Degree Requirements
We are the stories we tell. As an English major at Sacred Heart University, you will have an opportunity to read and learn with a community of scholars and writers.
You will develop insights about human experience across time, geography, identity and perspective. Our graduates report that their training as English majors prepares them extremely well for jobs in public relations, advertising/marketing, law, teaching, journalism, publishing and more.
English Core Courses | 6 credits
This course introduces students to the techniques and methods of literary research.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
ENG 390 is for students in the literature concentration;
Prerequisite: Take ENG-210
Pre-1800 British & World Literature | 3 credits
Choose one
British Authors pre-18th century will be studied e.g. Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Marlowe and others.
Prerequisite: Take ENG-221
Major works of British poetry and prose, beginning with Old English and Beowulf and expanding through the literature of the Middle Ages with special emphasis on Chaucer and Elizabethan poets. Some drama, exclusive of Shakespeare, is included.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
This course studies British Literature from its earlier stages in Anglo-Saxon literature (pieces such as "Caedmon's Hymn" and "Beowulf"), to the Middle Ages, to the Elizabethan/Jacobean period, to the midand later seventeenth century including the metaphysical poets, Milton, and Dryden, and concludes with the literature of the eighteenth century. Sophomore level, required for English majors only.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125 or ENG 110
Explores a wide variety of plays from a literary as well as a theatrical perspective, with emphasis on Shakespeare's development as a dramatist and the relationship of his plays to their historical and cultural context.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
Examines the works of Jonson, Donne, Herbert, Marvell, some of the lesser-known metaphysical and Cavalier poets, and Milton. Prose writings of Browne, Burton, and Bunyan are also studied.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
Dryden, Pope, Swift, and Johnson are read, as well as Restoration dramatists (Congreve, Etherege, Wycherley) and early novelists (Defoe, Richardson, Fielding).
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
Post-1800 British & World Literature | 3 credits
Choose one
From the Age of Reason to the Age of Anxiety. Course highlights romantic writers such as Wordsworth and Keats, Victorians such as Dickens and Arnold, and modernists such as Joyce and Woolf. Sophomore level, required for English majors.
Prerequisite: Take ENG-221
Emphasis on the literature written during and immediately after the French Revolution and England's ensuing war with France. The relationship between the individual and political, social, and intellectual environments is studied. Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats are read.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
Explores the literature of Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Dickens, Eliot, Newman, Ruskin, Pater, Swinburne, and others. Focuses on major writers of the period (1830-1901) beginning with the poetry and concluding with studies in the Victorian novel.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
Addresses modernism as it is shaped and constructed in the classic texts of Conrad, Woolf, Yeats, Joyce, Lawrence, and others.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
This course will focus on contemporary literature written by women from former British colonies in South Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, examining themes related to the postcolonial experience.
This course introduces students to the richness of Irish tradition from the Irish Revival to new Irish writing.
Prerequisite: Take ENG-201
This course will explore Ireland's major dramatic movements, events, themes, and controversies, from the founding of the Abbey Theatre to the riots against J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World to a series of plays that address "the Troubles" of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
Prerequisite: Take ENG-201
Pre-1860 American Literature | 3 credits
Choose one
Focuses on Colonial American writing from 1620 to 1800. Bradford, Edwards, Taylor, and Franklin are studied.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
This course will examine important writers in America from its Colonial beginnings to the Civil War.
Prerequisite: Take FYWS-125
African-American literature from 1790 to 1900, including the slave narratives, the mockingbird school, and folk poetry.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
Post-1860 American Literature | 3 credits
Choose one
In this course we will read, discuss, and write about texts written by major Black and Latinx writers from the modern and contemporary periods. We will analyze works from a variety of genres - poetry, sermons, speeches, fiction, song and film. We will examine what these texts show us about the intersection of national origin, race, racism, identity and community, gender, sexuality, and class with American culture and its values.
A study of transcendentalists: Hawthorne, Melville, Poe.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
A one-semester survey of the most important works of American literature. Required for English majors only. A prerequisite to ENG 223, ENG 224, ENG 225, ENG 226, ENG 227, ENG 228, ENG 229, ENG 230, ENG 233, ENG 234, ENG 235, ENG 236, ENG 239, ENG 240, ENG 241, ENG 242, and ENG 244
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS-125
Deals with current American authors; course description varies each time the course is offered.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
A consideration of Black writers from Dunbar and Chesnutt to the present. Study of Harlem Renaissance writers including Wright, Ellison, Hayden, Brooks, Tolson, Baldwin, Baraka, and the Black arts movement. Emphasis on the relation of the works to traditional images of Blacks in America and to themes found in American literature as a whole.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
This course examines the writings of African- American women. The specific authors change each time the course is offered.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
One of the most dramatic and vibrant developments in American literature to occur after World War II has been the outpouring of multicultural writers. In this course we will read fiction by a variety of multicultural or Ethnic American (Jewish, Irish, Italian, Native, African, Asian, Hispanic, Caribbean, Middle Eastern) writers and examine how these different groups in the United States grapple with the culture, language, and values of the dominant culture. We will look at the influence of race, class, and gender, with special consideration to identity and community in this fiction.
Prerequisite: TAKE FYS
This course surveys American literature from the early national period to the present, with an emphasis on twentieth-century texts. Students will read a wide variety of texts in different genres, including the essay, the short story, poetry, and the novel. Since the majority of the students enrolled in this course plan to teach at the elementary level, the course will emphasize close reading and other skills that will help the students make complicated ideas understandable and accessible.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
Pre-18th Century Literature | 3 credits
Choose one
British Authors pre-18th century will be studied e.g. Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Marlowe and others.
Prerequisite: Take ENG-221
Major works of British poetry and prose, beginning with Old English and Beowulf and expanding through the literature of the Middle Ages with special emphasis on Chaucer and Elizabethan poets. Some drama, exclusive of Shakespeare, is included.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
Explores a wide variety of plays from a literary as well as a theatrical perspective, with emphasis on Shakespeare's development as a dramatist and the relationship of his plays to their historical and cultural context.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
Examines the works of Jonson, Donne, Herbert, Marvell, some of the lesser-known metaphysical and Cavalier poets, and Milton. Prose writings of Browne, Burton, and Bunyan are also studied.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
English Major Electives | 12 credits
- Four English courses
Required Supporting Courses | 6 credits
- 1 year of Foreign Language
All English majors must complete one year (two consecutive semesters) of a Foreign Language with a grade of C or better. Permission to fulfill this requirement in a different way may be obtained from the Department Chair and will be granted at the Chair's discretion.
Language Placement Instructions
Policy Statement Regarding the English Major Survey Courses
The three English survey courses—ENG 221, 222, 238 —are foundational to the English major and must be taken by every English major, irrespective of concentration, usually in his or her sophomore year. The courses are normally taken in sequence over two semesters. Until they have been taken, no upper-level literature course may be taken without the permission of the Department Chair. Nor can upper-level literature courses be taken simultaneously with any one of the survey courses without the permission of the Department Chair. Students declaring the major later than their sophomore year and transfer students should consult with their advisors and, if necessary, the Department Chair about their course sequences.
Like all major courses, the three surveys must be passed with a grade of “C” or higher to count toward satisfying major requirements. These courses cannot be repeated. Students are given only one chance to pass them. (A student withdrawing within the first two weeks would not be deemed to have “taken” the course and consequently could register to take it at a later time.)
After passing all three of the surveys, students will be eligible to enroll in any English course. An English major failing to receive at least a grade of “C” in any of the survey courses should consult with the Chair of the Department of Languages & Literature.
Regardless of your chosen field, strong writing, critical thinking, and the ability to communicate effectively are invaluable skills in the professional world. The English major at Sacred Heart provided me with all of this and so much more. The close interaction with the department’s dedicated professors made every class meaningful and enriching, and I believe their guidance played an important role in setting me on a path to personal success and fulfillment. ~Nick Marino, '18