Group Descriptions

For instructional purposes the faculty of the Department divides itself into the following groups (see also Faculty Research and Teaching List):

Group I - The English Language

The English Department offers study not only in literature and writing but also in the English language itself. Most of the language courses have been developed with the needs of a particular group in mind and fulfill various sorts of undergraduate and graduate requirements. On the doctoral level, a student majoring in a literary period or in Rhetoric and Composition may choose to minor in the English Language.

Undergraduate English language courses are English 36 (Modern English Grammar), 38 (History of the English Language), and 94A (English in the USA). English 36 and 38 are required for students seeking teacher certification in English in North Carolina, and they are electives in Group F for English majors. English 94A is open to undergraduates of any major and fulfills the Social Sciences perspective requirement for Arts and Sciences students.

Graduate level English courses are English 237 (Old English), 238 (History of the English Language), 136 (Modern English Grammer), and 250 (Old English Literature: Beowulf; prerequisite 237). All Ph.D. candidates must take either English 237 or 238, and one other course from among English 136, 237, 238, 250, or, with permission of the Director of Graduate Studies, a graduate course in linguistics, theory of language, or philosophy of language. M.A. candidates must take one of these required courses.

Enrolled graduate students from throughout the University who are native speakers of languages other than English may be placed into a special course in English pronunciation and writing as the result of a test administered at the beginning of the fall semester. English 101X (English for Speakers of Other Languages) does not accept auditors.

Group II - English Literature from its beginnings to 1485

The faculty in medieval studies in the English Department teach the literatures and languages of the British Isles from the beginnings to c. 1500. In addition to the primary areas of Old and Middle English, courses are offered in Medieval Welsh, Irish, and Middle Scots, along with the history of the English language (cf. Group I). The faculty are committed to studying literature in its broad cultural and historical context, to working with texts in their original languages, and to developing skills in reading and using manuscripts. Since medieval studies is inherently interdisciplinary, they encourage students to work in other appropriate medieval languages and literatures (Latin, Germanic, French, Anglo-Norman, Italian) as well as in comparative literature, history, art history and music, in all of which areas UNC-Chapel Hill has traditionally been strong.

Group III - English Literature from 1485 to 1660 (including Milton)

Drawing upon a wide range of methodological and critical perspectives, the faculty involved in the study of the English Renaissance share in common a commitment to history and to the historic transformations of literary texts.

Students selecting this concentration are asked to familiarize themselves with established literary categories of Renaissance writing and authorship and to consider, as well, the philosophical, political, religious, and economic genealogies that they describe and determine. With the opportunity to explore and critique recent theorizations within the field, including cultural, feminist, history of ideas, and materialist perspectives, graduate work within Renaissance studies embraces both formalist and post-structuralist paradigms.

Group IV - English Literature from 1660 to 1789

The eighteenth-century faculty at UNC are interested in a wide variety of approaches (historical, philosophical, theoretical) to the writings of the long eighteenth-century (1660-1820). Recent seminars have explored a whole range of forms and writers, popular and polite, from Defoe to Austen, the golden age to the gothic. Research projects range from the georgic, to urbanization and the crowd, political economy, and filmic adaptations of eighteenth-century fiction.

Group V - English Literature from 1789 to 1900 (Nineteenth-Century British Literature)

This group teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in the traditional genres--fiction, poetry, prose, drama, and the visual arts--as they emerge within a cultural context that ranges from the Romantics to the pre-Modernists. As practitioners of diverse and still-evolving critical methodologies (including feminism, new historicism, language theory, and poetic form) and emerging subject matters (cultural materialism, popular culture, and hypertext, to name a few) within the field of nineteenth-century studies, the members of this group share a commitment to several common goals:

Group VI - American Literature to 1900

This group is responsible for the range of literature from the period of contact and settlement of North America to the beginning of the twentieth century. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate-level survey courses, members of the group offer courses and seminars in special topics and areas, including African American literature, Southern literature, and literature by women.

Group VII -American Literature from 1900 to the Present

Studies in American literature written since 1900 covering all genres in a variety of approaches.

Group VIII - British Literature from 1900 to the Present

Studies in British literature written since 1900 covering all genres in a variety of approaches.

Group IX - Critical Theory and Cultural Studies

Critical theory and cultural studies examine the various ways we define and approach texts. The faculty in this group are interested in the history of the study of literary works: the questions, methods, and principles that have constituted what we understand as literature and how we interpret it. But our understanding of the use and aim of theory is heterogeneous and comprises more than enabling literary interpretation. We are concerned, in diverse ways, with the question of how things mean. For many of us, that involves a related investigation of the boundaries of disciplinary investigation: we examine literary works and literary approaches as part of a complex including social and intellectual history, cultural difference, economic analysis, psychoanalysis, structures of signification, an attention to gender and sexuality, a foregrounding of the effects of nationality, colonialism, racial inequity, and other power relations. Our methods are self-reflexive, exploring their own assumptions and limitations. They are often in contention with each other. They invite lively debate.

Group X - Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy

Faculty members in this group teach writing courses, courses for prospective high school and college writing teachers, and courses for exploring forms of communication and literacy. Their scholarly interests include historical and contemporary rhetoric, language learning, the development of teachers, electronic publishing, and the uses of technology in teaching and research.

Group XI - African American Literature

Composed of five tenured members of the English Department, the African Americanist group explores African American literary and cultural traditions from the eighteenth century to the present. We teach survey and special topics courses on the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as specialized courses and seminars for graduate students. Recent advanced courses have examined twentieth-century poetry, narrative theory and contemporary African American fiction, the slave narrative tradition, and gender issues in African American narrative. The group offers a program of study at the Ph.D. level for both a major and a minor in African American literature in the English Department.

Group XII - Southern Literature

This group studies the literature of the American South from all eras and in all genres.

Group XIII - Irish Studies

This group studies the literature of Ireland.