Program Description
Students majoring in literature at Purchase College learn to read texts closely and critically and to understand literature in relation to the social and historical conditions in which it is written and read. The principal focus of the major is British and American literature; the program places these national literatures in an international frame. Thus, students may count toward the major courses in French, Spanish, and other literatures, in translation or in the original language. In addition to courses in traditional literatures, students may take courses in contemporary literature, popular culture, and film. Feminist inquiry, the critical study of race, and other theoretical or interdisciplinary approaches are central to the literature curriculum. In learning to read, write, and think about literature and the world it reflects, inhabits, and creates, students gain valuable preparation for advanced academic study and for the professional world.
Requirements for the Major
A minimum of nine literature courses (at least five at the 3000 or 4000 level; at least four taken at Purchase College) and an 8-credit senior project, all with a grade of C or higher:
Representative Courses
The Ancient Epic
Introduction to African-American Literature
The Faust Legends in Literature
Prosody: Verse and Versification
U.S. Short Story
Classics of European Fiction
Introduction to Shakespeare
The Bible
Survey of U.S. Literature I, II & III
Lesbian and Gay Fiction
Dostoevsky and Tolstoy
Women and Film
Caribbean Writers
Literature of the Middle Passage
Medieval English Literature
Chaucer
Renaissance in England
Literature of the High Middle Ages
British Culture and Society in the 20th Century
South Asian Literature
The Renaissance in Europe
Milton
Romanticism I & II
James Joyce
Goethe to Kundera
Feminism and Culture
Contemporary U.S. Literature
Poetry and the Avant-Garde
Representative Alumni
For more information, visit the Literature site in Academic Programs.
Updated May 27, 2008