Undergraduate Information

Honors English Major

Honors Courses

H201: Honors—Selected Works of British Literature: Medieval through 1800

Honors section of a regular course; introductory critical study of the works of major British writers from 800 to 1800.

H202: Honors—Selected Works of British Literature: 1800 to the Present

Honors section of a regular course; introductory critical study of works of major British writers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

H220: Honors—Introduction to Shakespeare

Honors section of a regular course; study of selected plays designed to give an understanding of drama as theatrical art and as an interpretation of fundamental human experience.

H260: Introduction to Poetry

Honors section of a regular course, designed to help students understand and appreciate poetry through intensive study of a representative group of poems.

H261: Introduction to Fiction

Honors section of a regular course; intensive study of a number of short stories and novels to acquaint the student with some of the important themes and techniques of fiction.

H262: Introduction to Drama

Honors section of a regular course; a critical analysis of selected drama from Greek antiquity to the present, designed to clarify the nature and achievements of western dramatic art.

H280: The English Bible

Honors section of a regular course; a study of the Bible in English translation, with focus upon its nature as literature and its historical and cultural setting.

H296: Sophomore Honors Seminar: Literature and Intellectual Movements

Studies in the treatment of a given theme, idea, or problem in literature. Topic varies quarterly.

H367: Intermediate Essay Writing

Honors section of a regular course; extends and refines expository writing and analytic reading skills, with an emphasis on style and an introduction to documentation, with major topics pertaining to the United States.

H398: Critical Writing

Honors section of a regular course; intensive practice in writing various kinds of analyses of literary texts.

Each seminar provides an intensive study of one of the major periods of English and American literature. Each seminar focuses on the major authors and works which express the period and is designed to give the student knowledge not only of individual authors and works but also of connections among them and of the cultural milieu. Authors separated by the organization of the Department's regular courses (e.g., Chaucer and Malory, Shakespeare and Donne, Dryden and Johnson, Wordsworth and Emerson) can be studied together. Each seminar has a certain flexibility for the professor—in choice of writers and kinds of emphasis—but no seminar is treated as a "topic" course with a substance that changes radically with each professor. Periods offered vary quarterly.

590.01: The Middle Ages

590.02: The Renaissance

590.03: Eighteenth-Century British Literature

590.04: Romanticism

590.05: The Later Nineteenth Century

590.06: The Modern Period

590.07: Literature in English after 1945

590.08: Colonial and U.S. Literature

H591: Honors Seminars: Topics in English Studies

591.01: Special Topics in the Study of Creative Writing

591.02: Special Topics in the Study of Rhetoric

H598: Special Topics Honors Seminar

A study of selected problems (themes, movements, genres, styles) emphasizing continuity and development in English and American history. Topic varies quarterly.

H783: Senior Thesis

Independent research and writing under the guidance of a professor chosen by the student is required of all Honors students who are candidates for the degree with distinction. As the culmination of the Honors program for the degree with distinction, the thesis is a paper of approximately 8,000-10,000 words. The student defines his or her own topic, usually one on which he or she has done preliminary work in a course, and, in consultation with their Honors Adviser, elects a professor to serve as thesis adviser. The thesis is required to show the skill in expression, organization, and methods of literary study expected of a student graduating "with distinction" in English.