Program Goals
Program Goals and Objectives
Fundamentally, the Literature Program seeks to provide its students with an educational experience that promotes skills-based learning as well as the intellectual awareness and maturity that are the hallmarks of a liberal arts education. Stressing analysis and synthesis in reading and writing in all of our classes, our curriculum has eight objectives:
1. Students will be able to identify the forms of literature and to understand the specific characteristics of each form and the demands it makes on its audience.
2. They will gain a sense of the cultural contexts of literature as well as its historical continuities and discontinuities.
3. They will understand and be able to apply methods of literary and critical analysis so that their interpretations are based on acceptable methodologies.
4. They will understand and be able to apply both the techniques and various materials of literary research so that they may place and understand those interpretations in the context of ongoing scholarship in the field.
5. They will become conversant in the computer and technological literacies that now intersect and influence literary studies.
6. They will develop their writing and speaking abilities so that they may communicate their ideas about literature clearly and persuasively and/or produce original creative works.
7. They will learn to think independently.
8. They will learn to work collaboratively.
These are concepts and skills that we believe can be taught. In addition the program lists fifteen specific skills that we teach our students. These skills directly relate to the eight objectives. In our courses students learn:
1. to apply close reading skills to any piece of literature (objective 3)
2. to analyze a work into its components (objective 1)
3. to recognize and understand the intrinsic elements of any literary work (e.g., mythologies, symbols, metaphors, dreams, etc.) (objective 1)
4. to be familiar with the literary characteristics of the major literary genres (objective 1)
5. to present analysis to others as cogent, coherent, and interesting arguments, in written papers, oral presentations, and multi-media formats in individual and/or collaborative formats (objective 5, 6, & eight)
6. to tap the enormous research resources available to support interpretation and insight (objective 4)
7. to understand the intertextual nature of western literature, that is, the idea that writers are always reworking the forms, ideas and stories of the past (objective 2 & 3)
8. to know that literature is produced in historical contexts and to identify those contexts (objective 2)
9. to understand the benefits and liabilities of the idea that there are literary periods (objective 2, 3)
10. to understand the benefits and liabilities of the idea of literary canons, and to read literature produced by male and female authors from a variety of cultural, ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds (objective 2, 3)
11. to be familiar with the concepts and applications of some major critical theories and schools of criticism (objective 3)
12. to understand the effects of the digitization of texts and about the future of texts and textuality (objective 5)
13. to understand the relationships between texts and technology, in particular the effects of computing and networks on contemporary literature, literary practice, and textuality (objective 5)
14. to understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it (objective 7)
15. to create and revise their own writing, creative or critical (objective 6)
There are a few other goals that cannot be stated as precisely, but they are equally important to our program and the mission of a Liberal Arts education. They are, we realize after many years of teaching, not the sorts of things one can put in a syllabus. They are the result of both individual and community effort. Therefore, while the program does not explicitly teach these objectives, we hope our students leave the Literature program inspired with the following abilities and values:
1. We want our literature majors to develop confidence in their considerable abilities. We become concerned when we hear our students put themselves down.
2. We want our students to come to love literature—if they do not already when they attend our classes—as we do.
3. We want our students to know the feeling of “owning” the work of literature they are reading.
4. Finally, we would like our students to have inquiring and critical minds so that they will not accept anyone’s opinions until they have thoroughly read a work and researched its meaning.
In short, we would like students to develop the skills of life-long learners and supporters of the arts. These are the important skills, concepts, and attitudes that we want each of them to have when they leave us. (Most of them do.) This happens when students wrestle with their work as they go through the process of completing challenging assignments. This also happens when students share ideas and when they see themselves as part of an intellectual community, one that involves the active support of teachers, colleagues, and friends.
The skills described above prepare students for a range of careers. In brief, the Literature Program prepares students who can think critically and creatively and, just as importantly, write and speak well. The program’s emphasis on technological literacy, furthermore, provides training in another key communication skill that is increasingly valuable in today’s job market. While many of our majors indicate that they plan to pursue primary or secondary educational careers, we tie our curriculum and its objectives to no one specific career.
