The Honors Major

Students who have excelled in the major may choose to pursue an honors degree, which features two focused seminar courses in advanced topics. The first seminar, HE503, pursues an interdisciplinary approach to a topic in literature and the arts; the second, HE504, offers specialized study of a particular literary figure, period, or problem. Recent examples include:

HE503

  • The First World War in British Art and Fiction
  • Atlantic Performance
  • The Avant-Garde in the American Century
  • Edmund Waller and the Seventeenth-Century World

HE504

  • Fielding and Dickens
  • The Age of Mark Twain
  • Whitman's Many Leaves of Grass
  • Faulkner and Morrison

Including the two 500-level seminars (and their required supplements, HE521 and HE522), Honors students take eleven courses in the major, including HE442, Literary Theory and Criticism.

The distribution requirements for the Honors Major in English differ slightly from those for the major in English. Students interested in the Honors major should consult the requirements listed below and plan their course of study accordingly.

Required Courses for the Honors Major in English (HEGH):

  • HE217 Early Western Literature
  • HE218 Anglo-American Literature
  • HE333 Shakespeare
  • HE442 Literature Theory and Criticism
  • HE503 Seminar in Arts and Literature and HE521 Honors Supplement I
  • HE504 Seminar in Advanced Topic and HE522 Honors Supplement II

Honors majors must also take five electives in English that meet the following distribution requirements:

  • one British literature period course
  • one American literature period course
  • one 300-level genre or period course
  • two 300-400 level English electives

The English Course Offerings page provides a full list of the courses available in the major.

ACDEANINST 5420.4C lists current Academy rules and requirements for honors majors.

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