Course Requirements
English Literature courses are a cornerstone of Pitt-Greensburg's liberal arts curriculum expected of all majors, and our courses serve to fulfill General Degree requirements in Literary Traditions (LT) and Humanities (HM). Our elective courses are often populated by students from many different majors and backgrounds. Core classes usually attract a greater concentration of English Literature majors and minors, who get to know each other and their professors very well as a friendly and supportive community.
The English Literature Major program sheet lists the official course requirements, including the six core courses. We teach our core classes for the English Literature major on a set rotation during the Fall and Spring semesters, so that each class is offered once per academic year. (We do not offer core courses in the summer sessions.) Here is our core course rotation schedule:
- Englit 1125 Renaissance in England (offered each Fall)
- Englit 1175: 19th-Century British Literature (offered each Fall)
- Englit 1325: Modernist Tradition (offered each Fall)
- Englit 1100 Medieval Imagination (offered each Spring)
- Englit 1012 18th-Century British Literature (offered each Spring)
- Englit 1215: Pre-20th-Century American Literature
(offered each Spring)
- Englit 1950: Senior Capstone in English Literature (offered each Spring) **You should take the capstone after completing most of the core classes. Often our students take one last core class in the spring semester when they take capstone.**
You need not take the six core classes in a particular order, but you will find that each course offers many connections with the others. (For example, the Renaissance and 18th-century courses strongly relate to what we discuss in 19th-century British Literature, so that Englit 1175 could be good preparation for the courses covering earlier material, or could be equally useful to take after those courses.) You may not wish to take more than two core courses in the same semester, since they usually require rather intensive reading and writing.
Recent Update: the W course
As of the 2011-2012 school year, ENGCMP 1158: Grammar and Copyediting is now the designated W course for English Literature and English Writing majors. For English majors beginning their freshman year in 2011-2012 or later, this course is mandatory. For all other students, this course is strongly recommended and can be used to replace the general requirement for ENGCMP 0030. ENGCMP 1150 will be offered beginning in Spring 2012.
Please see our posted course descriptions, and feel free to ask us for more information, or about which electives we plan to offer in the near future. Electives like Reading Poetry, The Short Story, Satire, Jane Austen: Books and Film, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Romance, Literature of the American West, and Development of the Novel (among many others) are not offered on a set schedule, but we do try to offer an interesting variety each term.
Our majors will find the Distribution of Credits sheet useful to refer to in plotting out which courses to take each term. Students should always bring an up-to-date DOC sheet with them when visiting academic advisors to plan their coursework. We strongly encourage English Literature majors to seek out one of our faculty to be their advisor as soon as possible, since we can provide detailed perspective on our coursework as well as big questions about career possibilities or graduate work. Ask one of us faculty, and we'll be glad to advise you.
