Aerial view of campus with Williamsport, the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Mountain as a backdrop

English (ENGL, CRWR)

Professors: S. Feinstein (Chair), Hafer, Leiter, Preston
Associate Professor: Andrews
Assistant Professors: Braham, Wagner
Lecturers: Hebert-Leiter, Wheeler

  • Majors: Literature, Creative Writing
  • Courses required for either major: 10
  • Capstone requirement for Literature: ENGL 421 and Portfolio
  • Capstone requirement for Creative Writing: CRWR 411 or 412
  • Minors: Literature, Writing

Major Requirements

The department offers two majors in English: Literature and Creative Writing.

Literature (ENGL)

Designed for students who choose English as a liberal arts major that prepares them for a wide range of career options; for students who choose English as their subject area for early childhood certification or who wish to earn secondary certification in English; for students who wish to improve their verbal and analytic ability in preparation for a specific career, such as technical writing, business, or law; and for students who intend to pursue graduate study in British or American literature.

A minimum of ten courses is required for the Literature major. Required courses are ENGL 217, 220, 221, 421; two courses selected from ENGL 222, 223, and 229; two from ENGL 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 331, 332, 334, and 337; one from ENGL 335 and 336; one elective beyond composition in either English or Creative Writing; and a departmentally-approved Portfolio.

Students who wish to earn secondary teacher certification must complete a minimum of twelve courses in English. Required courses are ENGL 217, 219, 220, 221, 335, 336, 421; two courses from ENGL 222, 223, 229; two courses from ENGL 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 331, 332, 334, and 337; one elective beyond composition in either English or Creative Writing; and a departmentally-approved Portfolio.

Students who intend to pursue graduate study in British or American literature should complete the twelve English courses specified for secondary certification and take ENGL 449, Advanced Criticism, as their English elective.

Capstone Requirement

Senior majors must successfully complete ENGL 421. They must also hand in a portfolio of writing during the first week of their final semester. The portfolio must include four major papers from English courses and a self-assessment essay.

Diversity and Writing Courses

The following course satisfies the Domestic Cultural Diversity Requirement: ENGL 222, 229, and 337. The following courses satisfy the Global Cultural Diversity Requirement: ENGL 220, 221, 225, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 335, and 336. The following courses satisfy either the Domestic or Global Diversity Requirement: ENGL 218, 219, 332, and 334. A list of courses that, when scheduled as W courses, count toward the Writing Requirement, can be found on the Registrar’s website and in the GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS section of the catalog.

Minor Requirements

The English Department offers minors in Literature and Writing (see Creative Writing). The Minor in Literature requires five courses in literature, at least three of which must be numbered 300 or above.

106
COMPOSITION
Extensive practice in analytical writing. Special emphasis on developing the composing skills needed to articulate and defend a position in various situations requiring the use of written English. Credit may not be earned for both 106 and 107.

107
HONORS COMPOSITION
Extensive practice in analytical writing. Special emphasis on developing the writing skills of students who have the potential to benefit from advanced work. Placement by examination only. Credit may not be earned for both 106 and 107.

115
INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE: SELECTED TOPICS
An introduction to the study of literature organized topically according to each instructor. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of the instructor, May be repeated for credit when topics are different. 

217
CRITICAL WRITING SEMINAR
An introduction to writing critically about literary texts. Workshop setting offers intensive practice in the writing and critiquing of papers. Designed for beginning students of literature. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Not open to juniors or seniors except for newly declared majors or with consent of instructor.

218
CLASSICAL AND MODERN RHETORIC
An exploration of the province, content, strategies, and techniques comprising ancient and modern discourse, with particular emphasis on written lines of argument. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills a Humanities Distribution Requirement. Fulfills either Domestic or Global Cultural Diversity Requirement.

219
HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
A study of the origins and development of the English language. It examines how linguistic change and historical forces have shaped our common tongue, using representative readings in Old, Middle, Early Modern, and Present Day English. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills either Domestic or Global Cultural Diversity Requirement.  Alternate years.

220
BRITISH LITERATURE I
A survey of literary forms, dominant ideas, and major authors from the Anglo-Saxon period through the 18th century. Includes a brief study of language development to Chaucer and emphasizes writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Swift, Pope, and Johnson. Prerequisite: ENGL 106,107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills Global Cultural Diversity Requirement.

221
BRITISH LITERATURE II
Literary movements and authors from the beginnings of Romanticism to the end of the 19th century. Particular emphasis on such writers as Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Arnold, Hardy, and Yeats. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills Global Cultural Diversity Requirement.

222
AMERICAN LITERATURE I
Survey of American literature from the beginning to 1865, with emphasis on divergent perspectives of the popular national narrative. Authors studied include: Anne Bradstreet, Benjamin Franklin, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills Domestic Cultural Diversity Requirement.

223
AMERICAN LITERATURE II
Survey of American literature from 1865 to 1945, emphasizing such authors as Twain, James, Crane, Hemingway, Faulkner, Frost, Eliot, Stevens, O’Neill, and Williams. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor.

225
CLASSICAL LITERATURE
A study, in translation, of Greek and Roman works that have influenced Western writers. Literary forms studied include epic, drama, satire, and love poetry. Writers include Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Virgil, Juvenal, Horace, Lucretius, and Ovid. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills Global Cultural Diversity Requirement.

229
AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE
A survey of major works and authors of African American literary history from slavery to the present, focusing on such authors as Douglass, J. W. Johnson, Hurston, Hughes, Wright, Ellison, and Morrison. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills Domestic Cultural Diversity Requirement.

311
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
Readings in Old and Middle English poetry and prose from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Study of lyric, narrative, and romance with emphasis on the cultural context from which these forms emerge. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills Global Cultural Diversity Requirement. Alternate years.

312
BETWEEN ANGELS AND DEMONS: THE LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE
An examination of themes and literary forms of the Renaissance. Authors include Donne, Marlowe, More, Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser, and Surrey. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills Global Cultural Diversity Requirement. Alternate years.

313
RESTORATION AND 18TH-CENTURY LITERATURE
Consideration of selected themes, writers, or modes of Restoration and 18th-century literature (1660-1800) with emphasis on the social, political, and intellectual life of that era. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills Global Cultural Diversity Requirement. Alternate years.

314
ROMANTIC LITERATURE
Concentrated study in the writers, texts, and themes of the Romantic period (1789-1832) with emphasis on the social, political, and intellectual life of that era. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills Global Cultural Diversity Requirement. Alternate years.

315
VICTORIAN LITERATURE
Concentrated study in the writers, texts, and themes of the Victorian period (1832-1901) with emphasis on the social, political, and intellectual life of that era. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills Global Cultural Diversity Requirement. Alternate years.

331
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY FICTION
Examination of the novels and short fiction of such major writers as Conrad, Woolf, Joyce, Faulkner, Fowles, and Nabokov with special emphasis on the relationship of their works to concepts of modernism. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor.

332
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY POETRY
Studies in the themes and visions of modern and contemporary poets, beginning with Yeats and the American Modernists, covering a variety of central movements (such as the Harlem Renaissance), and concluding with a range of multicultural authors. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills either Domestic or Global Cultural Diversity Requirement.

334
WOMEN AND LITERATURE
An examination—literary, social, and historical—of literature by women representing diverse cultures. Each course examines a particular theme significant to women writers from more than one cultural background. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills either Domestic or Global Cultural Diversity Requirement. Alternate years.

335
CHAUCER
A study of representative work in the context of Chaucer’s life and times. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of the instructor. Fulfills Global Cultural Diversity Requirement. Alternate years.

336
SHAKESPEARE
A study of representative plays in the context of Shakespeare’s life and times. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Fulfills Global Cultural Diversity Requirement. Alternate years.

337
ENVIRONMENTAL LITERATURE
An examination of environmental thinking and activism through primarily American twentieth-century and contemporary environmental literature, including novels, short stories, and creative nonfiction. Topics may include environmental justice, ecofeminism, environmental racism, and Indigenous futurism. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Alternate years. Fulfills Domestic Cultural Diversity Requirement.

421
ADVANCED TOPICS IN LITERATURE
An upper-level literature course governed either by concept (such as a theme or movement) or author (one to three figures). Topics vary according to instructor. Prerequisite: At least one English course numbered 218 and above or consent of the instructor. May be repeated once for credit with consent of department. Alternate years.

449
ADVANCED CRITICISM
Reading and discussion in the theory and history of criticism. Examination of both traditional and contemporary ideas about the value and nature of literary expression and its place in human culture generally. Work in the course includes practical as well as theoretical use of the ideas and methods of critical inquiry. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Alternate years.

470-479
INTERNSHIP 
The department provides internships in editing, legal work, publishing, and technical writing.

N80-N89
INDEPENDENT STUDY 
Recent studies include the role of Pennsylvania in the fiction of John O’Hara, the changing image of women in American art and literature (1890-1945), the hard-boiled detective novel, contemporary women writers, and Milton’s use of the Bible in Paradise Lost.

490-491
INDEPENDENT STUDY FOR DEPARTMENTAL HONORS 
Recent projects include “The Function of the Past in the Fiction of William Faulkner” and “Illusion, Order, and Art in the Novels of Virginia Woolf.”

Creative Writing (CRWR)

Designed for students who aspire to careers as professional writers, as editors, and as publishers; for students who plan to continue studies in an M.F.A. or M.A. program; or for students who would like to discover their creative potential while pursuing a fundamental liberal arts education.

A minimum of ten courses is required for the Creative Writing major. Required courses are CRWR 240; two courses selected from ENGL 220, 221, 222, 223, 225, and 229; two from ENGL 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 334, 337, and 421; one from ENGL 331 and 332; one from ENGL 335 and 336; two from CRWR 341, 342, 441, and 442 (note prerequisites); and one from CRWR 411 or 412.

Students who wish to earn secondary teacher certification must complete a minimum of twelve courses in English. Required courses are CRWR 240; ENGL 219, 220, 335, and 336; one course from ENGL 221, 222, 223, 225, and 229; two from ENGL 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 334, 337, and 421; one from 331 and 332; two from CRWR 341, 342, 441, 442 (note prerequisites); and one from ENGL 411 and 412. ENGL 217 recommended.

Capstone Requirement

Senior majors must successfully complete either CRWR 411 or 412.

Diversity and Writing Courses

The following course satisfies the Domestic Cultural Diversity Requirement: ENGL 229. The following courses satisfy the Global Cultural Diversity Requirement: ENGL 115, 220, 221, 225. 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 335, and 336. The following courses satisfy either the Domestic or Global Diversity Requirement: ENGL 218, 332, and 334. A list of courses that, when scheduled as W courses, count toward the Writing Requirement, can be found on the Registrar’s website and in the GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS section of the catalog.

Minor Requirements

The English Department offers minors in Literature (see ENGL) and Writing. The Minor in Writing requires five courses, four of which are chosen from CRWR 240, 322; ENGL 217, 218, or 219; plus one writing focused (“W”) course in literature at the 300 level.

240
INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING
The gateway course for students intending to major in the Creative Writing major. Appropriate for Distribution if the student has demonstrated proficiency in writing. Workshop discussions, structured exercises, and readings in literature provide practice and instruction in the writing and evaluation of poetry and fiction. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor.

322
ADVANCED WRITING: THE CREATIVE ESSAY
Students from all disciplines learn to explore and define themselves through the essay, a form used to express the universal through the particular and the personal. Readings include essayists from Montaigne to Gould. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 107, or consent of instructor. Alternate years.

341
POETRY WORKSHOP I
An intermediate workshop focusing on the writing of poetry and methods of analysis. Prerequisite: Grade of B or better in CRWR 240 or consent of instructor.

342
FICTION WORKSHOP I
An intermediate course in the writing of short fiction in a workshop environment, where the student is trained to hear language at work. Emphasis on characterization and story. Prerequisite: Grade of B or better in CRWR 240 or consent of instructor.

411
FORM AND THEORY: POETRY
An advanced workshop in which students are asked to write in various poetic forms, such as the sonnet, villanelle, sestina, and pantoum. Prerequisite: CRWR 341 or consent of instructor. Alternate years.

412
FORM AND THEORY: FICTION
Examines philosophical and aesthetic theories of fiction, and the resulting fiction based on those theories. Authors will most likely include Aristotle, Calvino, Gardner, Gass, and Nabokov. Prerequisite: CRWR 342 or consent of instructor. Alternate years.

441
POETRY WORKSHOP II
An advanced workshop in the writing of poetry. Students receive intensive analysis of their own work and acquire experience in evaluating the work of their peers. Prerequisite: ENGL 341.

442
FICTION WORKSHOP II
An advanced course in the writing of short fiction. Emphasis on the complexities of voice and tone. The student is encouraged to develop and control his or her individual style and produce publishable fiction. Prerequisite: ENGL 342.