English Literature and Language
School
College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
School Dean
Department
English Literature and Language
Program Director
Mary Lynne Gasaway Hill, Ph.D., FRSA
Program Specific Admission Requirements
Generally, admission is granted to those with high promise for success in graduate study. Potential may be demonstrated by experience in increasingly responsible professional positions or previous schooling. All applicants submit official transcripts of previous schooling, contact information (email address and phone number) of two recommenders, a statement of interest, and a resume. A minimum overall GPA of 3.0 is acceptable, with special consideration given to course work in English.
Students interested in pursuing a Combined Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree must complete 21 undergraduate hours in English with a minimum 3.0 GPA, and be within 24-30 hours of completing the undergraduate degree, to be eligible for admission. The undergraduate degree does not have to be in English.
The St. Mary’s School of Law and College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences offer a joint program of study leading to the degrees of Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) and Master of Arts in English Literature and Language. The joint degree program allows a student to complete the requirements for both degrees in three to four years.
Admission to the joint program requires application to both Schools, although application to the Graduate Studies at St. Mary’s need not be made until the student begins law school. Upon successful application to both programs, students work with the graduate program director and the law school to coordinate student scheduling for completion of both degree programs.
For more information, please contact the graduate program director.
EN 6000X. Continuous Graduate Enrollment. 0 Semester Hours.
EN 6300. Intro to Academic Writing International Students. 3 Semester Hours.
In this course, graduate students increase their written and reading fluency in English. The emphasis in the course is on understanding the structure of a paragraph, the function of a topic sentence, the use of supporting details, citation methods, the use of transitional expressions, and academic grammar usage to meet American academic standards. International students who do not meet the Graduate Studies English proficiency minimum are required to enroll in EN 6300 and EN 6301. While a grade of B or higher must be earned in the course(s), the course(s) will not count toward the student’s graduate grade point average (GPA).
EN 6301. Academic Writing for International Students. 3 Semester Hours.
In this course, graduate students read and respond to academic texts written in English by evaluating and responding to texts from a variety of genres to become familiar with a range of rhetorical options including narration, classification, and argument. The course is structured so students have to interact with texts while mastering grammatical structures and new vocabulary. As the conventions of research and writing differ from country to country, ESL graduate students in this course learn American academic requirements about how to incorporate original thought, critical analysis, citation of academic texts, and synthesis of a topic, while becoming familiar with standards of academic honesty in written work. International students who do not meet the Graduate Studies English proficiency minimum are required to enroll in EN 6300 and EN 6301. While a grade of B or higher must be earned in the course(s), the course(s) will not count toward the student’s graduate grade point average (GPA).
EN 7170. Directed Readings. 1 Semester Hour.
This course is an opportunity for the student to explore an area of literature or language of their particular interest with a professor who specializes in the area of choice. To be arranged with consent of professor and graduate director.
EN 7270. Directed Readings. 2 Semester Hours.
This course is an opportunity for the student to explore an area of literature or language of their particular interest with a professor who specializes in the area of choice. To be arranged with consent of professor and graduate director.
EN 7300. Narrative Theory. 3 Semester Hours.
In this course, students explore the theoretical underpinnings of how narrative, a fundamentally human activity, helps us make meaning out of experience in our personal and professional lives. Throughout history, the ancient art of story has been used to teach, entertain, advocate, and organize. Narrative is a foundational instrument by which we create identities, share traditions, and transform our world.
EN 7301. Contemporary Literary Criticism. 3 Semester Hours.
This course grounds students in contemporary literary criticism including approaches such as: Psychoanalytic, Feminist, Postmodern, Gender, Queer, Postcolonial, and Ecocritical theories. Students, who are introduced to key thinkers in each school of criticism, explore a selection of significant literary works through these theoretical lenses.
EN 7303. Critical Approaches to the Short Story. 3 Semester Hours.
This course is divided between classic stories and the contemporary stories that are revitalizing the short story form in American and world literature.
EN 7304. Satire in English Literature. 3 Semester Hours.
This course recognizes that a satisfactory definition of satire is as slippery as an eel. Satire is perhaps the liveliest kind of writing and as old as literature itself. The Greeks developed it, yet it was the Romans who named it. It is still much alive in our time. Theorists agree that the essential elements are wit, humor, and attack. The classical view of satire emphasized its moral intent. The modern view focuses on its techniques. Students in this course will explore both in this course.
EN 7309. Seminar in Medieval Literature. 3 Semester Hours.
This course introduces students to major works from Old and Middle English literature, such as Beowulf, “Dream of the Rood”, The Canterbury Tales, and various fictions of the Grail including “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” and Le Morte d’Arthur.
EN 7310. Early American Literature. 3 Semester Hours.
This course explores American literature from European contact through American Transcendentalism, including both canonical writers and writers who were major figures in their time but have since been neglected. Students will read a variety of genres, from contact narratives to letters to short stories and poems. When taught as part of the Graduate Certificate for Dual Credit Teaching in English Literature and Language, this course will focus especially on strategies for teaching early American literature.
EN 7311. Modernism and Postmodernism. 3 Semester Hours.
This course explores critical texts from the Modern to the Postmodern. Working within critical theories that define this era, students engage works from a range of writers such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, Margaret Atwood, and Marguerite Duras.
EN 7312. Literature of the Renaissance. 3 Semester Hours.
This course provides a detailed survey of non-dramatic poetry and prose of the early Tudor and Elizabethan periods. It examines selected texts from an historical perspective with special emphasis on the development of literary genres during the sixteenth century. Political, philosophical and social issues of the period are raised as we consider the debates that shaped the poetics of the early and High Renaissance in England.
EN 7313. Realism and Naturalism in the American Novel. 3 Semester Hours.
This course examines American literary realism and naturalism from the conclusion of the American Civil War to the early twentieth century. The course will introduce students to the literary, cultural, and scientific contexts of realism and naturalism, from the rise of Darwinian evolutionary theory in the 1860s to the urban poverty of the Gilded Age. Representative authors include Stephen Crane, Sarah Orne Jewett, Charles Chesnutt, and Henry James.
EN 7314. International Literature. 3 Semester Hours.
This course introduces the student to literary masterpieces of the Western World while contextualizing them in the cultural and geo-temporal moment in which they arose. Emphasis is placed on understanding the various cultural and aesthetic movements surrounding the works and how they evolved.
EN 7315. Digital Humanities with American Literature Focus. 3 Semester Hours.
This course delves into American Transcendentalism by exploring its origins and development in nineteenth-century American history, culture, and literature. The course provides an in-depth examination of the Transcendentalist critique of American society, which urged all individuals to discover, in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words, their “original relation to the universe.”.
EN 7316. History of the American Novel. 3 Semester Hours.
This course introduces students to the American novel as it developed from the late eighteenth century to the present day. The course emphasizes novels as investigating the prevailing cultural, political, and psychological issues of their time. Students will be introduced to novelists from a variety of racial, ethnic, and national backgrounds.
EN 7317. The American Novel: Multicultural Literature. 3 Semester Hours.
This course examines the work of contemporary American writers from the many cultures that make-up the United States of America, specifically: Latino American, African/Black American, Asian American, Middle Eastern American, Indian American, and Native American. The course emphasizes critical reading, writing, analysis and application of multicultural theory.
EN 7318. Nineteenth Century British Literature. 3 Semester Hours.
This course traces defining cultural concerns and various aesthetic approaches to these in nineteenth century British writing.
EN 7319. Women of Color: Writing as Memoir and Resistance. 3 Semester Hours.
This course focuses on the genre of memoir as a means of resistance by women of color. Students engage written prose texts as well as multi-media memoir, while examining the genre in relation to how women of color blend historical, personal, testimonial, and creative writing to tell their stories of resistance. The course culminates in students crafting a digital memoir of their own.
EN 7320. Writers & Their Works. 3 Semester Hours.
This course focuses in detail on the works of one author or a small group of authors.
EN 7321. Shakespeare's Major Plays. 3 Semester Hours.
This course explores Shakespeare plays and criticism through the centuries, examining how they were treated--or mistreated--during the Restoration, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and in contemporary considerations. Film versions of the plays are compared with the texts.
EN 7329. Advanced Research and Writing. 3 Semester Hours.
In this course, students develop original research questions and arguments to contribute to the contemporary conversations in the discipline, signaling their transition into the professional community. The course facilitates engagement with a significant scope of sources that are current, authoritative, and recognized within the field, as students demonstrate their ability to craft original questions, while exercising theoretical and methodological independence in both research and writing.
EN 7330. Writing to Change the World. 3 Semester Hours.
In this course, students choose a contemporary issue about which they are passionate to research, write about, and advocate for, on its behalf. With the Characteristics of Marianist Universities as launching point, writing and advocacy will be done in a series of genres including: research paper and/or website delineating various positions surrounding the issue; position paper; editorial; and direct outreach to appropriate stakeholders and powerbrokers.
EN 7331. Writing Assessment. 3 Semester Hours.
This course asks, “What is good writing?” Through holistic, portfolio, and other types of assessment, students learn how to evaluate various types of writing from the perspective of various composition theories.
EN 7332. Persuasive Writing. 3 Semester Hours.
This course examines classic and contemporary approaches to persuasive writing as students develop strong and convincing arguments.
EN 7333. Contemporary Rhetorical Theory. 3 Semester Hours.
This course surveys and analyzes contemporary rhetorical theory. Students are introduced to current thinkers in the field and learn to apply their theories to a variety of texts.
EN 7335. History of the English Language. 3 Semester Hours.
This course explores where the English Language has come from and where it seems to be going. The two main foci are (1) the history of the language as it developed and changed in England and ultimately into world Englishes; and (2) how the development of a language is impacted by the socio-historical reality of its speakers.
EN 7336. Introduction to the Digital Humanities. 3 Semester Hours.
This course offers an introduction to the digital humanities (DH) with an emphasis on DH approaches to literary studies. The course offers an overview of prevailing debates within the field as well as hands-on experience with a variety of DH tools. Methodologies covered include data visualization, text mining, text encoding, digital archiving, and digital publishing, among others.
EN 7337. Approaches to Teaching Multi-Ethnic Literature. 3 Semester Hours.
This course provides background information, resources, and knowledge necessary to teach Mexican American, Native American, and African American literature courses at the secondary level. The course examines the historical background of the literatures, cultures, and pedagogies of the Mexican American, Native American, and African American traditions. Students engage with a wide range of assignments including the development of pedagogical approaches, lesson plans, and activities, research presentations, short critical essays, and Canvas posts, while also helping to create a library resource guide for secondary educators. Students will be prepared to teach Mexican American, Native American, and African American literature courses at the secondary level, while adhering to current TEKS guidelines, and learning state of the art pedagogies.
EN 7341. Analysis and Criticism of Television and Film. 3 Semester Hours.
This course introduces students to major critical approaches and analytical skills to the study of television and film. Once learned, these skills can be applied in a professional, classroom, or personal setting to enhance understanding of the intersection of media and narrative. After you take this course, television and film will never be the same again.
EN 7342. Transformational Writing. 3 Semester Hours.
In this course, students explore writing as an expressive practice, which transforms understandings of self and other, while facilitating health and well-being. In the highly demanding personal and professional environments of contemporary life, writing provides a venue by which students can interpret their experience, address challenges, recognize gifts, and vision opportunities.
EN 7343. Linguistics: Voice and Text. 3 Semester Hours.
This course focuses on English syntax. Students explore the syntactic foundations of the English language by identifying and learning to intentionally manipulate grammatical structures through their various functions. In doing so, students emerge as stronger writers and editors who can adapt to a variety of professional, literary, and communication environments, ranging from grant writing, to academic prose, poetry, fiction, journalism, and social media.
EN 7344. Approaches to Teaching Writing & Critical Thinking. 3 Semester Hours.
This course introduces students to the exploration of key theories and methods of discourse analysis in regard to both spoken discourse (talk) and written discourse (text). It familiarizes students with the ways in which language helps communicate personal, social, and cultural meanings in a wide variety of experiences. The course has a particular focus on the relationship between the work words do and the power relationship inherent in communicative relationships.
EN 7345. Rhetorical Grammar. 3 Semester Hours.
Rhetorical grammar is rooted in the intentional identification and use of grammatical choices and their effects in writing. When taught as part of the Graduate Certificate in Dual Credit Teaching, this course provides writing teachers a knowledge of the structures of English, which are foundational to tightly structured sentences, paragraphs, and arguments, the basis of rhetoric and composition.
EN 7351. Fiction: The Creative Process. 3 Semester Hours.
This course focuses on writing short fiction. Students also work on related forms such as dramatic nonfiction, narrative essays, profiles, and personal narrative construction, and engage short works by recent authors. Particular attention is paid to complication and resolution, foreshadowing and pace, audience, and point of view. The chief emphasis of the course is the development of the student's own voice and style.
EN 7352. Poetry: The Creative Process. 3 Semester Hours.
This course combines the study of contemporary poetry and poetics with the writing and workshopping of poetry. The course examines poetry by major writers since Eliot, Stevens, and Bishop, including work by Denise Levertov, Anne Sexton, Richard Hugo, Sylvia Plath, W.S. Merwin, Nikki Giovanni, Charles Simic, Rita Dove, and others. Students write and workshop a number of their own poems for the course and select one contemporary poet to study in some detail for a final essay presented to the class.
EN 7353. Writing for Publication. 3 Semester Hours.
This course trains students to write for publication. This includes developing strategies to target writing for a particular market, to become acquainted with copyright and intellectual property issues, style sheets, manuscript preparation, and the publishing industry.
EN 7362. Peace & Violence in Literature. 3 Semester Hours.
This course explores literature that centers on the topics of peace and violence as they are portrayed in a selection of international works throughout history.
EN 7370. Directed Readings. 3 Semester Hours.
This course is an opportunity for the student to explore an area of literature or language of their particular interest with a professor who specializes in the area of choice. To be arranged with consent of professor and graduate director.
EN 7380. Project. 3 Semester Hours.
The project is an original work based on professional and/or academic research related to the discipline, and the student’s chosen career path. The project provides the student the opportunity to integrate research, writing, and learning experiences in the program, into an original professional contribution. The topic of the project is agreed upon by the student and the graduate director. Together they choose one professor as chair of the project.
EN 7390. Thesis Research. 3 Semester Hours.
In this course, students conduct research in preparation for the writing of an academic thesis in the discipline. The course is taken generally with the thesis director. As part of this course, students develop and defend their thesis research proposals which includes: the working thesis question, a statement of the research goals, a review of the pertinent literature/bibliographical sources, and a statement of the prospective contribution the thesis will make to the discipline.
EN 7391. Thesis. 3 Semester Hours.
The thesis is the research and writing of a distinct contribution to the discipline. It requires research leading to the discovery of new knowledge or original enhancement of existing knowledge in the field of interest. The thesis includes thematic, formal and theoretical components. It requires a panel of three professors, one of whom is the chair, to guide the student through the writing of the manuscript. These professors are selected in consultation with the graduate director.
EN 7396. English Internship in Teaching and Research. 3 Semester Hours.
This internship course is designed to provide the student with practical experience in teaching, research, and/or writing. The student works closely with a specific professor as an apprentice, allowing him or her to get teaching experience in assignment design, classroom management, and commenting on student work. The student works closely with the professor to develop research goals, conduct research, identify possible outlets (conferences or journals), and produce a project. Registration in this course requires approval by the graduate director.
EN 7690. Thesis. 6 Semester Hours.
This course is a combination of EN7390 and EN7391.