English
From KCpedia
The Kenyon College Department of English currently includes twenty-two faculty members and is located in Sunset Cottage. Professor Theodore O. Mason is the department chair. It is the college’s largest department, with nearly a quarter of each class majoring in English. Because of its visibility in the 1940s and 50s with the presence of individuals such as John Crowe Ransom and Robert Lowell, and its connection with the Kenyon Review, English remains one of Kenyon’s most high-profile departments.
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History
Literature and Language have been a part of the Kenyon College curriculum since the nineteenth century, although any study of literature was focused on a classical curriculum. This included Homer, Cicero, and Virgil, with unspecified "Readings in English Literature" given in the final term of the final year. Francis Wharton has been identified as the College's first Professor of English, although his academic responsibilities included Composition and History as well as Literature. By 1901, English instruction broadened significantly to include Composition, Oration, Constructive Studies in English Style, and training in Argumentation and Debating. The curriculum expanded accordingly, and the department taught the classics as well as English prose, poetry, drama, and readings in Old English and the History of the English Language. The English department began to resemble its current modern organization by 1930, with classes on specific authors such as Milton and Shakespeare, on topics including Romantic Poets and the Development of the English Novel, and an optional Advanced Composition course for juniors and seniors.
The English department began to gain larger recognition with the arrival of John Crowe Ransom in 1937. As a poet, critic, and the first editor of the Kenyon Review, Ransom drew talented students to Kenyon (such as Robert Lowell). The Kenyon Review published early works by writers including Robert Penn Warren, Dylan Thomas, Flannery O'Conner, and Boris Pasternak and Ransom also began to develop his reputation as a critic with the founding of the three-term Kenyon School of English, which became a central locus of the school of New Criticism.
The department was officially founded in 1968.
The Department Today
While Ransom's New Criticism continues to influence critical studies in universities around the world, the English curriculum today teaches a broad range of criticism, and presents literature from both innovative and traditional critical perspectives.
The completion of an English major today requires the fufillment of classes in a range of topics and areas of study and the completion of a Senior Exercise or Honors thesis. The diversity requirements within the major were recently overhauled. English majors of the Class of 2007 may complete either the old or new requirements - later graduating classes must follow the new diversity requirements.
Diversity Requirements
- To take at least 1 unit in each of the following historical periods: Pre-1700, 1700-1900, Post-1900
- To take 1/2 unit in courses designated "Approaches to Literary Study." (Courses in this category include ENGL 215, 216, 219, 310, 311, 312, 322, 327, 329-330, 364, 497.)
- To select at least 3-1/2 additional half-units of course credit from among any of the department's offerings above the 100-level. Based on the individual curricular choices they have made within the major, students may propose that a maximum of 1/2 unit of literature courses taken in a department other than the English department be counted toward their major. Students will need to present solid arguments about how and why such courses are integrated with the English major.
Senior Exercise
English majors must pass an examination on a set reading list and complete a nine- to twelve-page critical essay or creative project on a topic of their choosing. The reading list is different for each graduating class.
Honors English Program
Students who wish to participate in the English honors program do so in fulfillment of their senior exercise. In order to be eligible for the honors program, students must have at least a 3.5 GPA in their English courses and a 3.2 GPA overall. Students must enroll in both an Honors seminar, which takes place in their first semester, and a year-long directed independent study that enables the student to produce a substantial thesis of at least fifty pages. In the spring, honors students must pass a written examination on the reading list for both their graduating year and the following year, as well as an oral exam on the reading lists and the students' thesis. Outside examiners evaluate the written exam, oral exam, and thesis.
Creative Writing
Students may major in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. The requirements for the emphasis are to fulfill the standard English major curriculum, to take additional classes introductory and advanced classes on creative writing, and to complete creative work for a Senior Exercise or Honors thesis. Classes that fufill the creative writing emphasis are available in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.
Resources in the Kenyon College Archives
English Department -- collected materials
