English + Foreign Language Provision

Effective July 1, 2025 for all current students

Overview: Students double-majoring in English and a language may count up to three literature courses in the target language toward the English major with the approval of their English major advisor. These must be literature, not language, courses (i.e., advanced or intermediate language courses are not eligible). The courses must be focused on the study of texts in the target language, not literature in English translation.

This provision potentially applies to students double-majoring in English and the following units, based on advanced study of primary texts in the target language:

          College of East Asian Studies

          Classical Studies

          German Studies

          Romance Languages and Literatures

Should other academic units develop majors or minors that include advanced literature courses hosted by the unit in the target language, English will be open to including them within this provision.

Core Major Requirements: Up to two core major requirements (Literary History, Literary Geography, and so on) may be fulfilled by these courses with the approval of the English major advisor.

Note that the World Literature requirement is largely intended to encompass literatures outside Europe and North America. Thus courses more appropriate for the World Literature requirement would include those on Hispanic Latin American literature, rather than literature from Spain, or Francophone literature of the Caribbean or West Africa, rather than literature from France.

Study Abroad: Literature courses taken abroad in the target language may be counted among the three total courses toward the English major with the approval of the English major advisor.

Process: Students wishing to double-major in English and a language should consult with their English major advisor as early as possible to discuss these provisions. The English major advisor will approve appropriate language courses as part of the student’s major.

Two Sample English Major Course Histories

Details on the Literature and Creative-Writing Pathways are supplied on the English Department website.

Sample 1: English Major Literature Pathway with a Double-Major in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures

English 201: ENGL201C: Texts and Territories

Creative Writing Requirement: ENGL216: Techniques of Poetry

Theory Requirement: ENGL366: Dangerous Realisms

Literary History 1: SPAN236: Cervantes

Literary History 2: ENGL262: Beyond the Talking Book

Literary History 3:  ENGL347: Black Grammars

World Literature: SPAN288: Territories of Dwelling, Desire and Resistance in Latin America

British Literature: ENGL300: Shakespeare’s Sonnets

American Literature: ENGL222: Poetics of Blackness

Elective: SPAN232: Dialogue of Poets: Classical and 20th-Century Poetry in Spain and Latin America

Sample 2: English Major Creative Writing Pathway with a Double-Major in German Studies

English 201: ENGL201V: Imitation and the Real Thing

Creative Writing Requirement: ENGL292: Techniques of Nonfiction

Theory Requirement: ENGL320: The Senses and the Subject in Cinema and Poetry

Literary History 1: ENGL310: The Medieval Beast

Literary History 2: GRST305: Attempting Change in Pre-Revolution Germany 1830-1848

Literary History 3: GRST391: Weimar Modernism and the City of Berlin

World Literature: ENGL313: Literatures of Empire

British Literature: ENGL226: Sublimity, Visions, and the Self in British Literature 1789-1830

American Literature: ENGL204: American Literature 1865-1945

Creative-Writing Pathway Courses:

        ENGL292: Techniques of Nonfiction

        ENGL325: Intermediate Nonfiction Workshop

        ENGL337: Advanced Poetry Workshop

Elective: Advanced German course, conducted in German, taken at Humboldt Universität, Berlin, during study-abroad semester: Hegel, Hölderlin und ihre Tübinger Studienjahre: Dichtung, Philosophie, und Revolution