By
Stephanie Corns
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Professors, students push for more American, fewer British literature classes
Laura Christiansen said she is tired of dead white males dominating her classes.
Although Christiansen, an English and creative writing senior, will graduate this May with a broad knowledge of literature penned by outdated authors, she isn't so sure they have prepared her for the real world.
And she's not alone.
English majors have complained for the past year that English department requirements have not give them adequate diversity in literature and that they would like to see more contemporary literature courses added to the curriculum.
In an attempt to update the program, English professors have considered a facelift for the department's requirements.
"We're seriously a curriculum way behind the times," said Greg Jackson, an assistant English professor. "It's a change long in need."
Current stipulations require English majors to take classes in Shakespeare, Milton and Chaucer, coupled with several survey classes intended as an introduction to the major and a literary analysis course.
While no formal proposals have been drawn, professors and students suggested adding more American literature classes to the curriculum while eliminating what Laura Berry, associate English professor, refers to as the "Holy Trinity" - Shakespeare, Chaucer and Milton.
The changes would not affect students with an emphasis in creative writing.
Through student surveys and senior exit interviews, Berry found that students were dissatisfied with the emphasis on British literature, too few Americanist classes and the lack of world literature.
"It's a very Anglo-oriented curriculum. We've been accruing all these Americanist faculty members, so it makes more sense now to make these changes," Jackson said.
An informal Daily Wildcat survey of English professor John Ulreich's English 431B class - a course focusing on Shakespeare's later works - revealed that of the 15 English majors enrolled in the class, only five indicated that they were happy with the current requirements.
Several students commented on the survey that they would like to see more flexibility in the requirements, classes that delve deeper into the subject matter than the current survey courses and more literary analysis classes.
One student wrote, "I don't believe that spending an entire semester studying the works of dead, white males is productive in relation to what I hoped to gain from my studies."
By introducing more American-based literature classes, students would better understand the society in which they live, Jackson said.
"One of the great things we can do for students is bring them in contact with their culture," he said. "Just because we live it (American culture) doesn't mean we think it through. It's always good to look at how great art shapes our views. It can be a rude awakening."
Jackson also said that by expanding the canon to include American authors, the department would open itself to more inter-disciplinary study.
More American-based literature had not been previously included in the program because the majority of the department's faculty specializes in British literature, department head Larry Evers said.
The department hesitated to ask professors to teach outside their specialty, but with the department's expansion in the past several years, more Americanists have come on board, and the time for change is prime, Evers said.
Others within the department said more pressing issues need to be addressed.
English professor Roger Dahood said class availability should also be a priority for administrators.
"The real question, for me, has always been what is the real point of having... a class that students can't take until their senior year because we don't offer enough sections. This is far more basic than what the requirements are," he said. "It all seems backwards."
Dahood also said that by only teaching one side of the canon, students limit their understanding of American authors.
Students need to familiarize themselves with the British authors whom American writers learned their craft from, he said.
"Part of what we try to do in humanities courses is provide students with opportunities to encounter works of literature, philosophy, history... that have contributed in one way or another to Western cultural tradition," Dahood said.
Christiansen said that while she acknowledges the validity of Dahood's stance, taking a semester each of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Milton is excessive, and the three authors could be combined into one semester-long class.
