Along with specific requirements for any major, all students in the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degree programs must meet all general education and graduation requirements under a single catalog.

The English Major with Literature Concentration (40 hours) includes a thorough overview of classical, British, and American literature and then allows for individual choices within a range of categories from historical context courses, genre courses, author courses, and deep exploration courses around a theme/idea or on praxis that helps students prepare for life beyond Wheaton. All students take a senior seminar, which focuses on the interrelationship of literature and theory from a Christian perspective.

The English Major with a Literature Concentration requires a minimum of 40 hours, but students may count up to 52 hours in English toward graduation. Additional hours are encouraged for students planning graduate work.

Requirements
Foundational Courses:12
ENGL 155Reading Writers: Introduction to Literary Studies4
or ENGL 156 Reading Writers: Introduction to Literary Studies (Shakespeare)
or any 100-level ENGL course with an LE tag
ENGL 215Classical and Early British Literature4
ENGL 221Contemporary Literary Conversations4
Historical Context Courses:12
(Select 4 credits in each category)
Pre-18th century
ENGL 329Old English Language and Literature4
ENGL 331Medieval Literature4
ENGL 336The English Renaissance4
ENGL 337Seventeenth-Century English Literature4
18th and 19th centuries
ENGL 338Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature4
ENGL 34118th- and 19th-Century American Literature4
ENGL 352Transatlantic Crossroads in Modern Literature4
ENGL 355The Romantic Period4
ENGL 361Victorian Literature4
20th and 21st centuries
ENGL 342American Modernism/Global Modernism4
ENGL 343American Literature after 19454
ENGL 344Diverse Traditions in 20th- and 21st-Century American Literature4
ENGL 364British Modernism: 1900-19394
ENGL 365British Literature after 19394
ENGL 366British Black and Asian Literature4
ENGL 367Postcolonial Literature 4
ENGL 371Modern European Literature4
Literature Concentration16
Deeper Focus Courses (Select 4 credits in each category)
Genre
ENGL 421Studies in Literary Genre4
ENGL 422Romance4
ENGL 423World Drama4
ENGL 424Science Fiction2
ENGL 425Fairy Tales2
ENGL 426Children's Literature4
ENGL 427Young Adult Literature4
ENGL 428Magical Realist Literature and Film4
ENGL 431Christianity and Fantasy4
ENGL 436Modern Drama4
Exploration
ENGL 415The Archaeology of Texts: Bibliographical Investigations4
ENGL 433Varied Literary Topics2,4
ENGL 434Modern Literary Theory4
ENGL 435History of Literary Criticism4
ENGL 442History of the English Language2
ENGL 444Christianity and Crime4
ENGL 445Literature and Place2
ENGL 446Advanced Research and Writing4
ENGL 447Reading and Writing about Theater4
ENGW 471Teaching Writing4
Author
ENGL 461Selected Authors2
ENGL 462Selected Authors4
ENGL 463Shakespeare4
ENGL 466Jane Austen in Her Time and Ours4
ENGL 469C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien4
ENGL 471Emily Dickinson2
ENGL 472Herman Melville4
ENGL 473Louisa May Alcott2
ENGL 474T.S. Eliot2
ENGL 475William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens2
ENGL 476Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes2
ENGL 477Flannery O'Connor2
ENGL 478James Baldwin2
ENGL 481Cormac McCarthy2
ENGL 482David Foster Wallace4
ENGL 483Achebe and Adichie4
ENGL 485Studies in Wade Center/Special Collections Authors2
ENGL 486Studies in Wade Center/Special Collections Authors4
Integrative Senior Seminar
ENGL 494Senior Seminar in English4
Total Credits40