Welcome

Through a wide range of course offerings the Department of English 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 rethinking of values. More specifically, the English major prepares students for careers such as teaching, publishing, and writing, for graduate study in literature, and for graduate programs leading to the study or practice of medicine or law.

Sylvia Federico and Jeremy Glover ‘17 at Leeds University

Sylvia Federico and Jeremy Glover ‘17 at Leeds University

Assistant Professor of English Eden Osucha teaches in Pettengill G10.ENG 241 - Fiction in the United StatesCritical readings of a diverse selection of novels and shorter fictions, ranging from works by earlier writers such as Hawthorne, Howells, James, Wharton, Jewett, and Chesnutt, to more recent writing from James Baldwin, Don DeLillo, Toni Morrison, Donald Barthelme, Sherman Alexie, and David Foster Wallace, among others. In addition to major directions in the history of American fiction, more recent developments concerning postmodernism, multi-ethnic literature, and emergent forms--graphic novels and electronic texts--are considered. Class discussions and writing assignments also address critical terms and methods. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course.

Eden Osucha’s students made memes out of lines from Henry James’s Ambassadors

Professor Emeritus Charles Carnegie (l) at a poetry reading by Myronn Hardy (r)

Professor Emeritus Charles Carnegie (l) at a poetry reading by Myronn Hardy (r)

The Mount David Summit is Bates’ annual campus-wide celebration of student academic achievement. The Summit highlights undergraduate research; student creative work in art, dance, theater, music and film/video; projects conducted in the context of academic courses; and community-engaged research. The Summit spotlights the rich intellectual life of our students. The event is sponsored by the Dean of the Faculty’s Office and the Student Research Program. Held in Pettengill Hall.

The Mount David Summit is Bates’ annual campus-wide celebration of student academic achievement. The Summit highlights undergraduate research; student creative work in art, dance, theater, music and film/video; projects conducted in the context of academic courses; and community-engaged research. The Summit spotlights the rich intellectual life of our students. The event is sponsored by the Dean of the Faculty’s Office and the Student Research Program. Held in Pettengill Hall.

Lillian Nayder taught a short-term course on Downton Abbey

Lillian Nayder taught a short-term course on Downton Abbey

Professors Federico and Nayder enjoying the sunshine

Though the department embodies a variety of teaching styles and interests, the faculty all believe in the art of patient, engaged reading as both knowledge and pleasure. Departmental offerings are intended to be taken in sequence. Courses at the 100 level are open to all students. Courses at the 200 level are more difficult in both the amount of material covered and the level of inquiry; they also address questions of theory and methodology in more self-conscious ways. Most 200-level courses have prerequisites. Seminars at the 300 level are generally for juniors and seniors who have completed several English courses (the latter requirement may be waived at the discretion of the instructor for certain interdisciplinary majors).