An opening onto the world
OSU's two-year Literature and Culture concentration is designed for
students who wish to undertake study and research in literature,
literacy, and media with a particular emphasis on cross-cultural,
comparative, applied, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Concerned
with the study of cultural diffusion and cultural change, a
comparative approach to texts, communities, and modes of
representation fosters critical thinking. Students learn about
research methods used in the study of diverse communities. A
cultural approach sees both the material products studied and the
practices employed to understand them as sites of debate, sites of
creation. Focused on the ethical, moral, and social questions that
arise in the effort to understand and act in transcultural and
transnational frames, students, and scholars of Literature and
Culture typically address overlapping areas of inquiry:
Literature and Culture highlights the importance of cultural
contexts. Students and faculty engaged in research and study in the
field focus on both the practical and the theoretical in the
analytical frameworks they bring to material culture:
textual analysis inflected by feminist,
poststructuralist, ecocritical, postcolonial, and multicultural
critiques;
cultural analysis of works impacted by global
socio-economic systems;
historical analysis focusing on how institutions
and ideologies are produced;
teaching practices emphasizing situated
understandings of meaning and value
Degree requirements
The program requires 18 credits of core requirements and 18 credits
in the area of Literature and Culture:
Core requirements
12 credits in literature (including 6 credits in
English and/or American; 6 credits Pre-1800 Literature & 6
credits Post-1800 Literature)
6 credits in theory (including two courses from the following with
not more than one from a single area)
Composition WR 512, WR 595
Language ENG 590, ENG 591, ENG 595
Criticism ENG 575
Literature and Culture Requirements
6 credits: Eng 503 (thesis)
3 credits: Eng 575 Studies in Criticism: Literary and Cultural Theory (may simultaneously fulfill half of the core requirement in theory; if used for this purpose, then 3 elective credits must be taken to complete the 48 credit requirement)
9 credits: from the following:
Eng 515 Industrialism and the English Novel
Eng 516 Power and Representation
Eng 520 Studies in Difference, Power and Discrimination
Eng 552 Studies in Film
Eng 557, 558 Comparative Literature: Colonialism / Postcolonialism
Eng 575 Studies in Criticism (topics change from term to term; only
"Literary and Cultural Theory" is required)
Eng 580 Studies in Literature, Culture & Society
Eng 588 Literature and Pedagogy
Eng 590 Development of the English Language
Eng 591 The Structure of English
Eng 595 Language, Technology, and Culture
Eng 597 Women's International Voices
Eng 598 Women and Literature
Wr 511 The Teaching of Writing
Wr 595 Introduction to Literacy Studies