English

In a recent colloquium at Connecticut College, four alumni — an inner-city high school English teacher, a fiction writer leaving a career in publishing for an MFA program, a law student about to begin her practice, and a fiction writer pursuing a Ph. D. degree in English — spoke about the value of their English majors.  They agreed that majoring in English had not so much prepared them for a specific career as prepared them to think about the world and their own career paths more openly and imaginatively.  

English is a popular subject at Connecticut College - in part because it offers students opportunities for experiencing the pleasures of the imagination, in part because the skills students gain by reading and writing about literature prepare them to participate in a community that is increasingly global in scope.

A specialist in British and post-colonial literature, Professor Simon Hay's literary passions include ghost and detective stories.

Students study literary works produced throughout the English-speaking world, from Britain to America, from the Caribbean to South Asia. English majors work towards understanding the various modes in which the world gets represented; hone their ability to speak and write critically and imaginatively; and become familiar with a curriculum of significant works written over the course of hundreds of years.

All majors are required to take two foundation courses. The first is a seminar that concentrates on close reading of poems and prose fiction:  students learn to pay attention to a literary work’s language and structure as a reflection of its many contexts and to interpret what they read.  The second introduces majors to practical and theoretical questions about the discipline of English and the study of literatures in English.  In this course, students continue to refine techniques of close reading and learn more about how literary and other cultural texts (film, music, television) work as forms of cultural representation. 

A specialist in 19th century American literature, Professor David Greven's intellectual interests extend to film, television, and pop culture.

With the exception of a senior seminar, no specific courses are required to complete the major, but the department asks all its majors to develop their awareness of the range of literary forms created in different times and by different cultures. 

Majors take at least two courses at the advanced level that bring them into contact with British or American literature written before 1830, at least one course in American literature or culture, and at least one course in subaltern literature.

Blanche Boyd, writer-in-residence, and director of the The Daniel Klagsbrun Symposium on Writing and Moral Vision

Writing is extremely important in English courses, and almost all of them are designated writing-intensive or writing-enhanced. The department offers a Concentration in Creative Writing, and a substantial number of English majors graduate with this concentration. They complete all the courses required for the major as well as additional courses in fiction or poetry writing under the supervision of one of the department’s two writers-in-residence.

In the capstone for the major, the senior seminar, all students use the analytical and research skills they’ve developed as English majors to write a long essay.

In recent years, roughly 50 members of each senior class have graduated as English majors.  Some continue their study of literature at the graduate level or put the skills they’ve acquired as English majors to good use in other post-graduate education, especially law school.  Others go on to teach English in secondary schools, pursue careers in publishing, or work as writers, editors, and journalists. 

Three feature stories, "Award-winning writers on writing", "CC education prepared journalists for real world" , and "Student poet honored", cover recent college-sponsored events that demonstrate to student audiences the power of the written word.