Ph.D. Comprehensive Examinations Degree Conferral Requirements Program Description Great literature has always existed at the heart of humanistic studies.
Literary culture is one of humanity's most comprehensive and accessible illuminations of life.
It also has ties to many other disciplines and thus offers itself as a means of intellectual synthesis. The English literature program allows for both broad and specialized studies. The English literature faculty covers most fields and periods of English and American literature, from Middle English to 20th-century literature. The program emphasizes, however, work from the 18th through the 20th centuries. In addition, the program includes current areas of interest, such as feminist literary studies, contemporary literary theory, and the teaching of composition.