ENGLISH

“I don’t see how the study of language and literature can be separated from the question of free speech...You’re not free to move unless you’ve learned to walk, and not free to play the piano unless you practise. Nobody is capable of free speech unless he knows how to use language, and such knowledge is not a gift: it has to be learned and worked at.”
— Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination

English courses at UCFV are designed to give you a great deal of practice in writing, reading, and speaking the language. English 105 aims to improve your clarity of thought and expression, and to increase the speed and accuracy with which you write and understand prose.

Other English courses present imaginative literature (poetry, fiction, drama) with a threefold objective: learning to read literature with an eye sensitive to underlying themes and structures, learning to analyze literature in genuinely constructive and critical ways, and learning to write about literature with clarity and insight.

As part of our mission to offer a degree that is responsive to our students’ needs, we in the English department allow students to choose an English major from one of three options: the more traditional English major, an English major with a North American concentration, or an English major with a drama concentration. We also offer a minor and an extended minor. Any one of these options will prepare students for graduate school or a career in teaching. Concentrations allow students to work both in English and other related disciplines.

This section specifies the major, extended minor, and minor discipline requirements only. Please refer to “Bachelor of Arts degree” for additional Bachelor of Arts requirements.

Major, English Literature

Lower-level requirements: 18 credits

Upper-level requirements: 32 credits

By completing the upper-level credits in this program, students will have both depth and breadth in their study of English literature. For students considering graduate work in English, we recommend that students take at least one senior course from as many of the following categories as possible: Chaucer or Medieval Studies; Tudor Poetry and Prose, Shakespeare, or Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama; Seventeenth or Eighteenth Century; Romantics, Victorian Novel, or Victorian Poetry; Modern British Literature or Modernism; Canadian Literature; American Literature; Literary Theory, History of Criticism, or Advanced Composition.

Major, North American Concentration

Lower-level requirements: 18 credits

Upper-level requirements: 32 credits

Other requirements: 12 credits

Courses with North American content from other disciplines augment the breadth of the North American concentration.

12 credits from the following:

If you don’t have the prerequisites for the courses you choose from the above list, you must receive the course instructor’s permission before registering. Other courses may be considered by the English department. Consult with the English department head.

Major, Drama Concentration

Lower-level requirements: 18 credits