The Secondary Field in English: Sample Clusters

The clusters below are suggested models for constructing a coherent secondary field.

• The courses are drawn from the Courses of Instruction 2006-2007.

• In compiling theses clusters, an effort was made to fit all six courses to the heading. In reality you are unlikely to manage (or perhaps even desire!) such uniformity.

You are not required to choose your courses according to an organizing rubric as in these examples. As long as you fulfill the basic distribution of six courses, your course selection can be as diverse and wide-ranging as you wish.

Modern and Recent Fiction

10a:

 

Major British Writers I

Seminar:

90vn

Vladimir Nabokov

American Literature:

178x

The American Novel: Dreiser to the Present

3 Electives:

160

Modern British Novel: James to Present

 

168d

Postwar American and British Fiction

 

180

Modern American Crime Narratives

Drama

10a:

 

Major British Writers I

Seminar:

90pb

Dramatic Structure and Analysis

American Literature:

163m

Musical Theater

3 Electives:

90qc

Ibsen, Shaw, and Chekhov

 

90qa

Contemporary Anglophone Drama

 

163

Dramatic Literature from the Greeks to Ibsen

 

Early Modern

10a:

 

Major British Writers I

Seminar:

90ga

Alternative Worlds in Early Modern England

American Literature:

90cc

Calvinist Legacy in American Culture

3 Electives:

124d

Shakespearean Tragedy

 

130

17th Century Poetry and Prose

 

141

The 18th Century Novel

 

Creative Writing

10a:

 

Major British Writers I

Seminar:

90lv

Consciousness from Austen to Woolf

American Literature:

183

Contemporary American Poetry

3 Electives:

101

The History and Structure of the English Language

 

165

Joyce, Modernism and Aestheticism

 

C**

Creative Writing Courses

 

Postcolonial/Postmodern

10a:

 

Major British Writers I

Seminar:

90qa

Contemporary Anglophone Drama

American Literature:

195x

Contemporary African American Literature

3 Electives:

166x

The Postcolonial Classic

 

167p

Postcolonial Narratives

 

161m

20C. Irish Literature

 

Literature and the Arts

10a:

 

Major British Writers I

1 Seminar:

90wm

Words and Music

American Literature:

163m

Musical Theater

3 Electives:

125

Shakespeare and Modern Culture

 

165

Joyce, Modernism and Aestheticism

 

177

Art and Thought of the Cold War

 

Literature and Religion

10a:

 

Major British Writers I

Seminar:

90cp

Performance of History: Medieval to Early Modern

American Literature:

90cc

Calvinist Legacy in American Culture

3 Electives:

163

Dramatic Literature from the Greeks to Ibsen

 

131

Milton : Major Poetry and Prose

 

187

Native American Literary Traditions

 

Major Authors

10a:

 

Major British Writers I

1 Seminar:

90wj

The Poetry of John Keats

American Literature:

174f

Faulkner: the Major Works

3 Electives:

115b

Chaucer: the Canterbury Tales

 

124d

Shakespearean Tragedy

 

154

19th Century English Poetry: Wordsworth to Tennyson

Similar lists could easily be generated for many other subsets of the larger field of English and American Literature and Language, such as:

Medieval
19th-Century American
the Lyric Poem
Literature and Gender Studies
18th-Century British Literature
Anglo-Irish Literature
Southern American
the Epic
Literary Criticism
Comic Literature
The Language of English
Global Literature in English
etc. etc. etc.

Using these models, feel free to generate your own!