As of Fall 2023, Literature’s title has changed to English and Global Literatures. In addition to meeting General Education requirements and other degree requirements, majors must complete a minimum of 10 literature courses, plus an 8-credit senior project, as outlined below.
LIT 2450/Colloquium I: Studies in Literature* *Generally taken in the second year; transfer students who want to major in literature must complete this course during their first semester at Purchase.
Three courses in the literature sequence (courses that emphasize issues of history and period): One each from sequence I (before 1750), II (1750–1900), and III (1900–present)
One Comparative Literature course must be taken. This course could be an upper or a lower level course. This course can also fulfill one of the ‘sequence’ course requirements or one of the ‘3 literature electives.’
One course in Shakespeare
At least three elective literature courses (see notes below)
LIT 4450/Colloquium II: Advanced Studies in Literature* *Generally taken in the second semester of the junior year
LIT 4885/Senior Project Seminar
SPJ 4990/Senior Project I
SPJ 4991/Senior Project II
Of the 10 literature courses:
At least five must be at the 3000 or 4000 level (LIT 4450 counts toward this requirement; LIT 4885 does not).
At least four must be taken at Purchase College.
Students may not use the required Shakespeare course to satisfy the Sequence I requirement. For example, THP 2215 may be taken to fulfill the Sequence I requirement or the Shakespeare course requirement, but not both.
Certain courses in language and culture and in theatre and performance (THP prefix) may fulfill the requirements. These courses are cross-referenced in the list of literature courses.
Students may count toward the major up to 8 credits of writing courses at the 3000 or 4000 level. Writing courses at the 2000 level may not be counted toward the major requirements.
All courses taken to satisfy major requirements, excluding the senior project, must be completed with a grade of C or higher.
Course Sequences for the Major and Minor
Comparative literature courses in the sequences are indicated with an asterisk.
HIS 2120/Princes, Priests, and Peasants* LIT 2080/The Ancient Epic* LIT 3127/Early Modern English Poetry LIT 3137/From Romance to Fantasy* LIT 3140/Medieval English Literature* LIT 3142/Chivalry and Romance LIT 3150/Chaucer LIT 3155/Renaissance in England LIT 3160/Literature of the High Middle Ages* LIT 3220/The Renaissance in Europe* LIT 3250/Milton LIT 3705/Cervantes (in English) LIT 3822/Dread, Sadness, and Grief in Early English Literature LIT 3825/British Poetry I: Beginnings to 1650 LIT 4050/The Bible in Medieval and Early Modern Literature* LIT 4180/Dante and Medieval Culture* PHI 3205/Shakespeare and Philosophy THP 2215/Gender, Sex, and Shakespeare* THP2220/Race, Ethnicity, and Shakespeare THP 2885/Theatre Histories I* THP 3140/Medieval and Renaissance English Drama*
LIT 2375/Classics of European Fiction* LIT 2560/US Literature I: Whose Freedom? LIT 2570/Survey of U.S. Literature II LIT 3003/Dostoevsky and Tolstoy* LIT 3017/Eighteenth-Century British Women Writers LIT 3082/19th-Century British Literature and Empire LIT 3121/Comparative 19th-Century Novel* LIT 3267/Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekov, Kafka: The Short Stories* LIT 3271/The Age of Reason LIT 3315/The 19th-Century Novel in the U.S. LIT 3320/The 19th-Century British Novel LIT 3330/Romanticism LIT 3340/Romanticism II LIT3347/Transatlantic Romanticism LIT 3355/Romanticism and Empire LIT 3369/Victorian Poetry LIT 3540/Emerson LIT 3581/Realism and Naturalism in U.S. Literature LIT 3630/Melville LIT 3673/Austen LIT 4675/George Eliot and Henry James LIT 4685/Whitman and Dickinson
HIS 3180/British Culture and Society in the 20th Century HIS 3424/Modern and Postcolonial France* FRE 3067/ French Caribbean Literature* FRE 3710/Classics of French Literature on Film JST 3709/Theatrical Representations of the Holocaust* LAC 3340/Postcolonial French-Language Literature* LIT 1150/Border Crossings* LIT 1190/Modernism: The 20th Century* LIT 2195/Italian American Literature and Popular Culture LIT 2235/ Animals and the Environment* LIT 2305/Intro to Contemporary Global Literature* LIT 2387/Literature of the South Asian Diaspora* LIT 2388/Literature of the African Diaspora* LIT2645/Gender, Revolution, Livelihood: Modern Chinese Women Writers* LIT 2675/Literature and the City* LIT 2765/Child Soldier Narratives* LIT 2825/Modernism and the Metropolis* LIT 2872/The Golden Land: American Jewish Literature and Film LIT 3007/Visions of Dystopia LIT 3008/Literature of Disruption* LIT 3012/The Lives of James Baldwin LIT 3025/Women in Film* LIT 3043/Toni Morrison LIT 3047/Literature and Film of the Arab-Israeli Conflict* LIT 3093/Immigration and Ethnicity in U.S. Literature LIT 3095/ Literature of Race and Human Rights* LIT 3195/The Vietnam War in U.S. Literature and Film LIT 3215/South Asian Literature* LIT3216/20th Century South Asian History and Literature* LIT 3226/Literature of Decolonization in South Asia* LIT3227/Revolutionary Havana: The Cuban Revolution and the Havana Imaginary LIT 3265/Kafka* LIT 3266/Kafka to Roth* LIT 3310/Modern Poetry in the U.S. and Latin America* LIT 3380/Literature of the Harlem Renaissance LIT 3396/Fiction of Eastern Europe* LIT 3415/Global Metafictions* LIT 3420/Modern Poetry LIT 3427/20th and 21st Century World Literature* LIT 3432/The Roaring Twenties LIT 3490/James Joyce LIT 3532/Body, Race, Performance* LIT 3555/Modern British Literature LIT 3575/Virginia Woolf LIT 3605/Jazz and the Literary Imagination LIT 3633/The Beat Generation LIT 3635/Reviewing the Contemporary Novel LIT 3680/Surrealism and Its Legacy* LIT 3685/Modern Novel of Latin America (in English)* LIT 3695/Contemporary U.S. Literature LIT 3721/Contemporary Jewish American Fiction LIT 3725/Literature of the Holocaust* LIT 3745/Identity and Self-Fashioning LIT 3839/The Modern Novel LIT 3845/Zora Neale Hurston LIT 3915/Magical Realism* LIT 3940/Literature of War LIT 4190/Williams and Faulkner LIT 4240/Science Fiction LIT 4690/Contemporary U.S. Poetry POL 3307/ Politics and Memoir* SPA 3370/Lettered Cities: The Literatures of Latin American Cities SPA3650/Modern Latin American Poetry* THP 2600/American Drama: From O’Neill to Albee THP 3495/Black American Drama THP 3690/American Theatre in Our Time THP 3750/European Drama in Our Time*
Please note that these courses do not fulfill the sequence requirement.
ARH 3040/Vermeer in the World LAC 3450/Introduction to Literary Translation LIT 1610/Intro to Latinx Literature LIT 1065/Only Connect: Difference and Otherness in Literature LIT 1140/The West and Others LIT 2590/Mythologies LIT 3157/Novel Pairings LIT3227/Revolutionary Havana: The Cuban Revolution and the Havana Imaginary LIT 3676/Short Narrative PHI 2835/Happiness: Philosophy, Film, Literature SPA 3687/The Idea of Latin America THP 3250/Theories of Drama and Performance
