Bachelor in English with Literature Emphasis

Why Study English?

The English major at Aquinas prepares you for your career and for life through the study of literature and language. In our English Literature major, you will meet some of the greatest writers in the world and keep pace with current trends in such fields as women’s studies, minority literatures, world literature in English, and film studies. Our English Major with a Writing Emphasis will develop written skills, vital in any field your future may hold. Our writing and journalism minors offer you opportunities to express yourself and bring your writing skills to professional levels, no matter your major.

How We're Different

Alumni include published writers Zarah Moeggenberg (poet), Scott Southard (fiction), and Kate Dernecoeur (nonfiction), and academics Jennifer Marquart (teaches English in the People’s Republic of China), James Bromley, Ph.D. (Miami University of Ohio) and Rickie-Ann Legleitner, Ph.D. (Director of the Writing Center at Black Hills University). Courses include Harry Potter, jazz, utopias and dystopias, motherhood, gothic literature, and novels by Jane Austen. Our full-time professors publish in Contemporary Literature, Graffiti Rag, Sulphur River Literary Review, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, Leading Edge, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, Language Arts Journal of Michigan, The Explicator, The Journal of General Education, and other journals. Each year, the Contemporary Writers Series brings celebrated writers conduct workshops on campus, including Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney; author of The English Patient Michael Ondaatje; recipient of the National Book Award Jaimy Gordon; and popular performance poet Sarah Kay. English alumni are employed in such diverse fields as law, higher education, counseling and more. “The Sampler” literary magazine, published by our department for 27 years, features work by fifty student writers and artists in each issue. Writing Center Theory and Practice, trains consultants at the AQ Writing Center and provides valuable graduate education and future employment experiences. Majors with a grade point average of 3.6 and demonstrated outstanding scholarly and creative work can be inducted into Sigma Tau Delta honors society.

Major Requirements

Thirty-six (36) credit hours, exclusive of EH101, EH105, EH106, EH115, EH245, EH246, and EH247. At least eighteen (18) hours must be taken at Aquinas College.

Required courses must be fulfilled according to the following distribution:

• EH221;
• Nine (9) credit hours from the British Literature Core (EH361, EH362, EH363, EH364, EH365);
• Six (6) credit hours from the American Literature Core; at least one must be at the 300 level (EH273, EH370, EH371, EH372);
• Three (3) credit hours from each of the following six groups:
  • Composition (EH205, EH210, EH400*);
  • Genre/Thematic Studies (EH218, EH225, EH260, EH266, EH355, EH356);
  • Linguistics and Literary Theory (EH230, EH231, EH450);
  • Major Authors (EH401, EH410, EH451);
  • Diversity Studies (EH211, EH212, EH255, EH274, EH395)
  • Elective (any other English course, except those listed in sentence one of this description). In lieu of an elective, students seeking teacher certification are required to take EH388.

NOTE: Those seeking teacher certification are required to select courses marked with a *.

Courses

• EH221 Introduction to Literary Studies (3)
• EH361 Early British Literature (3)
• EH362 British Literature: 17th and 18th Centuries (3)
• EH363 British Romantic Literature (3)
• EH364 British Literature: Victorian and Early 20th Century (3)
• EH365 20th Century British and Irish Literature (3)
• EH273 Studies in American Literature (3) AC
• EH370 American Literature I: Colonial through Early Federal Period (3)
• EH371 American Literature II: 19th and Early 20th Centuries (3)
• EH372 American Literature III: 20th Century (3)
• EH205 Advanced Composition (3) WI
• EH210 Creative Writing (3) WI, AC
• EN400 Teaching Writing (3) (also listed as EH400)
• EH218 Modern Poetry (3)
• EH225 Literature and Motion Pictures (3) AC
• EH260 Catholic Writers (3) AC
• EH266 Studies in English Literature (3) AC
• EH355 The Novel I (3)
• EH356 The Novel II (3)
• EH230 Grammar of Modern English (3)
• EH231 History of the English Language (3) AC
• EH450 Literary Theory (3)
• EH401 Major Authors Seminar (3) SC
• EH/TE410 Shakespeare (3) SC
• EH451 Chaucer (3) SC
• EH211 World Literature (3) AC, GP
• EH212 World Literature in English (3) AC, GP
• EH/WS255 Women Writers (3) AC
• EH274 African-American Literature (3)
• EH395 Studies in Diversity (3)

The close-knit educational environment at Aquinas develops students who thrive in all dimensions of life. Learn more, in our students' words about the Aquinas experience and the Dominican pillars of prayer, study, service, and community.

The Dominican tradition is two-fold: contemplative and communal. At Aquinas, we are committed to gathering for liturgical prayer nourished by God's Word and the Spirit. Prayer leads us into the deeper Truth needed to live out God's call for us in the world. We commit ourselves to a love of learning, both formal and informal. This necessitates an openness to learn from the most unlikely sources as well as tried and true scholarship. Aquinas encourages students to engage in service projects and service-learning programs. It also offers preparation for careers that will enable graduates to spread the truths that they have learned - "to make a difference in the world."