About the Program
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
The major in English is designed to introduce students to the history of literature written in English, to acquaint them with a variety of historical periods and geographical and cultural regions of English language and writing, to create an awareness of methods and theories of literary and cultural analysis, and to provide continued training in critical writing.
Entry-level Writing Requirement
Students must have fulfilled the Entry Level Writing Requirement before taking any course in the Department of English. For further information, see the information contained in the Undergraduate Education section of this Guide.
Declaring the Major
Before declaring the major, students must have completed the Reading and Composition requirement of the College of Letters and Science, two declaration requirements, and have completed at least 30 units. For further information on major requirements, please see the Major Requirements tab on this page.
Honors Program
ENGLISH H195A-ENGLISH H195B is a two-semester course, graded IP at the end of the first semester. Honors in English cannot be granted without the successful completion of this course. Students who take ENGLISH H195A-ENGLISH H195B may choose to waive their ENGLISH 190 requirement. ENGLISH H195A is organized as a course in literary criticism working toward the formation of a thesis topic. ENGLISH H195B will include regular meetings with the thesis adviser plus small group meetings with the H195 instructor. During the second semester, each student will write an honors thesis of 40-60 pages. Completion of the thesis is required for a passing grade in the course. Students with an overall GPA of 3.51 or higher and a GPA of 3.65 or higher in courses taken at Berkeley for the English major are eligible to apply. Those accepted must enroll in ENGLISH H195A for the fall semester of their senior year. There may be more than one section offered per semester.
Minor Program
Students may register for the English minor once they have declared another major and completed one upper division course in the English department. At that time, students should fill out a Minor Registration Card to be kept on file in the Department of English Office. After completing the five courses or during their final semester at UC Berkeley, students should complete the Completion of the L&S Minor petition, have it reviewed by their major adviser and turn it in the English department.
Major Requirements
General Guidelines
- All courses taken to fulfill the major requirements must be taken for graded credit. Exceptions to this requirement (for elective courses only) are noted below.
- No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs, with the exception of minors offered outside of the College of Letters & Science.
- A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 must be maintained in both upper and lower division courses used to fulfill the major requirements.
For information regarding residence requirements and unit requirements, please see the College Requirements tab.
Major Requirements
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Foundational Courses | ||
| Literature in English: Through Milton [4] 1 | ||
| Literature in English: The Late-17th through the Mid-19th Century [4] 1 | ||
| Literature in English: The Mid-19th through the 20th Century [4] 1 | ||
| Select one course in Shakespeare: 2 | ||
| Shakespeare [4] | ||
| Shakespeare [4] | ||
| Shakespeare [4] | ||
| Shakespeare [4] | ||
| Shakespeare [4] | ||
| Pre-1800 Course 3, 4 | ||
| Select one upper division course in British, American, or Anglophone literature from an historical period before 1800; standard course offerings that meet this requirement include the following: | ||
| Introduction to Old English [4] | ||
| Anglo-Saxon England [4] | ||
| Medieval Literature [4] | ||
| Chaucer [4] | ||
| Middle English Literature [4] | ||
| English Drama [4] | ||
| English Drama [4] | ||
| The English Renaissance [4] | ||
| The English Renaissance [4] | ||
| Milton [4] | ||
| Literature of the Restoration and Early Eighteenth Century [4] | ||
| Literature of the Later 18th Century [4] | ||
| The English Novel [4] | ||
| American Literature: Before 1800 [4] | ||
| Seminar Course | ||
| Select one of the following: | ||
| Research Seminar [4] | ||
| Honors Course and Honors Course | ||
| Elective Courses | ||
| Select six courses from the offerings of the English department 5 | ||
| 1 | With approval and in consultation with a major adviser, the ENGLISH 45A/ENGLISH 45B/ENGLISH 45C requirements may be satisfied by substituting for each course two appropriate upper division courses. To meet the ENGLISH 45B and ENGLISH 45C requirements, one course equivalent must be in American literature and one must be in British literature in the appropriate historical periods. Any and all courses used to satisfy the ENGLISH 45A/ENGLISH 45B/ENGLISH 45C requirements must be taken for a letter grade. |
| 2 | Students may not use ENGLISH 117T to satisfy this requirement. |
| 3 | ENGLISH 107, any Shakespeare course, or a course outside of the department that does not include a substantial amount of literature in English may not be used to fulfill this requirement. |
| 4 | Certain designated sections of ENGLISH 190 or other courses may satisfy this requirement if designated as such by the instructor. Please consult the department's announcement of classes for current offerings. |
| 5 | Two of the six elective courses may be taken Pass/No Pass. This includes ENGLISH 98, ENGLISH 98BC, ENGLISH 99, ENGLISH 198, ENGLISH 198BC, and ENGLISH 199. Students may use up to 4 units of these independent study courses to satisfy the elective requirements. |
Additional Information
- Internships: Students wishing to receive academic credit for an internship must coordinate with an English Department faculty member who agrees to sponsor an independent study course (99/199) based on the internship. Students should provide the faculty member with official documentation from their internship employers. Credit is based on completion of critical or creative work on a topic related to the internship. No more than 2 units will be awarded per internship. Please note that students must register for Summer Session, session C, for summer internships.
- Extra-Departmental Course Work: The options below are provided for enrichment and flexibility, not to replace regular semester courses within the department. Students approved to use two or more courses toward the English major from Education Abroad Programs (EAP) will not be permitted to count additional upper division course work from other UC Berkeley departments. With the exception of two UC Berkeley English Department summer courses, all of the following must be approved by a major advisor and recorded on the student's major record card.
- Summer Session Courses: Two 3-unit Summer Session courses taken at UC Berkeley may be counted toward the major, one of which must be taken through the English department. One of these courses may be taken at another institution with approval. This includes courses taken through Education Abroad Programs. Courses taken through the English department at UC Berkeley during Summer Sessions do not require major advisor approval. For courses taken elsewhere (or outside the major, see below), students must petition for approval by providing documentation, including a course syllabus and a transcript showing the completion of the course. A course taken elsewhere during the summer may only satisfy an elective for the major.
- Courses taken outside the department: With the approval of a major adviser, students may count up to two upper division courses in departments other than English for the major. Only one such course may be taken during the summer. Students will submit a Petition for Approval of a Course Taken Outside the Department to a major adviser. This form can be found at the front desk in 319 Wheeler Hall. The student's request for course approval will include a course syllabus and a compelling intellectual rationale, one that explains how the student's work for the English major will be enriched through the inclusion of the particular outside course the student wishes to include. There is no preapproved list of courses. For possible courses outside English, consult the listings for anthropology, Celtic studies, comparative literature, ethnic studies, history, linguistics, philosophy, rhetoric, women's studies, etc.
- Education Abroad Programs: A faculty major adviser determines credit toward the major for coursework completed through an Education Abroad Program on a case-by-case basis. Students should submit documentation (e.g., course descriptions, syllabi, completed exams, papers, and other written work) to demonstrate that the education abroad course is comparable in coverage, rigor, and substance to a UC Berkeley upper division course. This could include up to two education abroad literature courses in a foreign language. Although there is no official limit on the number of courses transferred from education abroad programs, generally two courses will be counted easily. Closer scrutiny will be given to subsequent course work. Only one summer course taken abroad may be approved for use towards the major. Although the major adviser determines the number of courses approved for use towards the major, the College of Letters & Science makes the final determination of unit credit for any and all courses taken abroad.
- Online and Extension courses: Only one UC Berkeley Extension or on-line course may be counted toward the major. No UC Berkeley Extension or on-line course may be used to satisfy a core requirement for the major: ENGLISH 45A/ENGLISH 45B/ENGLISH 45C (or their upper division equivalents), Shakespeare, the Pre-1800 course, or the seminar requirement. To count toward the major, UC Berkeley Extension or on-line courses must be comparable in coverage, rigor, and substance to department courses. Students seeking to count a UC Berkeley Extension or online course toward the major should submit course materials and other relevant documentation to an English department major adviser or to the director of undergraduate studies.
Minor Requirements
Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program. These programs have set requirements and are noted officially on the transcript in the memoranda section, but they are not noted on diplomas.
General Guidelines
- All minors must be declared no later than one semester before a student's Expected Graduation Term (EGT). If the semester before EGT is fall or spring, the deadline is the last day of RRR week. If the semester before EGT is summer, the deadline is the final Friday of Summer Sessions. To declare a minor, contact the department advisor for information on requirements, and the declaration process.
- All courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements below must be taken for graded credit.
- A minimum of three of the upper division courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements must be completed at UC Berkeley.
- A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is required for courses used to fulfill the minor requirements.
- Courses used to fulfill the minor requirements may be applied toward the Seven-Course Breadth requirement, for Letters & Science students.
- No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
- All minor requirements must be completed prior to the last day of finals during the semester in which you plan to graduate. If you cannot finish all courses required for the minor by that time, please see a College of Letters & Science adviser.
- All minor requirements must be completed within the unit ceiling. (For further information regarding the unit ceiling, please see the College Requirements tab.)
Requirements
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Upper Division | ||
| Select five upper division English courses | ||
Additional Guidelines
- With the approval of a minor advisor, students may take up to two courses outside the Berkeley English department (e.g. in other departments, other academic institutions, and education abroad programs). Students will submit a Petition for Approval of a Course Taken Outside the Department to a minor adviser. This form can be found at the front desk in 319 Wheeler Hall. The student’s request for course approval will include a course syllabus and a compelling intellectual rationale, one that explains how the student’s work for the English minor will be enriched through the inclusion of the particular outside course the student wishes to take. There is no pre-approved list of courses.
- Only one Summer Session course taken at UC Berkeley may be counted toward the minor.
- Creative Writing courses in the English department do not count toward the minor.
College Requirements
Undergraduate students must fulfill the following requirements in addition to those required by their major program.
For detailed lists of courses that fulfill college requirements, please review the College of Letters & Sciences page in this Guide. For College advising appointments, please visit the L&S Advising Pages.
University of California Requirements
Entry Level Writing
All students who will enter the University of California as freshmen must demonstrate their command of the English language by fulfilling the Entry Level Writing requirement. Fulfillment of this requirement is also a prerequisite to enrollment in all reading and composition courses at UC Berkeley.
American History and American Institutions
The American History and Institutions requirements are based on the principle that a US resident graduated from an American university, should have an understanding of the history and governmental institutions of the United States.
Berkeley Campus Requirement
American Cultures
All undergraduate students at Cal need to take and pass this course in order to graduate. The requirement offers an exciting intellectual environment centered on the study of race, ethnicity and culture of the United States. AC courses offer students opportunities to be part of research-led, highly accomplished teaching environments, grappling with the complexity of American Culture.
College of Letters & Science Essential Skills Requirements
Quantitative Reasoning
The Quantitative Reasoning requirement is designed to ensure that students graduate with basic understanding and competency in math, statistics, or computer science. The requirement may be satisfied by exam or by taking an approved course.
Foreign Language
The Foreign Language requirement may be satisfied by demonstrating proficiency in reading comprehension, writing, and conversation in a foreign language equivalent to the second semester college level, either by passing an exam or by completing approved course work.
Reading and Composition
In order to provide a solid foundation in reading, writing, and critical thinking the College requires two semesters of lower division work in composition in sequence. Students must complete parts A & B reading and composition courses by the end of their second semester and a second-level course by the end of their fourth semester.
College of Letters & Science 7 Course Breadth Requirements
Breadth Requirements
The undergraduate breadth requirements provide Berkeley students with a rich and varied educational experience outside of their major program. As the foundation of a liberal arts education, breadth courses give students a view into the intellectual life of the University while introducing them to a multitude of perspectives and approaches to research and scholarship. Engaging students in new disciplines and with peers from other majors, the breadth experience strengthens interdisciplinary connections and context that prepares Berkeley graduates to understand and solve the complex issues of their day.
Unit Requirements
-
120 total units
-
Of the 120 units, 36 must be upper division units
- Of the 36 upper division units, 6 must be taken in courses offered outside your major department
Residence Requirements
For units to be considered in "residence," you must be registered in courses on the Berkeley campus as a student in the College of Letters & Science. Most students automatically fulfill the residence requirement by attending classes here for four years. In general, there is no need to be concerned about this requirement, unless you go abroad for a semester or year or want to take courses at another institution or through UC Extension during your senior year. In these cases, you should make an appointment to meet an adviser to determine how you can meet the Senior Residence Requirement.
Note: Courses taken through UC Extension do not count toward residence.
Senior Residence Requirement
After you become a senior (with 90 semester units earned toward your BA degree), you must complete at least 24 of the remaining 30 units in residence in at least two semesters. To count as residence, a semester must consist of at least 6 passed units. Intercampus Visitor, EAP, and UC Berkeley-Washington Program (UCDC) units are excluded.
You may use a Berkeley Summer Session to satisfy one semester of the Senior Residence requirement, provided that you successfully complete 6 units of course work in the Summer Session and that you have been enrolled previously in the college.
Modified Senior Residence Requirement
Participants in the UC Education Abroad Program (EAP), Berkeley Summer Abroad, or the UC Berkeley Washington Program (UCDC) may meet a Modified Senior Residence requirement by completing 24 (excluding EAP) of their final 60 semester units in residence. At least 12 of these 24 units must be completed after you have completed 90 units.
Upper Division Residence Requirement
You must complete in residence a minimum of 18 units of upper division courses (excluding UCEAP units), 12 of which must satisfy the requirements for your major.
Plan of Study
Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the English major requirements before making a program plan. For more detailed information regarding the courses listed below (e.g., elective information, GPA requirements, etc.), see the College Requirements and Major Requirements tabs.
| First Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | Units | Spring | Units |
| L&S Breadth | 4 | Lower Division English Elective (Arts & Literature Breadth) | 4 |
| Reading & Composition A | 4 | Reading & Composition B | 4 |
| L&S Breadth | 4 | American Cultures Requirement | 4 |
| Lower Division Elective | 3 | L&S Breadth | 3 |
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Second Year | |||
| Fall | Units | Spring | Units |
| ENGLISH 45A | 4 | ENGLISH 45B | 4 |
| L&S Breadth | 4 | ENGLISH 45C | 4 |
| L&S Breadth | 4 | L&S Breadth | 3 |
| Lower Division Elective | 3 | Lower Division Elective | 4 |
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Third Year | |||
| Fall | Units | Spring | Units |
| Shakespeare English Course | 4 | Upper Division English Elective | 4 |
| Upper Division English Elective | 4 | Upper Division English Elective | 4 |
| Lower or Upper Division Elective | 4 | Upper Division L&S Non-Major Department Elective | 3 |
| Lower or Upper Division Elective | 3 | Lower or Upper Division Elective | 4 |
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Fourth Year | |||
| Fall | Units | Spring | Units |
| Pre-1800 English Course | 4 | ENGLISH 190 | 4 |
| Upper Division English Elective | 4 | Upper Division English Elective | 4 |
| Upper Division L&S Department Elective | 4 | Lower or Upper Division Elective | 4 |
| Upper Division L&S Non-Major Department Elective | 3 | Lower or Upper Division Elective | 3 |
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Total Units: 120 | |||
Notes
• This is a sample program plan. This plan assumes that the student has completed the Entry Level Writing, American History and Institutions, Quantitative Reasoning, and Foreign Language requirements prior to admission.
• Students are strongly advised to work with an academic adviser to determine a personal program plan. Your program plan will differ depending on previous credit received, your course schedule, and available offerings.
Accelerated Program Plans
For students considering graduating in less than four years, it's important to acknowledge the reasons to undertake such a plan of study. While there are advantages to pursuing a three-year degree plan such as reducing financial burdens, they are not for everyone and do involve sacrifices; especially with respect to participating in co-curricular activities, depth of study, and summer internships, which typically lead to jobs upon graduation. All things considered, please see the tables for three and three and a half year degree options.
Student Learning Goals
Mission
The study of literature is not about canonical books or established facts, but about a process of interpretation and analysis, a process that begins in the classroom and develops over a lifetime. Upon completion of a BA degree in English, students should have well-developed writing and research skills as well as the ability to assess and appreciate language and literature in both professional and personal realms.
Learning Goals for the Major
- Identify historical periods of literature in English ( US, Britain, and Anglophone).
- Recognize and understand a variety of genres and modes of writing (the novel, poetic forms, short fiction, autobiography, etc.).
- Become conversant with key literary terms and theories.
- Develop an understanding of literature in interdisciplinary and multicultural contexts.
Skills
- Demonstrate the ability to give a close reading or explication of a text.
- Develop the ability to interpret and analyze literary texts and to articulate that in both writing and speaking.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the philosophical, cultural, social, and historical influences on the creation of literary art.
- Formulate a well-organized, well-supported argument.
- Develop research skills in the library and online.
- Demonstrate the ability to write clear critical essays, based on close reading of primary texts and secondary sources.
- Observe ethical and precise citation practices.
- For some, write well in creative modes: fiction, non-fiction, poetry.
Faculty and Instructors
+ Indicates this faculty member is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award.
Faculty
+ Elizabeth Abel, Professor. Feminist theory, psychoanalysis, Virginia Woolf, race and gender.
Research Profile
Charles F. Altieri, Professor. Literature and the visual arts, Wittgenstein, Modern American poetry, Contemporary American poetry, history of aesthetic philosophy.
Research Profile
Oliver Arnold, Associate Professor. Drama, Renaissance and Early Modern.
Stephen Michael Best, Associate Professor. Film, English literature, African American literature, literary culture, legal culture.
Research Profile
C. D. Blanton, Associate Professor. Modernism, modern poetry, 19th- and 20th-century British literature, aesthetic and critical theory.
Research Profile
+ Mitchell Breitwieser, Professor. American literature, philosophy and religion .
Research Profile
Mark D. Danner, Professor. Central America, politics, Balkans, foreign affairs, journalism, Haiti, documentaries.
Research Profile
+ Kathleen Donegan, Associate Professor. Colonial America, early America, Native America, early Caribbean.
Research Profile
+ Ian Duncan, Professor. English, the novel, British literature 1750-1900, Scottish literature, history and theory of fiction, Scottish enlightenment/romanticism, Scott, literature and the human sciences, Darwin.
Research Profile
Nadia Ellis, Associate Professor. Black diaspora literature and culture, queer studies, the city.
Research Profile
Eric Falci, Associate Professor. 20th-Century Irish and British literature, contemporary Irish and British poetry, poetry and music.
Research Profile
Catherine Flynn, Associate Professor. Modernism, Irish, British, comparative literature, critical theory, Avant-Gardes, James Joyce, Flann O'Brien.
Research Profile
Anne-Lise Francois, Associate Professor. Popular culture, English, comparative literature, the modern period, comparative romanticisms, lyric poetry, the psychological novel, novel of manners, gender, critical theory, literature, philosophy, fashion.
Research Profile
Joshua Gang, Assistant Professor. 20th- and 21st-century British literature, literature and the sciences of mind, literature and the history of philosophy (especially mind and language), modernism, contemporary literature, literary history, literary theory and criticism.
Research Profile
Cecil S. Giscombe, Professor. Creative writing.
Mark A. Goble, Associate Professor. 21st century British literature, narrative and the novel, critical theory, film, 19th, 20th, and 21st century American literature, poetry.
Research Profile
+ Steven Goldsmith, Professor. 19th-century British literature, critical theory, poetry.
Research Profile
Amanda Jo Goldstein, Assistant Professor. Poetry, 18th- and 19th-Century British Literature, Critical Theory.
Research Profile
Marcial Gonzalez, Associate Professor. Chicano and Chicana literature, twentieth-century American ethnic literatures, theory of the novel, marxism, critical theory, farm worker social movements.
Research Profile
+ Kevis Goodman, Associate Professor. 18th-century and Romantic British literature, Milton, literature and the history of science, especially medicine .
Research Profile
Dorothy J. Hale, Professor. English literature, American literature, the novel, narrative theory, critical theory, Henry James, William Faulkner, the modern novel of consciousness.
Research Profile
Kristin Hanson, Associate Professor. Linguistics, English, poetry, meter, rhyme, and alliteration, phonological theory, English grammar and usage.
Research Profile
Robert L. Hass, Professor. English, poetry, poetry writing, American poetry, history of the short poem in English, contemporary literature, translation, environmental writing, literature and the environment, the natural history tradition in American writing.
Research Profile
Lyn Hejinian, Professor. English, American literature, poetry writing, translation, modernist and postmodern literature, American postwar experimental literature, Gertrude Stein, the objectivists, language writing, Soviet Russian poetry, small press publishing, feminism.
Research Profile
Abdul R. Janmohamed, Professor. Critical theory, theory of subjection, postcolonial literature, culture, and theory, African American fiction, and minority discourse .
Research Profile
Donna V. Jones, Associate Professor. Critical theory, English, modernism, literature and philosophy, literature of the Americas, literature of the African Diaspora, postcolonial literature and theory, narrative and historiography.
Research Profile
Steven Justice, Professor. English, late medieval literature, medieval Latin, Chaucer, hagiography, Latin religious thought, literary criticism.
Research Profile
Victoria Kahn, Professor. Rhetoric, comparative literature, Renaissance literature, poetics, early modern political theory, the Frankfurt School.
Research Profile
+ Jeffrey Knapp, Professor. Religion, nationalism, theater, English literature, Shakespeare, English renaissance, Spenser, drama, imperialism, epic poetry, authorship, mass entertainment.
Research Profile
David Landreth, Associate Professor. English Renaissance literature 1500-1660.
Research Profile
Celeste Langan, Associate Professor. English, romantic poetry, 19th century literature, Wordsworth, Carlyle, Hardy, Rousseau, the French Revolution, Marxist theory, literature and the social sciences.
Research Profile
Grace Lavery, Assistant Professor. 19th-century British literature, pacific literature, cultural studies, critical theory, gender and sexual studies .
Research Profile
Steven Sunwoo Lee, Associate Professor. Twentieth-century American literature, comparative ethnic studies, diaspora, Soviet and post-Soviet studies.
Research Profile
Andrew Leong, Assistant Professor. Asian American and Transnational Asian Literatures and Cultures.
Colleen Lye, Associate Professor. Postcolonial theory, critical theory, cultural studies, Asian American literature, 20th and 21st century literature, world literature.
Research Profile
David Marno, Associate Professor. Renaissance and Early Modern literature, drama, poetry, critical theory .
Fiona McFarlane, Associate Professor. Creative writing, the novel, the short story.
Jennifer Miller, Associate Professor. English, philology, paleography, hagiography, medieval literature, literature in old and middle English, historiography, medieval rhetorical culture, insular political relations, multilingualism, translation and textual transmission, dialectology.
Research Profile
Maura Bridget Nolan, Associate Professor. Chaucer, drama, Middle English literature, Gower, Lydgate, medieval, 16th century, literary form, style.
Research Profile
Geoffrey O'Brien, Professor. Modernism, creative writing, 20th and 21st century poetry and poetics.
Research Profile
Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe, Professor. Old English language and literature, textual criticism, Medieval Studies.
Research Profile
Samuel Otter, Professor. African American literature, 19th-century American literature, 17th- and 18th-century American literature, Herman Melville, race in American culture, literature and history, discourse and ideology, close reading.
Research Profile
Genaro M. Padilla, Professor. American literature, Chicano/Latino literary and cultural studies, American autobiography.
Research Profile
+ Joanna M. Picciotto, Associate Professor. 18th-century British literature, Renaissance and Earley Modern literature .
Research Profile
+ Kent Puckett, Professor. The novel, nineteenth-century British literature and literary theory, sociability, psychoanalysis and affect .
Research Profile
Poulomi Saha, Assistant Professor. South Asian literature, critical theory, Asian American literature, gender and sexuality studies, cultural studies .
Scott Andrew Saul, Professor. English, African American studies, 20th century American literature and culture, performance studies, jazz studies, histories of the avante-garde.
Research Profile
+ Susan Schweik, Professor. Feminist theory, cultural studies, English, American poetry, disability studies, 20th-century poetry, literature and politics, war literature.
Research Profile
C. Namwali Serpell, Associate Professor. Theory, aesthetics, affect, ethics, uncertainty, the novel, film, 20th- and 21st-century Anglophone fiction, the face.
Research Profile
Katherine Snyder, Associate Professor. 19th- through 21st-century Literature in English, narrative and the novel, gender studies, post-traumatic and post-apocalyptic fiction.
Research Profile
Janet Linda Sorensen, Professor. 18th-century British literature .
George A. Starr, Professor. 18th-century English literary, social and intellectual history, prose style, bibliography and textual criticism, literature of California and the west.
Research Profile
Elisa C. Tamarkin, Associate Professor. American literature to 1900.
Research Profile
James G. Turner, Professor. Gender, sexuality, 16th-18th-Century English, Italian and French literature, art and literature, 17th-Century political writing, landscape and the city, Enlightenment materialism, sexuality in Renaissance Italian art and Antiquity .
Research Profile
Bryan Wagner, Associate Professor. Critical theory, African American literature, historiography.
Research Profile
Hertha D. Sweet Wong, Associate Professor. English, American literature, Native American literature, autobiography, ethnic American literature.
Research Profile
Dora Zhang, Assistant Professor. Critical theory, linguistics, narrative and the novel, 20th and 21st century Britain.
Research Profile
Lecturers
Melanie Abrams, Continuing Lecturer.
Vikram Chandra, Senior Lecturer SOE.
Thomas Farber, Senior Lecturer.
+ Georgina Kleege, Lecturer SOE.
John Shoptaw, Continuing Lecturer.
Emeritus Faculty
Joel B. Altman, Professor Emeritus. Rhetoric, Shakespeare, English renaissance, Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, history of literary theory.
Research Profile
Julia Bader, Professor Emeritus. Comedy, English novel, modern American literature, women writers, feminist criticism .
Research Profile
Ann Banfield, Professor Emeritus. Virginia Woolf, the novel, literary and linguistic theory, the industrial novel, recent French literary theory, literature and philosophy .
Research Profile
John Bishop, Professor Emeritus. Psychoanalysis, the novel, modernism, 20th- and 21st-century literature, Joyce, experimental fiction.
Research Profile
Robert Bloom, Professor Emeritus. 20th- and 21st-century British and American literature .
+ Stephen Booth, Professor Emeritus. Aesthetics, Renaissance literature .
Research Profile
Carol T. Christ, Professor Emeritus. 19th-century British literature .
+ Frederick Crews, Professor Emeritus. American literature, modern British literature .
Richard Feingold, Professor Emeritus. 18th-century British literature .
+ Donald M. Friedman, Professor Emeritus. 16th and 17th centuries, Milton, Shakespeare .
Catherine Gallagher, Professor Emeritus. 19th-century British literature, British novels, Victorian non-fiction prose, British women's literature, history and literature of the Victorians, history of the novel, Victorian popular culture .
Research Profile
Richard Hutson, Professor Emeritus. 19th- 20th-, and 21st- century American literature, critical theory, African American literature, narrative and the novel .
Research Profile
Maxine Hong Kingston, Professor Emeritus. Prose writing .
Ojars Kratins, Professor Emeritus. Chaucer, Romance, Arthurian literature, utopian literature, theory and practice of teaching .
Donald McQuade, Professor Emeritus. Advertising, 20th-century American literature and culture, theory and practice of non-fiction, literature and popular culture, the American Renaissance, the essay as literature.
Research Profile
D.A. Miller, Professor Emeritus. The novel, gay and cultural studies, classic cinema, Hitchcock.
Research Profile
Alan H. Nelson, Professor Emeritus. History of drama, medieval and Renaissance English literature, English Corpus Christi plays, English morality plays, medieval art and literature, history of staging in the middle ages and renaissance, medieval and early Renaissance paleography .
Research Profile
John D. Niles, Professor Emeritus. Old English, Scottish literature and poetry .
Raymond Oliver, Professor Emeritus. Beowulf, history and theory of the short poem, 1200-1900, verse .
Morton D. Paley, Professor Emeritus. British Romanticism, William Blake, literature and art .
Research Profile
Carolyn Porter, Professor Emeritus. American literature, American intellectual history, American Renaissance, Faulkner, James, Fitzgerald, Henry Adams, American Literature of the 1930s.
Research Profile
Ishmael Reed, Professor Emeritus. Short fiction and poetry .
+ Hugh M. Richmond, Professor Emeritus. Shakespeare, Theatre, Comparative Literature (European) .
Research Profile
Peter Scott, Professor Emeritus. Medieval European literature (especially Latin) before 1300, poetry .
Robert Tracy, Professor Emeritus. Narrative and the novel, 19th-century British literature, Irish literature, drama .