English

The English Department is broad enough in scope, with enough worthwhile courses and teaching, to warrant concentration by almost anyone with a bent for literature. At the same time it provides an easy outlet for the student with no desire to over-specialize in any one field. The catalogue is complete with both narrow and survey courses and although the former are more competently and exhaustively handled by men export in their respective fields, such traditional crowd drawers as English 5, 7, and 23 give some return for the considerable reading required.

The departmental standards are fairly exacting for honors candidates: three years of high school Latin or two of Greek, or the equivalent in College courses, are prerequisite. Beyond this, a minimum of five full courses, with three more in related fields, is necessary before tackling the required thesis. Honors candidates must work with an eye to the General Examinations, which blanket the whole field of literature.

Since one question must be answered on each of six chronological periods, a phase of each must be covered either in courses or tutorial, before graduation. To integrate this chronological study, the prospective thesis-writer also concentrates on one of the literary forms of drama, criticism, philosophy, poetry, or prose, specializing in one form within a certain period.

Tutorial for Honors

Tutorial benefits in the department extend to the full limit of the Faculty vote; any Honors candidate in groups 1, 2, or 3 of the rank list is eligible. The advantage of this is in tying together the masses of material that the student must absorb into some sort of order, making the department strong and well-integrated for the honors student. A possible drawback to the program lies in the fact that Generals necessitate a student's keeping up with specialized courses, thus limiting studies in his own period of concentration.

Non-honors concentrators have an caster time of it at the hands of departmental standards, since they need take only four English and two more related courses. The only limitation is that one and a half courses must be distributed on subjects before, and one and a half after 1700. English non-honors men are also blessed with the fact that they are, for the present at least, the only non-Science majors in the College who are never faced with General Examinations.

Tutorial Lack is Handicap

But and equal number of disadvantages also come with the non-honors program, the most consistent complaint being that four courses without tutorial leave the student with only a garbled and incomplete picture of English literature.

English 1 attempts to give the field some cohesion but is far too compressed and intensive for most to gain more than a superficial view. English 7 and 25, both good courses, cover American literature and Elizabethan-Jacobean century drama in a more detailed and effective manner. Other courses vary from slightly less than good to slightly less than adequate.

When the department abandoned Generals for non-honors students, it was a frank admission that without universal tutorial standards must take a sharp drop. This is a very serious defect of English as a non-honors field, although the blame lies on present difficulties and the limiting Faculty vote more than on the department. Without the benefits of tutorial, the student is virtually helpless in the face of an overly profuse, but un-integrated, selection of courses.

Among the existing period courses, however, the American literature picture is especially well covered, with Matthiessen, Miller, and Murdock all presenting penetrating and stimulating courses. Levin is topnotch on drama, comparative literature, and criticism.

Specialists Are Tops

Sherburn, Rollins, Bush, and other period specialists are all unbeatable in their fields, though apt to be unimpressive to non-concentrators.

Among the younger men, Bate, Guerard, and Kelleher all show great promise in their respective subjects. Baker and Wanning have not come off quite so well in their initial attempts in larger courses this year, although that may be the result of Freshman nervousness.

Many of the best of these specialized subjects are handled in the "primarily for graduates" sections, which are often preferable to undergraduate courses both in individual superiority and for obtaining a better overall knowledge of literature.

Semi-professional criticism is offered in the few creative writing courses available, but the courses lack the aid of a creative artist to teach either prose on poetry, although Schwartz and Kempton come closer to the mark than Morrison or Spencer. The chief shortcoming in this field is the limited number of students that can be accomodated in the few courses given.

Professor Whiting's sage understatement concerning the Department as a whole is a good one to remember "Although there is a diversity of courses and methods, I certainly wouldn't advise anyone who doesn't like to read to take English."