Program Tracks
For a description of the courses, visit the Course Catalog. For more information about how to complete the English Literature degree in three years, visit the Three-Year Programs Majors website.
NOTE: The information found on this website with respect to major/minor/program requirements is primarily directed at providing prospective students a general roadmap of the curriculum. Current Butler students are expected to review their degree audit report at my.butler.edu and speak with their advisor regularly for detailed information regarding their specific degree requirements and their progress toward degree completion.
Butler’s English Department offers a comprehensive literature-based major, which seeks to explore cultural and historical epochs, from Chaucer’s England to the present day, and develop research, writing, and critical analysis skills. Students take courses that include American and British history and literature, as well as courses in World Literature, Film, Theory, Rhetoric, and Cultural Studies. As a capstone to the program, Literature majors produce an extensive senior essay as an emblem and celebration of their work. Our alumni have attended some of the best graduate schools in the country and enjoy successful careers in a variety of fields from writing, teaching, and editing to medicine, law, religion, government, and media.
Total Credit Hours: 36
Core Requirement
15 Required Hours
- 3 hours – EN 185: Contemporary Writing
- 3 hours – EN 290: Research Seminar
- 9 hours – Three 200-level literature electives*
These courses should be completed before enrolling at the 300 level.
Junior/Senior Requirements
21 Required Hours
- 18 hours – Six 300-level literature electives*
Senior Year
- 3 hours – 400-level literature seminar
*Students are required to take at least one 200- or 300-level course in literature before 1700. Students may take up to two Creative Writing or Professional Writing courses as Literature electives.
Additional Upper-Division English Courses are listed below.
Minor in Literature
Total Credit Hours: 18
- 3 hours – EN 185: Contemporary Writing
- 3 hours – EN 290: Research Seminar
- 3-6 hours of 200-level literature electives*
- 6-9 hours of 300/400-level literature electives*
*Literature Concentration minors are required to take at least one 200- or 300-level course in literature from before 1700. They may also take up to one Creative Writing or Professional Writing course as a literature elective.
The Creative Writing concentration offers students the opportunity to explore the many genres of the literary arts, including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, and even topics like young adult novel writing, the graphic novel, and video game narratives. The track focuses on workshops, which allow each student to receive feedback from both their peers and professors in a small class setting. You will make connections, develop your unique writer identity, and graduate with a portfolio of your best work. Our Creative Writing English major graduates are working internationally in the fields they love. They are published novelists and poets, professors, professional writers, editors, marketers, and web designers.
Total Credit Hours: 48
Core Requirements
21 Required Hours
- 3 hours – EN 185: Contemporary Writing
- 3 hours – EN 290: Research Seminar
- 9 hours – Three 200-level Literature electives*
- 3 hours – EN218: Introduction to Creative Writing: Poetry
- 3 hours – EN219: Introduction to Creative Writing: Prose – Fiction & Non-fiction
These courses should be completed before enrolling at the 300 level.
Junior/Senior Requirements
27 Required Hours
- 18 hours – Six 300-level Literature electives*
- 6 hours – Two EN 310: Intermediate Writing Workshops
Senior Year
- 3 hours – EN 410: Creative Writing Seminar
* Creative Writing Concentration majors are required to take at least one 200- or 300-level course in literature from before 1700. They may also take up to two Creative Writing or Professional Writing course as a Literature elective.
English Literature electives are listed below.
Minor in Creative Writing
Total Credit Hours: 21
- 3 hours – EN 185: Contemporary Writing
- 3 hours – EN 218 or EN 219
- 9 additional hours of Creative Writing courses
- 6 hours of EN literature electives, including at least one course at the 300-level or higher*
Literary Theory, Culture, and Criticism (LTCC) courses give students the opportunity to study the broad questions of the humanities world. Using disciplinary methods for interpreting literary texts, LTCC students study cultural, literary, and aesthetic aspects which may not fit the traditional definition of English literature. LTCC students take additional courses in the department that focus on a broad array of cultural artifacts: novels, poems, and plays outside of the British and American tradition; philosophical, scientific or religious treatises; films; paintings; popular culture; television advertisements; the interstate freeway system; or the rhetoric of gender or sexuality—topics that occupy a nodal point in the larger system of social and historical patterns through which we make meaning in our culture. Engaging with a diverse set of theoretical, literary, and cultural sources, LTCC students examine how texts, ideas, and the practices of everyday life become situated in larger frameworks of desire and power, subjection and agency, or domination and resistance.
Total Credit Hours: 48
Core Requirements
15 Required Hours
- 3 hours – EN 185: Contemporary Writing
- 3 hours – EN 287: Literary Theory, Culture, and Criticism
- 3 hours – EN 290: Research Seminar
- 6 hours – Two 200-level literature electives
These courses should be completed before enrolling at the 300 level
Junior/Senior Requirements
33 required hours
- 6 hours – EN 321 OR 322: World Literature 1 OR 2
- 3 hours – EN 387: Studies in Literary Theory
- 3 hours – EN 394: Special Topics in Film
- 18 hours – Six 300-level literature electives*
Senior Year
- 3 hours – 400-level Literature Seminar
English Literature electives are listed below.
*Students are required to take at least one 200- or 300-level course in literature from before 1700. Students may take up to two Creative Writing or Professional Writing courses as literature electives.
No matter what path you take in life, the ability to write well—for yourself, for others, for your job—will always be worth the effort it takes to learn the craft. In a recent survey of employers across the United States, the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that writing ability, along with critical and analytical thinking, is one of the most important traits employers seek in their employees. As an English major, you will take the full curriculum in literary study. But as a Professional Writing (PW) concentration student, you will take additional PW courses that prepare you for writing outside the world of academia. You will learn to assess the needs of various audiences, to select the appropriate tone and style, to apply design elements, and to conduct research and analysis appropriate for different types of written communication. The Professional Writing curriculum provides students with a solid foundation in writing, so that no matter what career path you take, you will be a confident and effective communicator.
Total Credit Hours: 48
Core Requirements
18 Required Hours
- EN 185, Contemporary Writing
- EN 203, Introduction to Professional Writing
- EN 290: Research Seminar
- Three 200-level literature electives*
These courses should be completed before enrolling at the 300 level.
Junior/Senior Requirements
30 Required Hours
- EN 303, Studies in Professional Writing (2 sections) (6)
- EN 386, Studies in Rhetoric (3) OR ST 330, Social and Rhetorical Study of Science and Technology (3)
- Six 300-level literature electives* (18)
Senior Year
- EN 403, Senior Seminar in Professional Writing (3), OR EN395, Internship (3), OR an additional EN303, Studies in Professional Writing (3)
*Professional Writing Concentration majors are required to take at least one 200- or 300-level course in literature from before 1700. They may also take up to two Creative Writing or Professional Writing course as a Literature elective
English Literature electives are listed below.
Minor in Professional Writing
Total Credit Hours: 18
- EN 203, Intro to Professional Writing (3)
- EN 303, Studies in Professional and Public Writing (9) (Students take three different courses with different topics.)
- EN 386, Studies in Rhetoric (3)
- EN 403, Senior Seminar in Professional Writing (3), OR EN 395, Internship (3), OR an additional EN303, Studies in Professional Writing (3)
- EN 245, Inquiries in American Literacy and Cultural History 1
- EN 246, Inquiries in American Literacy and Cultural History 2
- EN 265, Inquiries in British Literacy and Cultural History 1
- EN 266, Inquiries in British Literacy and Cultural History 2
- EN 287, Literary Theory, Culture, and Criticism
- EN 301, Topics in Advanced Composition
- EN 303, Studies in Professional Writing
- EN 310, Intermediate Writing Workshop
- EN 319, History of the English Language
- EN 321/322, Comparative Literature 1/2
- EN 341/441, Topics in Nineteenth Century American Culture
- EN 362, Renaissance Literature
- EN 363/463, Shakespeare
- EN 366/466, Romanticism
- EN 367/467, Victorian Literature
- EN 368/468, 20th Century British Literature
- EN 370, Literature and Public Problems
- EN 380/480, Special Topics in Video Games
- EN 381/481, Studies in Major Authors
- EN 382/482, Studies in Poetry
- EN 383/483, Studies in Fiction
- EN 384/484, Studies in Drama
- EN 385/485, Studies in Literary Criticism
- EN 386/486, Studies in Rhetoric
- EN 387/487, Studies in Literary Theory
- EN 393/493, Special Topics in Literature
- EN 394/494, Special Topics in Film
- EN 395/396, Internship
- EN 397 Writing Fellows
- EN 455S, Writing in Schools
- EN 495/496, Independent Study
- EN 499, Honors Thesis
English Minors are offered in Literature, Creative Writing, and Professional Writing. For more information about these minors, see the links for these tracks.