English: Literature Concentration (BA)

Program Description

Paying deep attention to how humans use language and cultural signs is an ethical and spiritual discipline, one that teaches intellectual humility even as it empowers us to transfigure the world. Our programs in creative writing and literature foster each student’s capacity for empathetic understanding, imaginative insight, and compelling wordcraft. By exploring cultural productions (literature, film, technologies, social movements) of various peoples and time periods, our students learn how to wrestle—rigorously, inventively, and fearlessly—with complex human questions about race and class, gender and sexuality, faith and truth, and material Christian practices. By the time they graduate, students will have had extensive training in charitable critical thinking, analytical interpretation, persuasive argumentation, and intercultural competencies. These skills prepare students for a wide range of careers in areas such as publishing, marketing, and digital media; creative arts and entertainment; education and library science; law and governance; social advocacy and civil rights policy; medicine, environment, and other sciences; counseling, social work, and ministry; business and non-profits.

English Major: Literature Concentration

The literature concentration of the English major gives students a deep dive into literary history, literature that engages cultural difference and systems of power, and literature that explores how genre conventions have changed over time. This concentration provides students with extensive practice in literary analysis and criticism, training them to imagine and question the ways that texts exert their influence on the world. Some of the questions this major explores include the following: How does our past shape our present? How do language and images enforce or resist power? How does the way we say something affect the meaning of what we say? What wisdom and possibilities for reconciliation are offered by literature, film, and other cultural productions?

Both concentrations of the English major are well-suited for a wide variety of careers. The literature concentration is especially appropriate for students interested in teaching English or Language Arts at the middle school, high school or college level.

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon completing the English major, students should be able to

Interpret texts and cultural artifacts using “close reading,” a method of literary and cultural analysis that attends to a work’s genre, its linguistic and aesthetic features, and its effects on readers
Place literature and other media in a historical context, understanding how any text (and its criticism) is part of a “long conversation” over time and across space
Identify ways that texts can enforce, resist, or ameliorate problematic social systems of power
Articulate the value of literary ways of knowing, especially in regard to metaphor, ambiguity, irony, paradox, and mystery
Identify various literary and rhetorical strategies for putting Christian values in conversation with other religious and social perspectives
Produce analytical writing that asserts a clear and significant claim, marshals compelling evidence, charitably anticipates and addresses alternative interpretations, and responsibly integrates and cites researched sources
Articulate the value of recursive processes of drafting, revising, and sentence-level editing, whether in critical or creative writing

Entering and Completing the Major

In order to earn a degree, you must complete at least one academic major. SPU encourages students to explore various academic paths, so if you change your mind about a major, or want to include an additional program, you are able to do so, as outlined below.

Note that the University encourages you to enter your chosen major(s) as soon as you have determined it and are eligible to join it, especially by the start of your junior year. Students who transfer as juniors and seniors should enter a major within their first two quarters at SPU.

If this is your first quarter at SPU and you identified a major in this department as your first choice on your application for admission to the University, you have gained entry to the major. To change or add a major, follow these instructions.
If you are an SPU student with an SPU cumulative GPA of 2.0 or better, follow these instructions to enter a major in this department.
The University requires a grade of C- or better in all classes that apply to a major; however, programs may require higher minimum grades in specific courses. You may repeat an SPU course only once for a higher grade.
To advance in this program, meet with your faculty advisor regularly to discuss your grades, course progression, and other indicators of satisfactory academic progress. If your grades or other factors indicate that you may not be able to successfully complete the major or minor, your faculty advisor can work with you to explore options, which may include choosing a different major.
You must complete the major requirements that are in effect in the SPU Undergraduate Catalog for the year you enter the major.