Students must meet the honors standard for both the English and history departments to be enrolled in the honors American Studies Program. British Literature, World Literature, Journeys and Quests, and The Classical Tradition. In most years, honors and regular sections of each course are offered. In the spring term, students choose from a wide range of electives that reflect teacher and student interests. This study of the masterworks of British literature begins with the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, includes selections from The Canterbury Tales and Hamlet and concludes either in the Romantic or in the Victorian era.
Students explore the changes in language and literary form that transpire over time.
Other readings may include the Gawain-poet, Milton, Swift, Keats, Austen, and Bronte. All sections read an ancient Greek tragedy, Shakespeare's Hamlet, and a major modern work of fiction. Authors may include Achebe, Basho, Camus, Chekhov, Conrad, Fugard, Garcia-Marquez, Gordimer, Ibsen, Ionesco, Kafka, Mann, Mishima, Naipaul, Ngugi, Waugh, Sophocles, Woolf, and Yoshimoto, but do not include any North American authors. Students write critical and personal essays. The journey as a motif both in literal and metaphorical terms provides a focus for this study of literature.