Main Content
Student Learning Goals
I. SKILLS
- Ability to read texts closely and to articulate the value of close reading in the study of literature and rhetoric.
- Ability to explicate texts written in a wide variety of forms, styles, structures, and modes.
- Ability to recognize and appreciate the importance of major literary genres, subgenres, and periods.
- Ability to respond imaginatively to the content and style of texts.
- Ability to write clearly, effectively, and imaginatively, and to adjust writing style appropriately to the content and nature of the subject.
- Ability to develop and carry out research projects and to articulate them within appropriate conceptual and methodological frameworks, including the ability to recognize when information is needed, and to locate, evaluate, organize, and incorporate information effectively.
- Ability to analyze texts other than literary or rhetorical: for example, political, journalistic, commercial, technical, etc.
- Ability to read and speak a language other than English in order to understand the structure of English, gain access to other literatures for comparative purposes, and satisfy requirements for a post-baccalaureate or credential school.
II. KNOWLEDGE
- Understanding of the historical development of the English language and of literature written in English from Old English to the present.
- Understanding of the relations between culture, history and texts, including ideological and political aspects of representation, economic processes of textual production, dissemination and reception, and cross-fertilization with other arts: architecture, sculpture, music, film, painting, dance, and theatre.
- Understanding of the twofold nature of textual analysis: 1) objective study from varied analytical perspectives; 2) subjective experience of the aesthetic reality of the text.
- Familiarity with a wide range of works of British , American, and World literature, including folk and popular forms.
- Familiarity with a wide range of literary terms and categories relating to literary history, theory, and criticism, including figurative language and prosody.
- Familiarity with the nature of the canon and of canon-formation, including issues of culture, history, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.
III. EXPERIENCES
- Participation in face-to face exchanges of ideas with faculty and peers, including discussion groups and collaborative writing activities, making use of the cultural resources of the department and the broader university as appropriate.
- Engagement in independently-conceived projects, including the stating of a problem or issue and all the steps involved in organizing, synthesizing, summarizing, and analyzing information in order to communicate conclusions effectively to a larger audience.
IV. UNDERSTANDINGS, INTERESTS, AND VALUES
- An enduring interest in language and literature.
- A sense of the presence of the literary and rhetorical past.
- An increasing awareness of the depth and complexity of human existence, perceived across the boundaries of time, place, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.
- Long-term interest and involvement in aesthetic, cultural, and intellectual matters as well as in social and political issues.
- A developing understanding of the ability of great literature and of concentrated language study to awaken and challenge readers and auditors to struggle with profound questions of human identity and values.
- A personal critical perspective, and a sense of intellectual independence and momentum.
(Revised & Approved April 2008)
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