Department of English
English majors at Xavier study a wide variety of literature by men and women from various periods in Britain, the United States and the rest of the world.
1 Epic and Adventures of Heroes
An inquiry into the epic genre, the epic hero, and epic values through a careful reading of several ancient and medieval poems.
2 Studies in Women's Literature
Introduction to the writing of women of various time periods and nationalities, with an emphasis on gender-related issues.
3 German Literature in Translation
Literature does not exists in a vacuum but reflects the problems, issues, ideas, moral and political tendencies, philosophical and theological thinking, cultural trends and even fashion trends of the time in which it is written. The primary objective of this course is to give English-speaking students, who are not majoring in German, an overview of the outstanding literary produtions of the German-speaking world. Masterworks of German Literature in Translation introduces American students to the outstanding writers of the German-speaking lands, the cultural as well as socio-political situation of the times in which these works were written, and the issues depicted. It is not intended to be a survey course, but will focus on the literary highlights from Austria, Germany (East and West), and Switzerland. The individual works have been chosen not only because they best represent a given literary period, but also becuase they are considered masterpieces of German literature.
4 Popular Writing
Critical study of popular culture forms and instruction in writing them. Our analysis of narrative-based genres such as memoir, travel writing and nature writing will include examination of the various labels that have been applied to such work in recent years ("creative nonfiction," "literary nonfiction," and "literary journalism"). We will also examine popular journalistic forms such as social commentary, reviews, reflection and feature writing. ENGL 311 is a writing-intensive course; students wishing to enroll should be comfortable with sharing their work with others. Given the focus of the course, students will be encouraged to revise their work for publication. To that end, we will spend a class or two examining the market for popular writing and the process of submitting work to publishers.
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