College Life
College Life
Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major
State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major
- University of Virginia
- Indiana University Bloomington
- University of Chicago
- University of California—Berkeley
- University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
Classes in the Major
American Literature. It's kind of hard to major in English without picking up a copy of Moby Dick, The Great Gatsby, or Catcher in the Rye. Or all three, for that matter. These novels are jam-packed with salacious tales of getting lucky, expelled from school, drunk, or pranked. You might take a class exclusively on Steinbeck or American poetry during the Civil War. Or, you might be asked to think about the changing style and subjects that American writers want to tackle in their works. Everything from Led Zeppelin to The Simpsons to Star Trek gives these classics a shout-out, so it's worth learning what they're all about.
British Literature. Long before the British invasion, English majors were reading stuff from across the pond from writers like John Milton, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, William Shakespeare (who you've probably never heard of), and Geoffrey Chaucer. British lit courses don't just ask you to read famous novels, poems, and sonnets. They also get you thinking about social class, national identity, love, and duty. Often you'll find a course on a specific author, or on one of these big, British lit ideas. The effects of these British big-timers on other writers (probably already on your bookshelf) will probably get covered at some point, too.
Creative Writing. Just like the name sounds, these courses get students to, um, write good. Whether this is done by imagining yourself as fire blazing through a field, by inventing an alien race that attacks Earth (real original there, Marvin), or just by scribbling down your emotions, a creative writing class will help you find your niche. After all that plot analysis, English majors get to tap into their creative side by trying their hands at writing. And who knows, maybe you'll just write the next big hit, like The Hunger Games or Twilight.
Postmodern Literature. If you guessed that this literary movement comes after Modernism, then you're well on your way to becoming an English major. Postmodernism is a fancy word for experimental writing that pushes the literary envelope…and often social boundaries. It's the literary equivalent of putting Mentos in Diet Coke and seeing what happens (spoiler alert: something messy and awesome). In these classes, lit nerds take a walk on the wild side by reading heavyweights like Faulkner and Vonnegut and checking out different ways that authors express themselves and the ethos of their times. No boring reads here.
Shakespeare. To read or not to read, that is the question. We all know about Shakespeare, but do any of us really know him? English majors sure do—they're on a first-name basis with ol' Billy here. After all, Shakespeare is often thought of as the best English writer of all time. We're talking getting to the meat of his juicy quotes and figuring out answers to the big questions, like, if Hamlet has really lost his marbles or if Romeo and Juliet could have lived happily ever after. There's a reason this Shakespeare's works have been translated into eighty different languages, and English majors are on a mission to see for themselves. Plus, his dirty jokes and wicked sense of humor make these classes worthwhile.