The Major and Minor

For Majors

Following a sophomore sequence that helps you develop fundamental skills essential to literary study and a pair of courses introducing literature’s historical traditions, you will have the opportunity to work with a faculty adviser to choose among a rich variety of electives. In your junior and seniors years, you will develop depth in one or more of these areas by taking a seminar on a topic that interests you. For all majors in the class of 2024 and beyond, we are introducing a new set of courses on Race, Blackness, and Language, which reflect our continued commitment to re-making the curriculum to fit the needs of the current century.

Major Requirements

After you declare the major (by contacting Marla DeRosa at marla.derosa@bc.edu) you’ll be assigned a departmental faculty advisor if English is your only major or your first declared major. The advisor will help you map out an academic program in line with your interests. If English is a second major, you will be assigned an informal departmental faculty advisor. 

The major ordinarily consists of 30 credits (10 courses) beyond First-Year Writing Seminar (FWS) and Literature Core.

For students in the class of 2023

• 1 semester of Studies in Poetry (ENGL 2131)
• 1 semester of Studies in Narrative (ENGL 2133)
• 8 Additional courses, of which one must be a seminar**, comprised of the following
  • 1 semester of medieval or early modern literature (pre-1700), which can be fulfilled by courses in either British or American literature.
  • 1 semester of eighteenth- or nineteenth-century literature (pre-1900), which can be fulfilled by courses in either British or American literature.
  • 1 additional course in EITHER medieval/early modern or eighteenth- or nineteenth-century literature (pre-1700 OR pre-1900), which can be fulfilled by courses in either British or American literature.
  • 5 electives
  • At least one of these courses must be a seminar. Seminars should be taken following Studies in Poetry and Studies in Narrative, ordinarily in the junior or senior year, and include all grad/undergrad courses offered in English, as well as any course with a seminar designation. Creative writing courses are excluded.

For students in the class of 2024 and beyond

• 1 semester of Studies in Poetry (ENGL 2131)
• 1 semester of Studies in Narrative (ENGL 2133)
• 8 Additional courses comprised of the following
  • 1 semester of medieval or early modern literature (pre-1700), which can be fulfilled by courses in either British or American literature.
  • 1 semester of eighteenth- or nineteenth-century literature (pre-1900), which can be fulfilled by courses in either British or American literature.
  • 1 course designated as fulfilling the requirement Race, Blackness, and Language
  • 5 electives
  • At least one of these courses must be a seminar. Seminars should be taken following Studies in Poetry and Studies in Narrative, ordinarily in the junior or senior year, and include all grad/undergrad courses offered in English, as well as any course with a seminar designation. Creative writing courses are excluded.

Majors may also want to pursue a concentration within the major (such as American or Irish Studies), apply to the intensive Creative Writing Concentration, or pursue Honors as a senior.

English majors can receive credit for up to two courses (electives or distribution requirements) for each semester of study abroad in an approved program. Courses need to be approved by the Assistant to the Chair, Marla DeRosa. Email for an appointment: marla.derosa@bc.edu. Requirements ordinarily include detailed course descriptions or syllabi, a minimum of 11 pages of writing, and coursework based on textual analysis, either in English or the language of the host country.

Summer courses or evening courses taken through the Woods College of Advancing Studies and designated as ADEN do not count for Core credit or credit towards the major.

Race, Blackness, and Language

This requirement for all English majors is designed to encourage students to think about how the meaningfulness of literature emerges from the many forces shaping the world as we understand it, focusing on anti-black racism and racial difference more generally. Students will examine issues of race thinking and global relations of power through lenses of ethics, social justice, respect for human dignity, sustainability, and the politics of language use. The department requires a course in Race, Blackness, and Language in the belief that analyzing literature with these themes in mind stimulates critical thinking and broadens our imaginations.

Courses that meet this requirement will

• Contain readings that reflect on the ways in which ideas of race, blackness, and language have found expression in multiple literary traditions.
• Teach students to recognize how whiteness is a product of race thinking that is often concealed under universal categories and thus accepted as the human norm.
• Engage with these literatures as complex social, philosophical, and artistic texts in their own rights, not only as reactive responses to white, colonial, or Eurocentric thinking and aesthetics.
• Teach students to recognize institutional and disciplinary norms and practices that have historically excluded or marginalized the study of these literatures.
• Offer strategies for thinking through the current political moment as well as conceptualizing and historicizing relations of power.