Literature Emphasis
Minimum GPA for Admission: 2.5 within all English courses (other than ENGL 1010 , ENGL 2010 , CLEP, AP, etc.); 2.5 USU cumulative (including courses taken for another USU major); 2.5 career total (including transfer credits) for new transfer students
Minimum GPA for Graduation: 2.75 within major courses; 2.0 USU cumulative; 2.0 career total
Minimum Grade Accepted: C within major courses (no grades of pass/fail)
Number of required credits: 42
Credits in Residence: Students must complete 21 credits of major-applicable coursework at Utah State University.
The Literature emphasis combines the pleasures of reading fiction, poetry, and drama with the practices of communication, reasoning, and research.
Literature students will learn to be skilled writers, clear speakers, and critical thinkers. They can solve problems both logically and creatively, both independently and in teams. Graduates will thus be well prepared to pursue their individual goals in a wide variety of educational and professional paths. They can also look forward to a lifetime of intellectual curiosity and cultural enrichment.
ENGL 2600 is the introductory course in Literary Analysis, which teaches students to read texts closely, to draw connections between form and content, to make interpretative claims, and to write persuasive arguments.
3000-level courses teach students to draw connections between literature and its historical contexts, and to read texts in conversation with one another. 4000-level courses invite students to slice up the field of literature in other ways by studying the work of particular authors and groups, as well as the evolution of specific genres.
The Advanced Seminars at the 5000 level serve as a capstone to the student’s Literature emphasis. ENGL 5300 is a Special Topics course, which brings together diverse literary texts in imaginative ways, encouraging students to think across historical, biographical, and generic boundaries. ENGL 5310 is a course on Contemporary Literature, in which students bring literary history up to the present day. ENGL 5320 and ENGL 5330 explore literary and cultural representations of, respectively, gender identities and sexualities, and racial and ethnic identities. ENGL 5340 , a course on Multimedia Literature, gives students a chance to explore new and emerging forms of literary and cultural representation.
The emphasis includes nine elective credits: three additional English courses in Literature or any other emphasis. Students may devote three of these credits to an internship that combines their academic skills with their professional interests.
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