The Vanishing Shakespeare. A Report by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni

Transcription

1 The Vanishing Shakespeare A Report by the American Counci of Trustees and Aumni

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3 The Vanishing Shakespeare A Report by the American Counci of Trustees and Aumni Anne D. Nea President Apri 2007

4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report was prepared by the staff of the American Counci of Trustees and Aumni, primariy by Anne D. Nea and Chares Mitche. The American Counci of Trustees and Aumni is a nationa non-profit based in Washington, DC, dedicated to academic freedom, academic quaity, and accountabiity in higher education. For further information about ACTA and its programs, pease contact: American Counci of Trustees and Aumni 1726 M Street, NW, Suite 802 Washington, DC Phone: ; Fax: info@goacta.org

5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction...1 The Assaut on Shakespeare and Great Authors...3 The Advance of the Not-So-Great...7 What You Can Do...11 Engish Department Shakespeare Requirements Chart 1: A Institutions Surveyed...16 Chart 2: Top 25 Nationa Universities...18 Chart 3: Top 25 Libera Arts Coeges...19 Chart 4: Ivy League and Seven Sisters...20 Chart 5: Big Ten...20 Chart 6: Seect Pubic Universities in Caifornia and New York...21 Chart 7: Washington, DC-Area Schoos...21 Appendix A: What Is Required?...22 Appendix B: What Are Students Studying?...44 Literature as Poitics, Socioogy and Popuar Cuture...45 Overy Speciaized or Narrow Courses...48 Cutura Studies and Theory...50 Chidren s Literature...52 Body Studies...54 Sensationaized Content; Gender and Sexuaity...55 Courses in Fim...57

6 O! what a nobe mind

7 is here o erthrown. Hamet THE VANISHING SHAKESPEARE As this report goes to press, our nation s capita is in the midst of a six-month, city-wide ceebration of Wiiam Shakespeare. With this ceebration as a backdrop, the American Counci of Trustees and Aumni researched how Shakespeare fits into Engish curricua at 70 of the nation s eading coeges and universities. What we found is, to quote the Bard, the unkindest cut of a. At most universities, Engish majors were once required to study Shakespeare as one of the preeminent representatives of Engish anguage and iterature. But today on campuses pubic and private, arge and sma, east and west he is required no more. At more than three-quarters of the institutions ACTA surveyed, Engish majors are not required to take a course on Shakespeare. The trend has been present for decades, but it has significanty worsened over the past ten years. And as schoos reax requirements reating to Shakespeare and other great authors, courses that have more to do with popuar cuture and current events are mutipying.

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9 This was the most unkindest cut of a. Juius Caesar 1: the assaut on shakespeare and great authors To determine where Shakespeare stands in today s curricuum, ACTA surveyed Engish departments at the U.S. News & Word Report s top 25 nationa universities and top 25 ibera arts coeges, as we as the Big Ten schoos and seect pubic universities in New York and Caifornia. With the current festivities in our nation s capita in mind, we aso ooked at universities in or near the District of Coumbia. Appendix A gives a fu isting of the schoos studied, together with summaries of their Engish major requirements. Today, a mere 15 of these 70 coeges and universities require Engish majors to take a course in Shakespeare. Those institutions are: Caifornia Institute of Technoogy Cathoic University Harvard University Middebury Coege Smith Coege Stanford University State University of New York at Binghamton State University of New York at Buffao University of Caifornia at Berkeey University of Caifornia at Los Angees University of the District of Coumbia University of Iinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Minnesota University of Wisconsin at Madison Weesey Coege

10 This figure refects a generous definition of requiring Shakespeare. ACTA credited a coege or university with a Shakespeare requirement when a majority of its Engish majors were obiged either to take a course in Shakespeare or to take two out of three singe-author courses on Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Miton. What do these figures mean? For starters, ony one Ivy League university, Harvard, requires its Engish majors to take a course in Shakespeare. Ony four of the top 25 nationa universities ranked by U.S. News & Word Report have a Shakespeare requirement: Berkeey, Ca Tech, Harvard, and Stanford. The top 25 ibera arts coeges fare even worse, with ony three Middebury, Smith, and Weesey requiring their Engish majors to study Shakespeare. Turning to arge pubic universities, ony three from the Big Ten (Iinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) require Shakespeare. And even though Washington, DC is devoting the first haf of 2007 to a ceebration of Shakespeare, just two schoos in the area, Cathoic University and the University of the District of Coumbia, require their Engish majors to study him. Ivy League: One schoo requires Shakespeare Top 25 Nationa Universities: Four require Shakespeare Top 25 Libera Arts Coeges: Three require Shakespeare Big Ten: Three require Shakespeare Washington, DC-Area Schoos: Two require Shakespeare Thus, 55 of the 70 schoos we surveyed aow Engish majors incuding future Engish teachers to graduate without studying the anguage s greatest writer in depth. 1 Athough numerous schoos require majors to take a survey of British medieva and Renaissance iterature, they often do not guarantee that surveys wi incude Shakespeare or wi provide exposure of any significant depth. Accordingy, for the purposes of this study, we do not cassify those schoos as requiring Shakespeare. ACTA (then known as Nationa Aumni Forum) first investigated this issue in 1996, when we issued a report caed The Shakespeare Fie: What Engish Majors Are Reay Studying. This study reviewed the top 25 universities and top 25 ibera arts coeges ranked by U.S. News & Word Report, pubic universities in New York and Caifornia, as we as severa institutions incuded for regiona baance. At that time, 23 of the 70 schoos surveyed required their Engish majors to study Shakespeare. Eight of those 23 have since dropped the requirements: Caremont McKenna Coege; Duke University; Hamiton Coege; State University of New York at Stony Brook; University of Iinois at Chicago; University of Southern Caifornia; University of Virginia; and Washington University in St. Louis. Schoos surveyed in the 1996 and 2007 studies overap but are not identica.

11 At most coeges and universities, Shakespeare courses can be taken as eectives to fufi broad historica distribution requirements, as outined in Appendix A. And yet, as a quick gance at existing requirements shows, Shakespeare hods no favored pace. A course on Shakespeare may count the same as the study of Renaissance food (Swarthmore Coege), Renaissance things (University of Chicago), and medieva writing about fogging, stabbing, and rape (University of Pennsyvania). Increasingy, coeges and universities envision a major in Engish not as a body of important writers, genres, and works that a shoud know, but as a hodgepodge of courses refecting diverse interests and approaches. (See Appendix B.) After redesigning the Engish major at the University of Pennsyvania, for exampe, the department s undergraduate chairman tod The Daiy Pennsyvanian student newspaper that We might not agree on what we think Engish is, but we coud a agree that our curricuum shoud refect the makeup of our facuty. Such a phiosophy resuts in course offerings being driven not by the inteectua needs of students, but often by the varied interests and agendas of the facuty. As a consequence, it is possibe for students to graduate with a degree in Engish without thoughtfu or extended study of centra works and figures who have shaped our iterary and cutura heritage. 3 Moy Petria, Proposed Engish major offers expanded options, The Daiy Pennsyvanian, January 15,

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13 Though this be madness, yet there is method in t. Hamet 2: the advance of the not-so-great Doing away with Shakespeare requirements might not be so bad if students were otherwise guaranteed a sustained and coherent exposure to the key works of the Engish anguage. But in the set of courses and requirements we now ca the Engish curricuum, undergraduates too often have no such guarantee. Mind you, most coeges caim otherwise. Haverford Coege s Engish department, for exampe, caims to maintain a working baance between an enduring commitment to the traditiona canon of Engish and American iterature and an expanding horizon of fresh concerns. Yet whie facuty offered many fresh concerns in , Haverford offered not a singe course on the Bard. In their zea to incorporate fresh concerns, Engish departments appear to have thrown the baby out with the bath water. Whie Shakespeare and other traditionay accaimed authors such as Chaucer and Miton are no onger required, many institutions such as Rice, Oberin, and Vanderbit require students to study non-canonica traditions, under-represented cutures, and ethnic or non-western iterature. Engish majors today find a mind-bogging array of courses that center on poitics, socioogy and popuar cuture courses notabe not because they focus on great iterature, but because they focus on everything but. Engish casses address a mutipicity of non-iterary topics such as (in their own words): adoption (Yae University); AIDS (Princeton University); animas, cannibas, and vegetabes (Emory University); African cinema (University of Chicago); the conceptua back body (Mount Hoy- 7

14 oke Coege); diasporic ecoogica iterature (Bates Coege); fim noir (Coumbia University); gobaism (University of Virginia); Hoywood in the 1970s (American University); Baywatch (Northwestern University); Madonna (University of Pennsyvania); migration forced and vountary (Vassar); poicing and prisons (Corne University); queer mobiity (Penn State University); radica vegetarian manifestos (University of Pennsyvania); rock and ro (University of Caifornia at San Diego); sociaist and capitaist phiosophies (Macaaster Coege); teen identity (Purdue University); Wid West shows and vaudevie (Swarthmore Coege); and Vietnam and Iraq (Bowdoin Coege). Engish departments across the country are aso offering an increasing number and variety of courses on theory, and many require it. (See Appendix A.) In these courses, students are typicay introduced to a stye of thought rather than a body of knowedge; rather than studying major iterary works in depth, students are taught to theorize about iterature and cuture. At Duke, where theory is required, but not Shakespeare, undergraduates studying Coo Theory focus on just one word: interrogat[ing] the concept of coo through an engagement with a variety of media, incuding fiction, memoir, music, teevision, fashion and fim, as we as historica and theoretica secondary materias. At Princeton, Engish majors who study Contemporary Literary Theory each week take up a new critica term, examining both its history and its current usages. Terms might incude: anguage, ideoogy, performativity, sexuaity, ethics, media, trauma, AIDS, gobaization, and war. And at the University of Virginia, Engish majors can avoid reading Otheo in favor of studying Critica Race Theory, which expores why race continue[s] to have vita significance in poitics, economics, education, cuture, arts, and everyday socia reaities incuding sexuaity, cass, disabiity, muticuturaism, nationaity, and gobaism. Whie Shakespeare requirements are on the decine, courses on chidren s iterature are proiferating. For $40,000 a year, students can now spend their precious coege years at Yae, Purdue, the University of Pennsyvania, and others studying the works of Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, Lemony Snicket, and J. K. Rowing. Courses on body studies and anima rights are aso mutipying. Oberin s Engish course on Fokore and the Body, for exampe, considers reproduction, initiation, heath, beauty, gesture, etiquette, hair, body

15 parts and dress. Meanwhie, Dartmouth s Engish department offers a course entited Of Nags, Bitches and Shrews: Women and Animas in Western Literature in order to expore whether advances in women s rights have been met with corresponding advances in the treatment of animas and why women fee particuary caed upon to work for those advances. Many courses seek to sensationaize iterary study, offering provocative, even titiating, course descriptions that notaby focus on sex. Coumbia University offers Promiscuity and the Nove, where students begin with the eary modern nove of erotic intrigue, move through French courtesan fiction and the Engish courtship nove, and arrive at modernist exporations of the sexua demi-monde and more recent depictions of gay urban ife. Georgetown students can study Sexing the Past, incuding how sex and sexuaity may be read across time. And in Duke s Creepy Kids in Fiction and Fim, students focus on weirdoes, creeps, freaks, and geeks of the truy evi variety with the aim of asking how fims showcasing a chid s irreguarity or abnormaity make us freak out. In this cass, students view The Omen and The Sixth Sense, and read Stephen King s Chidren of the Corn. Speaking of fim: Modern Engish departments are increasingy home to courses on movies, with many departments even hiring dedicated fim speciaists. At Bowdoin Coege, Engish majors can study The Horror Fim in Context, which focuses on how horror movies represent vioence, fear, and paranoia, pacing specia emphasis on their creation of identity categories; their intersection with contemporary poitics; and their participation in such major iterary and cinematic genres as the gothic, parody, and famiy drama. Students at Corne can take Fast Taking Dames and Sad Ladies: 1940s and Now, where they examine sassy or subdued heroines of Hoywood s 1940s fims and current fims. These courses and more are outined in Appendix B, which excerpts actua course descriptions from the coeges and universities studied. 5 The categories used are not exhaustive or scientific, but intended to be usefu groupings that highight current trends. See Robert Armour, A Survey: The Teaching of Fim in Engish Departments, Journa of the University Fim Association 27 (4): Some coeges provide detaied course descriptions and some ony tites or brief cataogue notes. Those that provide descriptions are disproportionatey represented here. 9

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17 Men at some time are masters of their fates. Juius Caesar 3: What you can do As this report makes cear, Engish majors across the country can graduate today without reading Shakespeare in depth. Empoyers especiay newspapers, pubishers, schoos, and others who hire Engish majors shoud be deepy concerned. So shoud parents, aumni, trustees, and interested citizens. If reading Shakespeare is not centra to a ibera education, what is? But for Engish majors to miss out is far worse. As we said before: A degree in Engish without Shakespeare is ike an M.D. without a course in anatomy. It is tantamount to fraud. A high schoo that hires someone with a B.A. in Engish shoud righty assume that this individua can teach Shakespeare and other great authors. However, in a word where Shakespeare is no onger required, it s easy to imagine a day when schooteachers wi not have read Shakespeare, and wi not teach him. A ook at today s Engish departments iustrates what happens when various academic trends and facuty interests are aowed to push the traditiona study of great iterature aside. Whie the study of theory and cuture is fine, one can righty ask why Engish professors are abandoning their obigation to expose students to the enightening and inspiring power of iterature as iterature, with Shakespeare as the greatest casuaty. As Washington ceebrates Shakespeare, why do so many American campuses dismiss him? It used to be that our coeges and universities coud be counted on to introduce students in Matthew Arnod s words to the best that has been thought and said. Our campuses offered a pace where students 11

18 coud engage the centra works, events and figures that have shaped our word s common conversation. The prevaent circuar approach that aows students to seect amost any combination of courses on their way to graduation resuts in a patchwork that poory prepares students for ifeong educationa needs. 6 It s no surprise that in 2004 the Nationa Endowment for the Arts found in Readers at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, that ess than haf of the U.S. adut popuation had read any work of iterature of any quaity, in any anguage during a fu year. 7 Coege students who are fed a diet of pop cuture and fim in the Engish department carry these tastes with them. If our coeges and universities seek to retain pubic support of their work, they must understand that education is about informed choices, made possibe by reason, professiona training, and good sense. Education, if it is to be asting and vauabe, must vaue the transcendent over the ephemera, the thought-provoking over the tendentious Shakespeare over Madonna. Facuties have a right to pursue persona inteectua interests, but they aso have an obigation to address what students need to earn. If trained and tenured facuty wi not distinguish between the meaningfu and trivia, then what are parents paying for? Fortunatey, as severe as this probem is, it is not difficut to fix. What coeges need most is to review and reform their curricua and curricuar sef-examination can be done at itte or not cost. What Trustees and Administrators Can Do Since many Engish professors endorse the shift away from curricua centered on major authors, Engish departments are unikey to change on their own. Trustees and administrators shoud insist that departments articuate with far greater carity what students shoud know upon graduating and ensure that major requirements are substantive. 6 In a 2004 study entited The Hoow Core, ACTA shed ight on the genera education requirements at 50 of the top coeges and universities nationwide. Some 62 percent did not require a non-remedia mathematics course, 88 percent did not require a survey course on great works of iterature, 86 percent did not require a survey course on American history or government, and not one institution required a genera economics course. 7 Nationa Endowment for the Arts, Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America (2004); see 12

19 Academic freedom, of course, is a cruciay important right. Yet ike any other right, it aso entais responsibiity in this case, facuty members responsibiity to teach, in addition to their own speciaized research interests, the subjects students need to know. If such subjects are not being taught, trustees and administrators are right to be concerned and to ask that the curricuum be reviewed. What Aumni and Donors Can Do Aumni shoud take an active interest in whether their ama maters have strong requirements in Engish and other key subjects. They shoud not aow their degrees to be devaued by a decine in coege standards. Aumni outcry over proposed changes to the accaimed curricua at the University of Chicago and Brookyn Coege resuted in both coeges abandoning their pans. Meanwhie, recent concerns about educationa gaps voiced in aumnae surveys prompted Smith Coege to pursue enhanced requirements in math. Those who give can be especiay hepfu, since donors can target outstanding programs and projects that introduce students to subjects that standard curricua do not adequatey cover. ACTA can assist aumni and donors in identifying outstanding programs and in directing their gifts to support them. It s time for aumni to te universities that they wi not remain sient when academic standards decine. What Students and Their Famiies Can Do Parents and students can aso take action. Before seecting a coege, students and parents shoud carefuy read coege cataogs and decide which schoos prescribe courses of study that refect a thoughtfu and convincing educationa phiosophy. As outined in this report, some of the most prestigious and expensive coeges have weak or nonexistent requirements. Whie it is aways possibe to identify some good courses, a quaity higher education shoud not be eft up to chance. Students who are aready attending coege can make up for curricuar deficiencies by seecting their courses carefuy. Parents can hep their sons and daughters understand that trendy, topica courses wi not we serve their ong-term needs. And students shoud recognize that they can be effective agents of change. They are the ones being cheated and they can compe their 13

20 schoos to take notice. The exampe of Harvard s undergraduates, who have agitated for a stronger, more coherent core curricuum, shows what a determined group can do when it decides to fight for a better education. In a recent essay in The New York Review of Books, Coumbia humanities professor Andrew Debanco made the chaenge cear: Coeges wi fufi their responsibiities ony when they confront the question of what students shoud earn a question that most administrators, compiers of rank ists, and authors of books on higher education prefer to avoid. Restoring Shakespeare to his rightfu pace on the required reading ist is a good pace to start. Andrew Debanco, Scandas of Higher Education, The New York Review of Books, Vo. 54, No. 5, March 29,

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22 CHART 1 engish department SHakespeare Requirements A Institutions Surveyed American University Amherst Coege Barnard Coege Bates Coege Bowdoin Coege Brown University Bryn Mawr Coege Caifornia Institute of Technoogy Careton Coege Carnegie Meon University Cathoic University Caremont McKenna Coege Coby Coege Cogate University Coumbia University Corne University Dartmouth Coege Davidson Coege Duke University Emory University George Washington University Georgetown University Grinne Coege Hamiton Coege Harvard University Haverford Coege Harvey Mudd Coege Howard University Indiana University Johns Hopkins University Macaester Coege Massachusetts Institute of Technoogy* Michigan State University Middebury Coege Mount Hoyoke Coege Requires Does not Require 16

23 Requires Northwestern University Oberin Coege Ohio State University Penn State University Pomona Coege Princeton University Purdue University Rice University Smith Coege Stanford University SUNY Binghamton SUNY Buffao SUNY Stony Brook Swarthmore Coege University of Caifornia at Berkeey University of Caifornia at Los Angees University of Caifornia at San Diego University of Chicago University of the District of Coumbia University of Iinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Iowa University of Maryand at Coege Park University of Michigan University of Minnesota University of Notre Dame University of Pennsyvania University of Virginia University of Wisconsin at Madison Vanderbit University Vassar Coege Washington and Lee University Washington University in St. Louis Weesey Coege Weseyan University Wiiams Coege Yae University *MIT does not have an Engish major and was excuded from the study. Does not Require 17

24 CHART 2 engish department SHakespeare Requirements Top 25 Nationa Universities (as ranked by U.S. News & Word Report, 2007) Requires Does not Require 1 Princeton University 2 Harvard University 3 Yae University 4 Caifornia Institute of Technoogy 4 Stanford University 4 Massachusetts Institute of Technoogy* 7 University of Pennsyvania 8 Duke University 9 Dartmouth Coege 9 Coumbia University 9 University of Chicago 12 Corne University 12 Washington University in St. Louis 14 Northwestern University 15 Brown University 16 Johns Hopkins University 17 Rice University 18 Vanderbit University 18 Emory University 20 University of Notre Dame 21 Carnegie Meon University 21 University of Caifornia at Berkeey 23 Georgetown University 24 University of Virginia 24 University of Michigan *MIT does not have an Engish major and was excuded from the study. 18

25 CHART 3 engish department SHakespeare Requirements Top 25 Libera Arts Coeges (as ranked by U.S. News & Word Report, 2007) Requires Does not Require 1 Wiiams Coege 2 Amherst Coege 3 Swarthmore Coege 4 Weesey Coege 5 Middebury Coege 6 Careton Coege 7 Bowdoin Coege 7 Pomona Coege 9 Haverford Coege 10 Davidson Coege 10 Weseyan University 12 Vassar Coege 12 Caremont McKenna Coege 14 Grinne Coege 14 Harvey Mudd Coege 16 Cogate University 17 Hamiton Coege 18 Washington and Lee University 19 Smith Coege 20 Coby Coege 20 Bryn Mawr Coege 22 Oberin Coege 23 Bates Coege 24 Macaester Coege 24 Mount Hoyoke Coege 19

26 CHART 4 engish department SHakespeare Requirements Ivy League and Seven Sisters Brown University Coumbia University Corne University Dartmouth Coege Harvard University Princeton University University of Pennsyvania Yae University Requires Does not Require Barnard Coege Bryn Mawr Coege Mount Hoyoke Coege Smith Coege Vassar Coege Weesey Coege Requires Does not Require CHART 5 engish department SHakespeare Requirements Big Ten Indiana University Michigan State University Northwestern University Ohio State University Penn State University Purdue University University of Iinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Iowa University of Michigan University of Minnesota University of Wisconsin at Madison Requires Does not Require 20

27 CHART 6 engish department SHakespeare Requirements Seect Pubic Universities in Caifornia and New York SUNY at Binghamton SUNY at Buffao SUNY at Stony Brook University of Caifornia at Berkeey University of Caifornia at Los Angees University of Caifornia at San Diego Requires Does not Require CHART 7 engish department SHakespeare Requirements Washington, DC-Area Schoos American University Cathoic University George Washington University Georgetown University Howard University Johns Hopkins University University of the District of Coumbia University of Maryand at Coege Park University of Virginia Requires Does not Require 21

28 Appendix A What Is Required? 22

29 This is the short and the ong of it. The Merry Wives of Windsor For the purposes of this study, we defined a coege or university as having a Shakespeare requirement when Engish majors were obiged either to take a course in Shakespeare or to take two out of three singe-author courses on Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Miton. A number of schoos require majors to take a survey of British medieva and Renaissance iterature, but eave syabi to individua instructors discretion. As such, there is no guarantee that those surveys wi incude Shakespeare from year to year. At other schoos such as Careton, Davidson, Ohio State, and Penn State Shakespeare is incuded among the writers covered in surveys as one of many authors students wi cover. For purposes of this study, we do not cassify these schoos as requiring Shakespeare. Other schoos have different requirements for their various programs. For instance, Princeton requires a Shakespeare course ony of students majoring in its Engish and Theater program. SUNY Binghamton exempts from its Shakespeare requirement majors concentrating in goba cuture. In such cases, we cassified such schoos as having a Shakespeare requirement ony when the requirement ceary appied to the majority of students. Requirements have been cued from appicabe university and Engish departmenta websites for the academic year. In some cases, eectives are mentioned for purposes of carity. 23

30 American University The major consists of forty-two credit hours. Students must take a course on the basic skis of iterary anaysis, three survey courses in regiona iteratures, four courses in iterary history, and one course focusing on iterary process. Majors aso take a senior seminar on the vaue of iterature. Shakespeare is not required. Amherst Coege Students take ten courses, organized around a concentration of their own devising. In their senior year, majors must take an exam on a reading ist issued by the department. Shakespeare is not required. Barnard Coege The major consists of ten courses, incuding: a iterary criticism and theory course; two pre-1900 courses; two courses a Renaissance cooquium and an Enightenment cooquium studying major writers, iterary works, and ideas of the periods; one additiona iterature course; two eectives chosen from the Engish department; and two senior seminars. Majors may concentrate in one of the foowing fieds: American iterature, fim, theater, or creative writing. Shakespeare is not required. Bates Coege The major consists of eeven courses, incuding three courses on iterature before 1800; one course emphasizing critica thinking ; two junior-senior seminars; and a senior thesis. Shakespeare is not required. Bowdoin Coege The genera major in Engish and American Literature consists of ten courses. Required are one first-year seminar or introductory course; three courses in British and Irish iterature before 1800; and one course on iterature of the Americas. The speciaized major in Engish and Theater requires a Shakespeare course. As such, Shakespeare is not required. 24

31 Brown University Engish majors must take ten courses, incuding one in iterary theory or the history of iterary criticism and two in each of the foowing areas: medieva and eary modern iteratures and cutures; Enightenment and the rise of nationa iteratures and cutures; and modern and contemporary iteratures and cutures. Majors must aso choose a four-course focus from one of the foowing areas: historica deveopment of iterature; historica period; Angophone, postcoonia, and muticutura studies; American, British, or another nationa/regiona iterature; gender and sexuaity; genre; theory; nonfiction writing; or independent study. Shakespeare is not required. Bryn Mawr Coege In addition to two prerequisite iterature courses, majors must take eeven courses, incuding a course on methods. Majors must aso undertake a yearong senior thesis project cuminating in a page essay. There are no other content requirements. Shakespeare is not required. Caifornia Institute of Technoogy Students majoring in Engish take tweve courses. Majors work out the specifics of their course of study with an advisor, and have ony two specific requirements: a course on Shakespeare and a senior thesis. Shakespeare is required. Careton Coege The Engish major consists of eeven courses, incuding a survey of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Miton, and yric poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; a survey of neocassica, Romantic, and Victorian iterature; a survey of American iterature to 1914; a course on iterary criticism; an advanced seminar on specified topics; and one course from each of the foowing groups: medieva and Renaissance iterature; Restoration and eighteenth-century iterature; nineteenth-century British and American iterature; and modernist and contemporary iterature. Shakespeare is not required. 25

32 Carnegie Meon University The major consists of eeven courses. Majors must take the introductory courses Survey of Forms and Interpretive Practices, after which they take a core comprised of six courses: a research cass; a rhetoric cass; two courses that investigate the production and interpretation of texts and other media from a variety of periods and theoretica and methodoogica perspectives ; and two seminars. Two of the six courses must be period courses focusing on texts that are connected in time and pace or through common socia concerns. One of these two period courses must be in iterature before Shakespeare is not required. Cathoic University Majors are required to take one composition course; a two-semester survey of Engish iterature; two semesters of intensive study of genre (yric, drama, or narrative) in the junior year; a two-semester sequence studying a significant British or American author in the senior year; one course each in Chaucer and Shakespeare; and four upper-division courses. Shakespeare is required. Caremont McKenna Coege Engish majors must take nine courses, incuding a two-course survey of British iterature (the first covering medieva and Renaissance writing, the second covering the Restoration through the eary twentieth century); one singe author course; a junior seminar in iterary criticism; one course on pre-1700 iterature; one course on iterature from ; one American iterature course; and two iterature eectives. The coege requires a students to write a senior thesis, regardess of major. Shakespeare is not required. Coby Coege The major requires tweve courses, incuding a gateway course in genres and methods; a theory course; two specia subjects courses; two additiona courses chosen from advanced courses in Engish or American iterature, creative writing, or iterature in other anguages or in transation; and a senior seminar. At east three courses must focus on Engish 26

33 iterature written before 1800 and at east three on Engish iterature after Shakespeare is not required. Cogate University Majors concentrate on iterature, theater, or creative writing. The iterature track requires eight courses, one of which must be an introduction to iterary study and another of which must be an introduction to iterary history; two courses in iterature before 1800; two in iterature after 1800; and one upper-eve seminar in iterature. The creative writing track requires ten courses, incuding the same requirements above pus three workshops. The theater track requires eight courses, incuding two in the iterature of theater (usuay Introduction to Drama and Modern Drama ); two courses in craft; an advanced directing and/or theories of theater course; and forty hours of technica or backstage theater work. Shakespeare is not required. Coumbia University Engish majors must compete ten courses, and must satisfy distribution requirements with respect to period, genre, and geography. For period requirements, students must take at east three courses deaing with iterature before For genre requirements, they must take one course in poetry, one in prose fiction/narrative, and one in drama or fim. For geographica requirements, they must take one course in British iterature, one in American iterature, and one in comparative/goba iterature. Shakespeare is not required. Corne University Majors must compete ten courses, incuding three courses in which 50% or more of the materia consists of iterature originay written in Engish before Additionay, three courses must form an inteectuay coherent concentration. Students may count up to three courses from other discipines toward their Engish major. Eigibe discipines incude German studies; Romance studies; Russian studies; Asian studies; cassics; comparative iterature; theatre; fim; dance; Africana studies; the Society for the Humanities; American studies; feminist, gender, and 27

34 sexuaity studies; reigious studies; Asian American studies; American Indian studies; and Latino studies. Shakespeare is not required. Dartmouth Coege Engish majors must take eeven courses, incuding two courses in iterature before the mid-seventeenth century; two in iterature from the mid-seventeenth century to the end of the nineteenth century; one in iterature from the start of the twentieth century to the present; and one in criticism and theory. Additionay, they must seect four courses from one of ten concentration areas : iterary theory and criticism; genre; iterary history; period study; nationa traditions and counter-traditions; muticutura and coonia/postcoonia studies; genders and sexuaities; cutura studies and popuar cuture; creative writing; and independent proposa. Students must take one Specia Topics course or one Foreign Study Program, and one course to satisfy a Cuminating Experience requirement. Shakespeare is not required. Davidson Coege The Engish major consists of ten courses: a course on iterary anaysis; a survey of British iterature through the eighteenth-century; either nineteenth- and twentieth-century British iterature incuding coonia and postcoonia writing, or a word iteratures course incuding seected texts outside the British and American traditions; a survey of American iterature; a creative writing course; and eectives chosen to create a threecourse custer. The British iterature survey paces specia emphasis on Shakespeare, Chaucer, Donne, and Miton. Shakespeare is not required. Duke University Majors must compete ten courses, incuding one of three gateway courses: Readings in Genre Seminar ; Reading Historicay ; or Reading Historicay Seminar. They must aso take at east one course from each of the foowing concentrations: Literary and Cutura Study pre ; Literary and Cutura Study ; Literary and Cutura Study ; Literary and Cutura Study 1860 to the Present ; and Criticism, Theory, Methodoogy. Shakespeare is not required. 28

35 Emory University Majors take ten courses, incuding one introductory course that emphasizes cose reading of iterary texts and four courses that form an area of concentration deveoped with guidance from a facuty advisor. Students must aso fufi a distribution requirement with one course in British iterature before 1660; one course in British iterature after 1660; one course in American iterature; and one course with a theoretica or interdiscipinary emphasis. Shakespeare is not required. George Washington University Majors must take a prerequisite survey course pus eeven department courses, incuding three in iterature written before 1800; one in critica methods; one in iterary theory and/or cutura studies; one in minority or post-coonia iterature and tradition; one in nineteenth-century iterature; and one in twentieth-century iterature. Majors must aso demonstrate intermediate-eve competence in a anguage other than Engish. In , George Washington did offer a specia Shakespeare experience for seected freshmen in conjunction with the city-wide ceebration. Shakespeare is not required. Georgetown University Majors take ten courses, incuding an introductory course that focuses on critica reading and writing. They take one gateway course in either medieva and/or Renaissance iteratures and cutures or eighteenth- and/or nineteenth-century iteratures and cutures; they take another gateway course in either modern and/or post-modern iteratures or introduction to critica methods. The remaining seven courses are eectives, one of which must be in medieva and/or Renaissance iteratures and cutures; one in eighteenth- and/or nineteenth-century iteratures and cutures; and one in either modern and/or post-modern iteratures and cutures or critica, schoary, and creative practices. Shakespeare is not required. Grinne Coege Engish majors take eight courses: one course in eary iterature ; one in British or postcoonia iterature; one in American iterature; and 29

36 three eectives in the Engish department. Majors must aso demonstrate knowedge of a non-native anguage. Two courses satisfy the eary iterature requirement: One is a course on American iterature up to 1830; the other is a course on Engish iterature from Od Engish to the eary seventeenth century. Shakespeare is not required. Hamiton Coege The major has two tracks, Engish and creative writing. Engish requires ten courses, incuding a genre-based survey in either poetry, the nove, or drama; two courses in pre-1700 iterature; two courses in iterature from ; two courses in post-1900 iterature; and a senior seminar. There is aso a anguage requirement that can be satisfied with a course in Od Engish or the history of the Engish anguage. The creative writing track requires two genre-based survey courses (poetry and the nove); one course in pre-1700 iterature; one course in iterature from ; one course in post-1900 iterature, one additiona iterature course; and four workshops. Shakespeare is not required. Harvard University Majors can take either the eective or honors program. The first requires thirteen courses, the atter fifteen courses and a thesis. A majors must take Major British Writers I ; Major British Writers II ; American Literature ; a course on Shakespeare; a sophomore seminar; and two courses in pre-1800 iterature other than Shakespeare. Shakespeare is required. Haverford Coege The major consists of nine courses, pus two prerequisites of which one must be an introductory emphasis course. Majors are required to take a junior seminar, a senior seminar, pus seven courses in British, American and Angophone iterature. Two courses must be in iterature before 1800; two must be in British/Engish iterature of any period; and two must be in American iterature. Shakespeare is not required. Harvey Mudd Coege Harvey Mudd does not have an Engish major or an Engish department. 30

37 However, its Department of Humanities and Socia Sciences permits majors who take tweve courses to concentrate on Engish to the tune of four courses. Shakespeare is not required. Howard University The major consists of tweve courses. Required are Introduction to Engish Studies ; Theories of Interpretation ; British Literary Foundations ; American Literary Foundations ; African-American Literary Foundations ; and Linguistic Foundations. Students must aso take one cross-cutura genre course or one period course, a singe-author course, and four eectives. Shakespeare is not required. Indiana University Majors take ten courses, which must incude Literary Interpretation and Critica Practices. Majors must aso satisfy historica distribution requirements by taking at east one course in each of the foowing historica periods: Engish iterature through the sixteenth century; iterature written between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries; iterature of the nineteenth century; and iterature written after Shakespeare is not required. Johns Hopkins University Majors take ten courses in the Engish department, incuding Introduction to Literary Study and two other introductory-eve courses. They then take seven advanced courses, three of which must be in iterature before Majors must aso compete one year of a cassica or modern spoken anguage at the intermediate eve, and must take two introductory humanities or socia science courses outside the Engish department. Shakespeare is not required. Macaester Coege The major consists of ten courses and a capstone experience. Required courses incude an introductory course on criticism; one course on British iterature before 1700; one course on British iterature before 1900; one course on American iterature before 1900; and one course on iterature 31

38 by U.S. writers of coor, or an approved course in postcoonia or diasporic iterature. There are two major tracks, reguar and creative writing. Shakespeare is not required. Massachusetts Institute of Technoogy MIT does not have an Engish major. As such, it is not counted for the purposes of this study. Michigan State University Majors are required to take nine courses, incuding Introduction to the Study of Engish ; either Literature in Engish to 1660 or Literature in Engish ; and either Literature in Engish or Literature in Engish since Students must aso demonstrate second year proficiency in a second anguage and take six courses in a concentration outside of the major. Shakespeare is not required. Middebury Coege The major requires tweve courses, incuding an introductory course caed Reading Literature ; an introductory course on eary modern iterature; an introductory course on iterary theory; a course on nineteenth-century American iterature; a course in narrative fiction; a course in poetry; a course in drama other than Shakespeare; a course on Shakespeare; and a senior comprehensive exam. Two eective courses must invove iterature prior to 1800, and at east one of these must be in British iterature other than Shakespeare; one course must focus on American iterature; and one must satisfy the Literature, Cuture, and History requirement. Shakespeare is required. Mount Hoyoke Coege The Engish major requires nine courses, incuding an introductory course on iterary study; two courses in iterature written in Engish before 1700; and one course in iterature written in Engish between 1700 and Shakespeare is not required. 32

39 Northwestern University Majors must take fifteen courses: two prerequisite courses; eeven major courses; and two reated courses, which can come from neighboring discipines as ong as they dea with iterary texts. As prerequisites, majors take either Engish Literary Traditions or American Literary Traditions, foowed by Introductory Seminar in Reading and Interpretation. Three courses must cover works written before 1798; three must cover works written after 1798; one must be in American iterature; and one must cover iterary criticism or theory. Shakespeare is not required. Oberin Coege The major offers two tracks, reguar and concentration. The reguar track consists of nine courses, incuding two introductory gateway courses and the foowing distribution requirements: one course in American iterature; one course in British iterature; one diversity course focusing on traditionay under-represented cutures ; one course in pre-1700 iterature; one course in iterature written between 1700 and 1900; and one course in iterature written after One course may be used to satisfy severa requirements. A concentration majors must compete the gateway and distribution requirements above, pus specific requirements in one of the foowing areas: African American studies; American iterature and cuture; creative writing; gender and women s studies; modern cuture and media; and theater and drama. Shakespeare is not required. Ohio State University Majors are required to take 12 courses, incuding British Literature to 1800 ; British Literature after 1800 ; Pre-Civi War American Literature or Post-Civi War American Literature ; and Critica Writing for Majors. Upper-eve eective coursework must incude two courses in iterature before 1900 (one of which must be a course in iterature before 1800); a course in iterature after 1900; and a course in a non-iterary area of Engish studies such as composition, creative writing, critica theory, fim, fokore, inguistics, or rhetoric. Shakespeare is not required. 33

40 Penn State University The major consists of tweve courses, which must incude an introduction to iterary study course; a survey of Engish iterature before 1798; a course in genre; a course in period-specific British and/or American iterature; one course in British iterature before 1800; one course in British and/or American iterature after 1800; and a senior seminar. Majors can aso emphasize one of the foowing fieds: African American iterature; creative writing; pubishing; or rhetoric. Shakespeare is not required. Pomona Coege The Engish major consists of eeven courses, incuding one in iterary interpretation ; three in periods before 1700; two in periods between 1700 and 1900; an upper-division seminar; and a Senior Seminar or Senior Thesis option. Shakespeare is not required. Princeton University A majors must take the prerequisite course Introduction to Engish Literature: From the 14th to the 18th Century and one of the foowing: Reading Literature: Poetry ; Reading Literature: Fiction ; Reading Literature: Drama ; or Reading Literature: The Essay. They choose one of five programs of study: Engish and American Literature ; Engish in Comparative Contexts ; Engish and American Studies ; Engish and Creative Writing ; or Engish and Theater. A majors must take a junior seminar in critica writing and must compete eight other courses, incuding three courses in iterature before 1800; two courses in iterature after 1800; and one Approaches to Literature course (defined as a designated major author, specia topic, or theory course). Athough students in the Engish and Theater program are required to take a Shakespeare course, majors in the other four programs are not. As such, Shakespeare is not required. Purdue University The major consists of eeven courses. Students must take a composition course and a inguistics course as prerequisites. Required introductory 34

41 courses are Ways of Reading ; Survey of British Literature: From the Beginnings Through the Neocassica Period or Survey of American Literature from its Beginnings to 1865 ; and Survey of British Literature: From the Rise of Romanticism to the Modern Period or Survey of American Literature from 1865 to the Post-Word War II Period. Students must then fufi an Area Studies requirement, choosing one course in three of the foowing five categories: genre; race/gender/postcoonia studies; iterary periods and movements; anguage studies; and interdiscipinary approaches to cuture. Advanced coursework incudes one major author course; a specia topics course chosen from among Studies in Genre, Studies in History and Literature, and Studies in Literature and Cuture ; and one of the foowing iterature/theory courses: Studies in Women s Literature, The Bibe as Literature: The Od Testament, The Bibe as Literature: The New Testament, Cutura Encounters, Probems in the History of Criticism, Issues in Contemporary Criticism and Theory, and Theories of Rhetoric and Composition. Students must take two additiona Engish eectives. Shakespeare is not required. Rice University Majors take tweve courses, incuding Seminar in Literature & Literary Anaysis and Practices in Literary Study. They must aso take three courses in periods before 1900; two of which must be in a period before Majors are required to take at east one course on non-canonica traditions, such as courses in women, African American, Chicano/a, Asian American, ethnic, goba, and diasporic writers. Shakespeare is not required. Smith Coege Majors from the cass of 2010 on must take tweve courses, incuding two courses from Methods of Literary Study, The Engish Literary Tradition I, The Engish Literary Tradition II, and American Literature before 1865 ; two courses on iterature written before 1832; two out of three singe-author courses on Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Miton; and a seminar. Shakespeare is required. 35

42 Stanford University Engish majors can choose from five different programs: Engish Literature; Engish with Creative Writing Emphasis; Engish and a Foreign Language Literature; Engish with an Interdiscipinary Emphasis; and Engish Literature and Phiosophy. A Engish majors must take a course on poetry and poetics; two courses in British iterature before 1750; two courses either in British iterature from or American iterature before 1900; one course in Shakespeare; and one course in critica methods. Engish Literature majors must aso take three courses in one of the foowing tweve concentrations: drama; fim; yric poetry; prose fiction; iterature before 1750; iterature ; iterature after 1900; gender and sexuaity; anguage and rhetoric; iterary theory; race and ethnicity; and singe author study. Shakespeare is required. State University of New York at Binghamton Engish majors must take eeven courses, incuding one course in British iterature to 1660; one course in British iterature ; one course on Shakespeare; one course in American iterature to 1920; one course in iterary theory; one course in iterature, rhetoric or creative writing at the 200-eve or above; and five additiona courses in iterature, rhetoric, or creative writing at the 300-eve or above. Majors that incude a goba cuture concentration do not have to take a course in Shakespeare. Except for Engish majors that incude a goba cuture concentration, Shakespeare is required. State University of New York at Buffao The major consists of thirteen courses. The department recommends that at east one of these courses be a survey of iterary history such as Word Literature, British Writers, or American Writers. Students aso take one course in criticism; four courses in iterature before 1830; two courses in iterature after 1830; and at east two singe-author courses in Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Miton. A Engish majors must demonstrate second year proficiency in a foreign anguage. Shakespeare is required. 36