English Department::Keene State College

The New English Major

The English department led the college into a period of curricular change in 2003 when we converted from 3-credit to 4-credit courses. Faculty and students have experienced a number of positive changes in 4-credit courses that are consistent with the objectives of the English program as well as the college’s efforts to deepen the intellectual environment for undergraduate study: more consistent and challenging writing instruction; more in-depth class discussion; more individual and small-group conferences; more varied and innovative pedagogical approaches; more one-on-one interaction with students; and more individualized help to talented students who need to be challenged as well as less skilled students who need extra help. Little did we know that teaching four-credit courses, and continuing our ongoing program assessment, would lead us through two-years of intensive curricular work.

During the 2006-07 academic year we will begin implementation of a redesigned English major. We are confident that the new major will better meet the needs of our students. The major changes to the English curriculum fall in the following areas:

Historical background
We currently have one introductory course to the major (ENG 209 Literary Analysis) that focuses on writing and an introduction to literary genres. However, our students also need a course that provides a more comprehensive introduction to the history of literary movements and periods. We have therefore designed a second introductory course that will be part of a two-course sequence: ENG 200 Literary Analysis and ENG 300 Literary Form and History. The second course will focus on in-depth work with one of the genres introduced in the first course of the sequence; students will then study the development of this genre over time.

Preparation for 400-level work
The department currently requires three 400-level courses. However students seldom have the necessary background for the advanced work we would like to see them doing at this level. For example, students may take a 400-level Black American Women Novelists course without ever having studied Black American literature or the American novel. The advanced sequence will combine two courses so that the 300-level course serves as a foundation for the work at the 400-level.

Further strengthening student’s critical writing and reading abilities
The advanced work that we expect from students is predicated on the idea that they will continually improve their ability to understand, interpret, and analyze the complexities of difficult texts. The new major will use small class size (20 in the first sequence and 20 in the advanced sequence) to ensure more one-on-one interaction with students, more individualized help for students who need it, more opportunity for students to practice their critical skills, and more consistent and challenging writing instruction.

The importance of literary theory
While we currently have a critical theory requirement at the 400-level, too often students come the course unprepared. They may, for example, take a theory course in Romantic Literary Theory having never studied the Romantic period. In the new major all 400-level courses incorporate critical theory with the historical background foundation of 300-level courses and the advanced sequence ensuring that students will study theory with the necessary background. We are also decreasing our 400-level requirement by one so that students can more easily select a 400-level course for which they are prepared.

Acknowledging changes in the discipline
Over the last three decades scholarly inquiry has blurred the once clear lines that defined literature in national terms. Our former curriculum design addressed this development by adding a Multicultural / Continental / World requirement. Any yet the name alone indicates the amorphous nature of this category. It is also the case that some of our courses fall into both American and Multicultural categories (American Indian Literature, Black American Literature). And while we require two American literature courses, students could fill this requirement by taking two courses that actually focus on non-traditional approaches. By examining the records of past students, we discovered that their way of fulfilling requirements was far more random than our distribution system would appear to allow.

The new major eliminates the distribution categories. It focuses on providing an overview of literary history in ENG 300 and an in-depth study of one literary area in the advanced sequence. Since we will offer the same range of courses we do now, and students will still choose their 9 courses from among them, we are confident that they will receive as much “coverage” of the different areas of literary study as they do now.

Flexibility
Under the current system, 8 of the 9 courses for the major fill requirements. This leaves students with only 1 elective. The new major will balance the new requirement of 4 core courses by allowing students to have the increased flexibility of up to five electives (selected with the help of an advisor). This flexibility will allow students to prepare for their future (graduate school, a specific career option) or to follow a particular area of interest.

Ensuring that students are challenged
We know from our assessment of former students’ schedules and from our enrollment data that students will seek courses in areas they are most comfortable studying. We know that they are able to do the work in other areas, but often need to be engaged in this study before they understand the richness of these areas or their own interest in them. The new major maintains one pre-1800 literary requirement so that students will need to study older texts and language.

Requiring students to take a multicultural literature course Currently our students must select two courses from among our Multicultural/Continental/World offerings. However students can still study very traditional and Western literature (Classical Literature of Greece, Bible as Literature, Russian Literature) and avoid taking any courses that expose them to the textual production of people who have been historically marginalized.

The new major strengthens our “multicultural” requirement by more carefully defining the category as “Differing Cultural Perspectives” and requiring students to take one course in this category. Courses within the program category “Differing Cultural Perspectives” begin with assumptions and encompass perspectives that identify them as part of the growing tradition of reading “multicultural texts.” The writers either focus on or are from particular groups of people that have historically been marginalized. This literature foregrounds the issues of marginalization and structural inequality in significant historical and literary ways: through narrative strategies, inclusion of new perspectives on historical events, use of literary discourse as a tool of cultural survival, challenges to the use of an “authorized” language as assimilation to the colonizer, to name a few. Although the texts often speak to and have been influenced by mainstream, Western assumptions and perspectives, the more pervasive assumptions of marginalized groups create new traditions and invite new pedagogies that have become important and recognizable in their own right.