English Department Policies Manual

General Guidelines
Each fall the Department Chair will call for new course proposals, to be submitted to and considered for approval by the Department Curriculum and Assessment Committee. Deadline for new course proposals will be October 1. Course proposals should be one page or less and include course goals and tentative course contents. The purpose of the review by the Committeewill be to verify the category to which the proposed course belongs (theme, genre, topic, etc.) and to suggest appropriate changes as necessary. Guidelines for 500-level courses are given below. 700-level period and author(s) courses will focus primarily on a literary period or on one or more major authors within British or American literature, but may also include supplementary readings from other national literatures. Instructors should carefully differentiate between 500-level and 700-level courses in terms of content and level of difficulty:

• 500-level courses should be designed for upper-division undergraduates, even though graduate students may take a limited number of these courses.
• 700-level courses should be appropriate for graduate students, even though a limited number of seniors may take these courses.

The Department Chair will keep a folder of approved course proposals from which course scheduling assignments will be made.

Definitions
500-Level Genre Courses. Genre courses are meant to be relatively broad surveys of a single literary genre. American and British genre courses will focus primarily on one genre within each respective national literature.

Possible genres: Novel, poetry, drama, short story, non-fiction.

Broad survey requirements: Genre courses will include a representative sample from each relevant time period as listed below, but may vary in specific focus or emphasis:

1. American poetry or prose non-fiction: 17th and 18th centuries, 19th century, 20th century before 1945, 20th century after 1945 (including contemporary)
2. American drama: 19th century, 20th century before 1945, 20th century after 1945 (including contemporary)
3. British novel:18th century, 19th century, 20th century
4. British poetry or drama or prose non-fiction: Anglo-Saxon, Medieval, Renaissance, 18th century, 19th century (including Romantic), 20th century (including contemporary)
5. American novel or short story: 19th century, 20th century before 1945, 20th century after 1945 (including contemporary)
6. American poetry or prose non-fiction: 17th and 18th centuries, 19th century, 20th century before 1945, 20th century after 1945 (including contemporary)
7. American drama: 19th century, 20th century before 1945, 20th century after 1945 (including contemporary)
8. British novel: 18th century, 19th century, 20th century
9. British poetry or drama or prose non-fiction: Anglo-Saxon, Medieval, Renaissance, 18th century 19th century (including Romantic), 20th century (including contemporary)

500-Level Theme Courses. A theme course focuses on an idea that runs through literature from two or more genres. The contents of a theme course are not required to survey different periods. For example, a theme course might focus on World War I in poems, plays, novels, short stories, or diaries written during the war or at any time after. American theme courses will focus on American writers, and British theme courses on British writers. An International Literatures theme course on World War I would include a cross-national selection from two or more genres of primarily non-American and non-British literature. Other possible themes might include apocalyptic literature, gothicism, the city, imprisonment, magical realism, modern business, mysticism, surrealism, etc. Possible themes are limited only by the imagination and interest of the instructor.

500-Level International Literatures Courses.
International Literatures courses are to be cross-national, that is, they must include a substantial selection of literatures other than British and American. International Literatures courses may, but are not required to, survey a broad spectrum of literary or historical periods. For example, a course on the postmodern novel that focuses primarily on South American writers would meet the requirements for an International Literatures genre course. A course that looks at magical realism in two or more genres across various national literatures (again, primarily non-British and non-American) would meet the requirements for an International Literatures theme course.

Topics Courses. A topics course has no restrictions as to genre or national literature. Essentially, a topics course is one that does not fit into any of the other 500- or 700-level categories. Topics courses may be in literature or in writing. Examples of topics courses might be The Bible as Literature, Novels into Film, The History of Rhetoric, The History and Practice of Editing, etc.

Scheduling of 500-Level Courses
500-level courses will usually be scheduled once per academic year, as follows:

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