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Literature

Students must take a minimum of 18 credit hours for the minor, at least 12 of which must be upper-division hours. Core courses offered by the school may count as lower-division hours toward the appropriate minor. 

Students may contact the academic advisor in their major for a list of the courses that satisfy each minor.

Courses that satisfy the Literature minor are listed below.

Students must complete a minimum of 18 credit hours from the following courses and are responsible for completing all prerequisite courses. Courses are grouped in areas of special interest.

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HUMA 1301 Exploration of the Humanities (3 semester hours) An introduction to the concept of cultural tradition through the study of selected works of literature, philosophy, music, and visual art. Emphasis on the relations among various forms of cultural expression and developing students’ ability to interpret complex artistic works in their historical, cultural, and intellectual contexts. General education core course. (3‑0) S

LIT 2341 Literary Analysis (3 semester hours) A close reading of fiction, poetry, and drama. Emphasis will be placed on the development of critical skills through the writing of interpretive essays. This course is required of all Literary Studies majors. (3‑0) S

LIT 3300 Western Literary Tradition (3 semester hours) Study of major themes of the classical tradition in Western literature and their subsequent transformation. Readings will include works by both classical authors and their literary heirs. This course is required of all Literary Studies majors. Prerequisite: Three hours of lower division literature or HUMA 1301. Prerequisite: Three hours of lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) S

ISAH 4V88 Special Interdisciplinary Topics in the Arts and Humanities (1-6 semester hours) Subject matter will vary from semester to semester. May be repeated for credit (9 hours maximum). ([1-6]-0) R

Literary Genres

LIT 3310 Studies in Epic and Romance (3 semester hours) A comparative study of the two related genres, or a study of one of them, with emphasis on their approaches to themes such as heroism, love, or virtue. Readings may be drawn from classical, medieval, and modern literature, and works may include The Iliad, Song of Roland, and Don Quixote. May be repeated for credit as topics vary (6 hours maximum). (3‑0) T

LIT 3311 The Literature of Fantasy and Science Fiction (3 semester hours) The tradition of the fantastic narrative from classical through modern literature. Consideration of fantasy and/or science fiction as genres melding entertainment and speculation. Works of fantasy may include The Golden Ass, Dracula, and One Hundred Years of Solitude. Writers of science fiction may include Mary Shelley, Poe, Hawthorne, Wells, Clarke, Heinlein, and LeGuin. May be repeated for credit (6 hours maximum) Prerequisite: Three hours of lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) T

LIT 3312 Studies in Prose Narrative (3 semester hours) Studies in fiction, biography and autobiography, essays, and travelogues. May examine such topics as the history of the novel, spiritual autobiography, scientific biography, literary movements, and the new journalism. May be repeated for credit (6 hours maximum). Prerequisite: Three hours of lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) Y

LIT 3313 Studies in Dramatic Literature (3 semester hours) Studies in drama as a literary form. May include such topics as Jacobean and Restoration drama, modern or contemporary European drama, and 20th‑century American drama. May be repeated for credit as topics vary (6 hours maximum). Prerequisite: Three hours lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) T

LIT 3314 Studies in Poetry (3 semester hours) Examines representative selections of poetry with particular reference to techniques of diction, syntax, sound, and organization. May be repeated for credit as topics vary (9 hours maximum). Prerequisite: Three hours of lower division literature or HUMA 1301.  (3‑0) Y

English and American Literature

LIT 3319 Periods in English Literature (3 semester hours) Examines representative selections of literature written during such periods as the Middle Ages, Renaissance, the 17th century, the 18th century, or the early 19th century, or topics such as the literature of the scientific revolution. May be repeated for credit when literary periods vary (9 hours maximum). Prerequisite: Three hours of lower division literature of HUMA 1301. (3‑0) Y

LIT 3320 Shakespeare (3 semester hours) A study of selected works of Shakespeare including his sonnets, comedies, poems, tragedies, and historical plays. May be repeated for credit as topics vary (6 hours maximum).  Prerequisite: Three hours of lower division literature or HUMA 1301.  (3‑0) T

LIT 3321 Modern British Literature (3 semester hours) A study of major British authors since the mid‑19th century. Authors may include Browning, Tennyson, Conrad, Joyce, Woolf, Yeats, and Eliot. Prerequisite: Three hours lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) T

LIT 3322 Early American Literature (3 semester hours) A consideration of the beginnings of American Literature from Native American myths of origin and writings of Spanish, French and English explorers through Washington Irving. We will read authors such as Cabeza de Vaca, William Bradford, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, Philis Wheatley, Mary Rowlandson, Franklin, Olaudah Equiano, Paine, Jefferson, Madison and Charles Brockden Brown. Prerequisite: Three hours of lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) Y

LIT 3323 The American Renaissance 1820-1865  (3 semester hours) A consideration of the development of American literature particularly in New England. We will read authors such as cooper, Emerson, Fuller, Thoreau, William Apess, Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Longfellow, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, and Stowe, and works such as the Cherokee Memorials and the political writings of figures such as Lincoln, Prerequisite: Three hours of lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3-0) 

LIT 3324 American Realism and Naturalism (3 semester hours) Considers the development of late 19th‑ and early 20th‑century writers in a society increasingly urban, cosmopolitan, and pluralistic. Writers may include Twain, Howells, James, Crane, Dreiser, and Anderson. Prerequisite: Three hours of lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) T

LIT 3325 American Modernism (3 semester hours) Surveys the turbulent swings in American literature from about 1910 to 1945 . Considers such literary styles as imagism and social realism and samples a diverse array of writers which may include Pound, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, O’Neil, Dos Passos , and  Wright . Prerequisite: Three hours lower division literature or HUMA 1301.  (3‑0) T

LIT 3326 The Literature of the American South (3 semester hours) An examination of the major writers of this region and their sometimes gothic vision of a decaying society. Authors may include Warren, Welty, O’Connor, McCullers, Williams, Faulkner, and Dickey. Prerequisite: Three hours lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) T

LIT 3327 Mid-Twentieth Century American Literature (3 semester hours) Surveys American literature from about 1945 to about 1980 . Samples such writers as confessional poets, the Beats, Updike, Oates, Pynchon, Bellow, Mailer, and Morrison, and considers such topics as black humor, feminism, the new journalism, and the self‑reflexive novel. Prerequisite: Three hours lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) T

LIT 3329 Ethnic American Literature (3 semester hours) Surveys the literature of American ethnic or minority cultures, considering both their specific cultural features and their relation to the wider American canon. Traditions to be considered may include African‑American literature (slave narratives, Harlem Renaissance, contemporary fiction), Chicano literature, or Jewish‑American literature. May be repeated for credit as topics vary (6 hours maximum). Prerequisite: Three hours lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) T

General Literature Course Descriptions

LIT 3381 Topics in Western Literature (3 semester hours) Subject matter will vary from semester to semester. May be repeated for credit as topics vary (6 hours maximum). Prerequisites: Three hours of lower division literature or HUMA 1301.  (3‑0) R

LIT 3304 Advanced Composition (3 semester hours) Rhetorical strategies for analytical, descriptive, and research writing, with emphasis on grammar and style. Prerequisites: RHET 1302 (3‑0) Y

LIT 3308 Electronic Expression (3 semester hours) An introduction to forms of expression in and about electronic environments (both textual and visual).  Examines topics ranging from writing for the WWW to e-mail, real-time technologies (Lingua MOO), electronic journals, hypertext, and other digital forms of expression.  Prerequisite: RHET 1302 or equivalent. (3-0) T

LIT 3328 Ethics in Literature (3 semester hours) Considers the perspective offered by literature on various ethical questions, and the relation between literature and moral philosophy. Topics may include existentialism, the environment, and religion and literature. May be repeated for credit as topics vary (6 hours maximum). (3‑0) Y

LIT 3330 Linguistics (3 semester hours) The nature of language; general survey of the contributions of linguistics to the fields of phonetics, phonemics, morphology, lexicology, syntax, and semantics. Other topics of general interest in the field will be covered, such as language change, dialects, writing systems and their history, use and misuse of language, and the language of media, advertising, and politics. Prerequisite: Three hours of lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) Y

LIT 3334 Literature of Science (3 semester hours) Explores the interrelations between authors such as Donne, Swift, Mary Shelly, Hardy, and Pynchon, and science, such as astronomy, evolution, medicine, and chaos theory. May be repeated for credit as topics vary ( 6 hours maximum). (3‑0) T

LIT 3342 Literature of the Bible (3 semester hours) A study of the various types of literature found in selected books of the Old and New Testaments. Genres may include epic, tragedy, lyric poetry, satire, biography, and parable. The course may also include works which stem from biblical sources such as Milton’s Paradise Lost, Byron’s Cain, and MacLeish’s J.B. Prerequisite: Three hours lower division literature or HUMA 1301.  (3‑0) T

LIT 3343 European Romanticism (3 semester hours) Readings in literary theory, fiction, drama, and lyric poetry by the mid‑18th‑century to mid‑19th‑century romantic writers of Italy, Germany, France, England, or Spain . Prerequisite: Three hours lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) T

LIT 3344 European Realism and Naturalism (3 semester hours) A study of the naturalist movement of the late 19th century in Europe. Consideration will be given to the philosophical, social, and scientific backgrounds. Readings will include dramas and novels . Prerequisite; Three hours lower division literature or HUMA 1301. (3‑0) T

LIT 3380 Studies in Women’s Literature (3 semester hours) An introduction to literature by women. Examines selections of literature written from antiquity through the contemporary period. Considers such literary forms as autobiography, journals, letters, fiction, poetry, and drama. Samples a diverse array of women writers and their relation to the wider Western canon. May be repeated for credit as topics vary (6 hours maximum). Prerequisite: Three hours lower division literature or HUMA 1301.  (3‑0) T

LIT 4330 Dante (3 semester hours) A close reading of The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) in its historical, philosophical, religious, and poetic contexts, along with related works by Dante and his contemporaries. Prerequisite: Upper division standing or permission of the instructor. (3‑0) T

LIT 4344 The Modern Novel (3 semester hours) A study of several landmark, late 19th‑ and 20th‑century novels, with attention to their literary, intellectual, and historical qualities. Authors may include Joyce, Proust, Mann, García Marquez, or others. May be repeated for credit as topics vary (6 hours maximum). Prerequisite: Upper division standing or permission of the instructor. (3‑0) T

LIT 4346 Contemporary Literature (3 semester hours) Major trends in contemporary world literature with particular emphasis on the last ten years. Prerequisite: Upper division standing or permission of the instructor.  (3‑0) T

LIT 4348 Topics in Literary Studies (3 semester hours) Subject matter will vary from semester to semester. May be repeated for credit (9 hours maximum). Prerequisite: Upper division standing or permission of the instructor.  (3‑0) T

LIT 4V71 Independent Study in Literary Studies (1‑3 semester hours) Independent study under a faculty member’s direction. May be repeated for credit (9 hours maximum). Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor required. ([1‑3]‑0) R

For additional information, please contact the Office of Undergraduate Studies.