Major Requirements
Majors must complete eleven courses of which a minimum of seven must be taken from Bates faculty in the English department. Students may receive no more than two credits for junior semester abroad courses, and, normally, no more than two credits for junior year abroad courses. Under special circumstances, and upon written petition to the English department, junior year abroad students may receive credit for three courses. One course credit is granted for Advanced Placement scores of four or five, but these credits count only toward overall graduation requirements, not toward the eleven-course major requirement. No English Short Term courses can be counted toward the major.
The eleven courses required for the major must include one or two courses at the 100 level and nine or ten courses at the 200 level or above. Upper-level courses must include: a) three courses on literature before 1800; b) one course emphasizing critical thinking; c) two junior-senior seminars; and d) a senior thesis (English 457), which may be undertaken independently or as part of a junior-senior seminar (457A with a thesis written through 395A, for example). Although writing a thesis through a seminar may fulfill both a seminar requirement and the thesis requirement, it counts as a single course credit.
First-Year Seminar 291, 323, 333, 334, 335, 341, 359, and 379 may count toward the major as the equivalent of 100-level courses.
Students may count one course in creative writing toward the major.
Students may count any two literature courses outside the department toward the English major, including foreign literature courses (with a primary focus on literature rather on language instruction), or literature courses offered by the Department of Theater and Rhetoric (with a primary emphasis on literature not production). Foreign literature courses include those focusing on Greek and Latin literature; the English department strongly recommends that majors take a course in Homer, Virgil, Ovid, or classical mythology. These courses are listed under the Program in Classical and Medieval Studies.
Creative Writing
English majors may elect a program in creative writing. This program is intended to complement and enhance the English major and to add structure and a sense of purpose to those students already committed to creative writing. Students who wish to write a creative thesis must undertake this program.
Requirements for the focus on creative writing include:
1) Two introductory courses in the writing of prose (291), poetry (292), or drama (Theater 240).
2) One advanced course in the writing of prose or poetry (391 or 392).
3) Three related courses in the English department or in the literature of a foreign language.
4) A one- or two-semester thesis (nonhonors) in which the student writes and revises a portfolio of creative work.
Students who elect the creative writing concentration must fulfill all English major requirements but may count toward them one creative writing course as well as the related literature courses and thesis.
With departmental approval, students may write a two-semester honors thesis in the senior year. Majors who wish to present themselves as potential honors candidates are encouraged to register for at least one junior-senior seminar in their junior year. Majors who elect to participate in a junior year abroad program and who also want to present themselves as honors candidates must submit evidence of broadly comparable course work or independent study pursued elsewhere; such persons are encouraged to consult with the department before their departure or early in their year abroad. At the end of their junior year, prospective honors candidates must submit a two-page proposal and a one-page bibliography; those wishing to write a two-semester creative thesis must submit a one-page description of a project and a substantial writing sample. Both are due at the department chair's office on the first Friday of the Short Term.
Students planning to do graduate work should seek advice early concerning their undergraduate program, the range of graduate school experience, and vocational options. Graduate programs frequently require reading proficiency in up to two foreign languages, so it is strongly recommended that prospective graduate students achieve at least a two-year proficiency in a classical (Latin, Greek) or modern language.
Pass/Fail Grading Option
Pass/fail grading may not be elected for courses counting toward the major.
General Education Information for the Class of 2010
English Short Term courses taken in 2008, 2009, and 2010 may serve as an option for the fifth humanities course. First-Year Seminar 291, 333, 334, 335, and 341 may count toward the humanities requirement. Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or A-Level credit awarded by the department may not be used toward fulfillment of any General Education requirements.Through a wide range of course offerings, the department seeks to develop each student's capacity for reading - the intense, concerned involvement with textual expression. All courses are intended to foster critical reading, writing and thinking, in which "criticism" is at once passionate appreciation, historical understanding, and the perpetual re-thinking of values. Though we as a department embody a variety of teaching styles and interests, we all believe in the fine art of patient, engaged reading as both knowledge and pleasure.
Course offerings include surveys covering a major literary tradition (Romantic Literature), courses focusing on individual authors (Shakespeare, American Women Poets), and seminars on special topics (Dissenting Traditions in Twentieth-Century American Literature). Students may also take independent study courses, in which a single student works with a single member of the department on a topic of special interest to the student.
During Short Term, the department often offers opportunities to study in England: the plays of Shakespeare in performance in London and Stratford-on-Avon, and British writers and the British landscape. Some of our students spend all or part of their junior year studying at a British university. It is also possible to combine the English major with a year spent studying another language in non-English-speaking countries.
The department, which includes a poet, has ten members with degrees from Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, Michigan, Tufts, Virginia, and Yale.
Courses for First-Year Students and Prospective Majors
Departmental offerings are intended to be taken in sequence. Courses at the 100 level are open to all students, and prospective majors are encouraged to complete two of these courses during their first year at Bates. Especially appropriate for first-year students are the Colloquia in Literature, which introduce students to the study of literature from a variety of perspectives such as author, genre, and literary period. These courses not only delve into their particular subject matter, they also allow a preliminary discussion of critical vocabulary and method that carries over into more advanced classes. Discussion and frequent writing characterize each section (limited to twenty). Topics have included Contemporary American Poetry, Reading Race and Ethnicity in American Fiction, and the Brontës.
Career Opportunities
In any given term more than a third of the students at Bates are taking English courses. This is a measure of the importance of the study of our language and literature to a liberal education. For our majors we have two chief aims: to give them a solid education in their subject, and to prepare them for their careers. About one-third of our majors become teachers, either going directly into public- or private-school teaching or else going on to graduate school. Many of our English majors go to graduate school in library science, comparative literature, history, law, medicine, criminology, business administration, divinity, and other subjects. Two-thirds of our majors go directly into other careers such as publishing, journalism, banking, insurance, civil service, college administration, retail business, and social service. We, of course, do not train our majors for these individual careers; but fundamental to all of them is communication in the English language, an ability to express oneself clearly and intelligently and to understand others.
Creative Writing Program
English majors may elect to pursue the program in creative writing. The program is intended to complement and enhance the English major, to give structured opportunity and a sense of purpose to students committed to the writing of poetry or fiction. Requirements are the same as those for the English major, with the following additions and specifications: two introductory courses in fiction or poetry writing (open to first-year students); one advanced course in fiction or poetry writing; three allied literature courses, which will be useful to the student's development as a writer; and a senior thesis consisting of a portfolio of the student's fiction or poetry.
Literary Activities
The department supports a literary magazine, the Garnet, whose production is in the hands of a group of student editors. These editors also sometimes bring out special volumes such as the womyns voice. In addition, a new magazine of student academic writing, RE:Visions was recently started. Students engaged in the creative writing program present readings of their work, and we also bring poets, fiction writers, and the occasional literary critic to campus. Some who have visited in the past are Allen Ginsberg, Stephen Greenblatt, Robert Creeley, June Jordan, and Seamus Heaney.
For further information, please visit or call:
Yvette LaChapelle, Area Coordinator
Department of English
Pettigrew Hall, Room 210
Bates College
Lewiston, ME 04240
207-786-8294
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