of the Americas
• ENGL 25810: Writing Dreams
• ENGL 25945: Digital Storytelling
• ENGL 25970: Alternate Reality Games: Theory and Production
• ENGL 25985: Postcoloniality and Modernity: Perspectives from South Asia
• ENGL 25988: James Baldwin
• ENGL 26002: Literature and Hunger
• ENGL 26017: Literary Biography
• ENGL 26018: Poetry and Trauma: Hayden, Lowell, Plath
• ENGL 26223: Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell
• ENGL 26230: Death Panels: Exploring dying and death through comics
• ENGL 26240: Monster Fictions
• ENGL 26249: Literary Lessons for Economists? The Financial Crisis of 2008
• ENGL 26411: Milton and Blake: Conceptions of the Christian Epic
• ENGL 26680: Literary Games: Oulipo and Onward
• ENGL 26710: Eccentric Moderns
• ENGL 26813: Poetry of the Americas
• ENGL 26855: Queer Theory
• ENGL 27102: Dissident Lit
• ENGL 27583: 21st Century American Drama
• ENGL 27660: Animality and Jewish Literature
• ENGL 27700: Sensing the Anthropocene
• ENGL 27701: Lyric Intimacy in the Renaissance
• ENGL 27718: Unnatural" Mothers: Reproduction on the Margins
• ENGL 28005: Arabfuturism: Other Worlds and Worlding Otherwise
• ENGL 28145: Greetings from Tralfamadore: Scientific and Religious Satire in the Fiction of Kurt Vonnegut
• ENGL 28211: Intro to Religion and Literature: Dramatic Encounters
• ENGL 28510: Mythologies of America: 19th Century Novels
• ENGL 28602: Black Queer Media (makers)
• ENGL 28603: Cinema & the Queer Avant-Garde
• ENGL 28619: Postcolonial Openings
• ENGL 28902: Dostoevsky: The Idiot
• ENGL 28916: Nabokov: Lolita
• ENGL 28917: Literatures of Russian and African-American Soul
• ENGL 28918: Comparative Literature - Theory and Practice
• ENGL 28926: The Romantic Fragment
• ENGL 28995: Queer Love Poetry
• ENGL 29300: History of International Cinema I: Silent Era
• ENGL 29600: History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960
• ENGL 29700: Reading Course
• ENGL 29705: Incarcerated Life
• ENGL 29710: Print and the Pro-Slavery International
• ENGL 29780: Lab Research
• ENGL 29830: BA Thesis Seminar
• ENGL 29900: Independent BA Paper Preparation

Contacts

• Faculty Director: Director of Undergraduate Studies, Benjamin Saltzman
• Administrative Contact: Student Affairs Administrator, Trevor McCulloch
• Listhost: english-undergraduate-

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