 |
PLANNING YOUR PROGRAM
Graduation requirements and all the procedures relating to
graduation are detailed in the College catalogue; it is
ultimately your responsibility to know and comply with them.
Of course you should be working with an English department
advisor; even if you are a double major and your primary
advisor is in another department, you need to work with one
of us, both because of what we know about the subject and
because of what we know about the department and about
future scheduling. Good planning means thinking about your
whole undergraduate career, not just requirements, and not
just the next semester.
If you are an English minor, you do not need a formal
advisor in the department, but it is a good idea to discuss
your plans as early as possible with a faculty member.
Most of our courses are offered every two or three years. We
hope to offer Linguistics, Writing Short Fiction, Critical
Procedures, and Senior Seminar twice a year. We also hope to
offer Shakespeare twice during alternate years, with,
Shakespeare and His Contemporaries available in the other
years. Sabbaticals and other faculty responsibilities may
interfere with our offering every course as often as it
should be, but we do make an effort to be sure that at least
one course that meets each distribution requirement in the
major is offered every semester. We do always have at least
a tentative schedule for the next three years, so your
advisor should be able to give you an idea of when a
particular course is likely to be taught next.
We also try to plan Senior Seminars in advance; it’s a good
idea to find out what the topics are likely to be so you can
be sure to take the appropriate courses in preparation;
Senior Seminar should not be the first time you encounter a
period or genre. And if there is anything you would like to
see as a topic for a seminar, let us know.
Senior Seminars may be used to meet that requirement only;
they do not count towards meeting any other major or minor
requirement, no matter what their topic. Although they are
designed for senior majors, juniors and non-majors with
appropriate preparation may enroll in them if there is room
after all senior majors have been accommodated; if you are
interested, ask the instructor.
Other things being equal, it’s probably better not to take
more than one class per semester from a particular faculty
member. There’s nothing wrong with taking three English
classes in a term, but do select them carefully: Critical
Procedures and History of Literary Criticism probably do not
belong in the same semester for you, and if you do the two
of them along with Nineteenth Century Novel, your reading
load may be overwhelming. Some other courses, on the other
hand, do work very well together: History of the English
Language combines very well with either Chaucer or Medieval
Literature (it’s also useful to have had it before you take
either), and Critical Procedures and Senior Seminar may also
reinforce each other.
Remember that we do know in advance what we will teach in a
course; if you have a heavy semester planned, you can always
ask for a reading list in advance. A novel or two can keep
your brain going over the summer and make the following fall
much more manageable. Also note that we start our course
waiting lists well in advance; if a class you want closes,
get on the waiting list right away. Do the same if you
cannot preregister either because of problems with the
Business Office or because you are not enrolled during a
given semester. We close upper division courses at 25,
except for creative writing, Critical Procedures, and Senior
Seminar, which close at 15. After that, our departmental
policy is to give first priority to seniors who need the
course for the major, and then, if space is available, to
admit people in the order in which they appear on our
waiting lists. Normally, the department secretary keeps the
waiting list for Introduction to Literature; otherwise, see
the individual instructor.
Advance planning with the Department is also important with
reference to courses taken away from Whittier, whether in a
foreign study program or during the summer at another
American institution. Remember that the Registrar only
approves such courses only for Whittier College credit; it
is the department that determines whether such a course will
count towards the major or minor, or fulfill a specific
major or minor requirement; be sure to consult the
Department chair before you take such a course if you want
to use it for the major or minor. English courses taken in
the Copenhagen program, however, are listed in our catalogue
and do apply to the English major and minor.
Planning your major means more than selecting your English
courses. Certainly not everything you take will relate to
your major, but there are a number of fields which will add
to your understanding of what you study with us. A major is
an intellectual foundation, and a center from which you
reach out to other fields, not an isolated fortress. It’s a
good idea to take a pair that includes an English course.
Indeed, its a good idea to take such a pair even if you are
in the Whittier Scholars Program and are not required to
take pairs; the experience of relating your discipline to
another one, of seeing how it connects with another one and
yet how its approach is different, gives you a very valuable
perspective on it. As you gain more experience in thinking
between disciplines, you might try to construct your own
pairs, not to meet a requirement but for the pure
intellectual pleasure of the activity. And if you make one
that really works, be sure to tell us about it.
Courses in art history, drama, history, philosophy, and
religion are particularly valuable supplements to an English
major, but the single most important area of study is
probably foreign language. All the reasons why knowledge of
a second language, and another culture, are important for
any educated person certainly apply to an English major.
Moreover, for us language is not merely a means to
something; it is part of the object of our study. The
exclusively monolingual take their language for granted;
through studying another language we become conscious of
language as a working system rather than a collection of
rules. Moreover, the English language is particularly rich
as a literary medium precisely because of its historical
relationship to other languages (especially Latin and
French), and the extent to which it has adopted words from
other vocabularies; the more you know of such other
languages, the better you will know English. This is why we
strongly recommend at least one year of a foreign language
at the intermediate level or higher--and a minor is ideal.
Which language should you select? As far as becoming aware
of language as a system and as both a means of cultural
expression and a reflection of cultural experience, almost
any one will work. For enriching your understanding of the
English language and of its literature, it makes most sense
to emphasize those Western European languages which are
closest to it in structure and vocabulary and which are
associated with the literatures that have most profoundly
influenced and been influenced by literature in English.
Graduate degrees normally require a reading language of at
least one foreign language; for doctorates in English,
either a reading knowledge of two or a knowledge in some
depth of one language and literature is common. As a general
rule, the most useful language here is French (though a good
case can be made for German, and, indeed, Latin and
Greek--the obvious problem is that you cannot get those done
here), and if you are considering graduate work in English,
a French minor would be an excellent idea. (Unless, of
course, you are considering comparative literature with an
emphasis on Spanish--in which case, you should probably work
on both.)
If, on the other hand, you are considering teaching on
either the elementary or the secondary level in California
or in much of the rest of the country, Spanish is your
obvious choice. Even a very moderate degree of fluency in
Spanish will greatly increase your employability; more
important, it will enable you to do your job much more
effectively. (And the shortage of bilingual teachers at the
elementary level means that not knowing any Spanish will not
keep a beginning teacher from being given a bilingual class;
you’ll just have a harder time learning how to teach it.)
|
|
