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2024-2025 Academic Catalog
English, B.A.
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Return to: Departments, Majors, Concentrations
English
Member of the Division of Humanities
Chair(s):
Shuchi Kapila
Faculty:
Every English major at Grinnell receives a thorough grounding in the tools of literary analysis, studies the literary traditions of a variety of ages and places, and completes ambitious research projects. Many students also pursue creative writing, both within the English curriculum and through co-curricular events and publications.
The department offers students a range of choices as they pursue those ends. The flexible curriculum allows students to read American, British, Irish, and postcolonial literatures from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives. We represent the relationships among our courses, requirements, and departmental goals on our English curricular map. Within this curriculum, English majors develop their own questions and interests.
The major begins with a 100-level course in which students develop their analytical skills by paying close attention to texts and developing an awareness of contemporary approaches to literary study. The 200 level includes courses that introduce students to the practices of creative and argumentative writing; the traditions of American, African American, Multi-Ethnic American, British, Irish, and postcolonial literatures; and the theoretical tools of historical linguistics and gender studies.
Those courses provide the necessary background for the three 300-level seminars that every English major completes. Courses at the 300 level require more advanced work in literary study and creative writing; these courses train students in advanced skills of self-directed research and writing. To complement this intensive study of English as a discipline, English majors also complete at least introductory study of a foreign language and one course that involves an interdisciplinary approach to humanistic inquiry.
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Major Requirements: a minimum of 36 credits
A minimum of 36 credits in English, including at least 24 credits in the Department of English at Grinnell. Core Requirements: 20 credits
- ENG 120 - Literary Analysis 4 credits
or - ENG 121 - Introduction to Shakespeare 4 credits
- Four 200-level English courses - one from each of the following groups:
- Early literature (ENG 223 or ENG 227 )
- British or Postcolonial literature (ENG 223 , ENG 224 , ENG 225 ,or ENG 226 )
- American literature (ENG 227 , ENG 228 , ENG 229 , ENG 231 , ENG 232 )
- Genre or Methods (ENG 204 , ENG 205 , ENG 206 , ENG 207 , ENG 210 , ENG 230 , ENG 240 , ENG 273 , ENG 274 , or ENG 290 )
300 Level Requirements: 12 credits
- Three four-credit 300-level courses, excluding individual study, in the English department at Grinnell. At least two must be literature courses.
Elective: 4 credits
- One four-credit English course
Also required:
- One four-credit Humanities (HUM) or GLS course or a four-credit literature course taught in another language department at the 200-level or above.
- Knowledge of a non-native language at a level demonstrated by
- completion of second-semester college coursework in a non-native language, or
- examination at Grinnell showing equivalent competence.
Honors
To be considered for honors in English, graduating seniors must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 and a major GPA of 3.75 by the end of their seventh semester. In special circumstances students may be nominated by two or more faculty members for honors based on other scholarly achievements or contributions to the department.
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