Program Description

Literature at UC Santa Cruz is taught through a single Literature Department, rather than through separate departments of English, French, Spanish, etc. This structure fosters innovative and comparative approaches to literature among both faculty and students. Courses in the major encompass traditional literary history and interpretation as well as cross-cultural inquiry and current theoretical debates.

The literature major also permits focused work in national literary traditions. Students may concentrate in American, British, or all English literatures; in French, German, or Italian; in Latin and/or Greek; or in Spanish/Latin American/Latino literatures. Alternatively, students may organize their studies by period. Pre- and early modern studies focuses on early literary traditions from antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the neo-classical period, while modern literary studies concentrates on literature of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Finally, the world literature and cultural studies concentration is dedicated to non-Western literatures and literature in a global context.

The Literature Department also offers a concentration in creative writing in which, in addition to studying literature, students work with faculty in upper-division workshops to improve their own creative writing skills. In the senior year, each student produces a senior project consisting of a significant body of creative work. Interested students may apply for admission to this concentration by submitting a portfolio of their writing after the completion of one lower-division creative writing course at UCSC.

Literature majors at UC Santa Cruz are trained in critical reading, writing, and thinking, as well as in literary interpretation. These skills have wide applicability: they may lead to employment in other media such as film, theater, video, the visual arts, and electronic media; and they offer avenues into related disciplines such as history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, politics, and history of art and visual culture. Literature majors traditionally enter a wide variety of careers ranging from law and journalism to management, government, international studies, publishing, technical writing, and teaching at all levels.

The Literature Department faculty strongly recommends that all students study a second language. Proficiency in more than one language vastly enhances understanding of any literature and of language arts in general. Graduate programs in literature and other humanities disciplines generally require competence in another language besides English.

Letter Grade Requirement

Beginning with students admitted in fall 2001 and later, letter grades are required for 75 percent of courses applied toward the literature majors, including the senior seminar, which must be taken for a letter grade.

Literature Major Options

Students wishing to major in literature may choose either the standard literature major or the intensive literature major. The intensive literature major is recommended particularly for students who plan to continue their studies in graduate school. The requirements for the intensive major include the study of literature in two languages; proficiency in a second language is therefore required.

The Standard Literature Major

Thirteen courses are required: three lower-division and ten upper-division courses. One of the latter may be a senior seminar, which may be used to satisfy the campus comprehensive (exit) requirement. In exceptional cases, and with faculty permission, students may write a senior thesis to satisfy the exit requirement.

Lower-Division Courses

Lower-division courses are designed as introductions to critical reading and writing. Students should complete their lower-division course work before beginning upper-division work.

Three lower-division courses:

Upper-Division Course

Upper-division courses provide more detailed treatment of literary and theoretical problems, themes, and periods. Students are strongly encouraged to take courses across chronological periods and national boundaries.

Ten upper-division courses:

Distribution requirements. Among the 10 upper-division courses, at least two must focus on literature written prior to the year 1750; one course must focus on non-Western literature or literature in a global perspective; and one must focus on poetry. Some courses fulfill more than one of these distribution requirements. A list of annual course offerings indicating distribution codes for each course is available in the department office or on the Literature Department web page.

With prior permission from a faculty adviser, one elective may be replaced by an upper-division course related to the student’s area of concentration and chosen from another program in the humanities, arts, or social sciences.

The Intensive Literature Major

Fifteen courses are required: three lower-division and 12 upper-division courses. One of the upper-division courses may be a senior seminar, which may be used to satisfy the campus comprehensive (exit) requirement.

Lower-Division Courses

The same requirements apply as for the standard literature major. Students who choose the intensive literature major are required to achieve competence in a second- language literature. Upper-division literature course work may require completion of a lower-division language sequence or the equivalent.

Upper-Division Courses

The intensive major requires 12 upper-division courses. Distribution requirements for the intensive major are the same as those for the standard literature major. In addition, students must complete at least two courses in a second-language literature studied in the original language. As in the standard major, with prior permission from a faculty adviser, one elective may be replaced by an upper-division course related to the student’s area of concentration and chosen from another program in the humanities, arts, or social sciences.

The comprehensive requirement must be satisfied by the completion of a senior seminar or a senior thesis.

The Concentrations

The purpose of the upper-division area of concentration is to help students shape a coherent program of study. The department provides several defined concentrations, described below. For all concentrations except national/ transnational literatures, texts may be read in the original or in translation.

National/Transnational Literatures

These concentrations examine literature within the frameworks of particular languages or national and regional traditions. Courses in these concentrations study texts in the original language.

Creative Writing

The department offers a sequence of workshops in creative writing, from beginning through advanced levels, in both poetry and fiction. Other activities available to interested students include participation in the production of literary journals on campus, attendance at readings by visiting writers, and use of a creative writing reading room.

Admission to this concentration is selective. Interested students are required to take one lower-division workshop at UC Santa Cruz before applying to the creative writing concentration.

Students accepted into the concentration must complete three advanced writing workshops and a senior project (e.g., a group of stories, a significant portion of a novel, a collection of poems). To apply for admission to the creative writing concentration, students should submit a completed application form (available at the Literature Department Office) and a thoughtful selection from their work (8–10 pages of poetry or 10–20 pages of fiction, comprising at least two stories). Once accepted into the concentration, students are required to declare (or redeclare) the major in literature. At that time, students should meet with their adviser to discuss plans for a senior project.

Pre- and Early Modern Studies

The interdisciplinary study of literatures and cultures from antiquity through the early eighteenth century, especially in Europe. Study of popular culture and everyday life as well as readings in masterpieces of classical, medieval, early modern (Renaissance), and neo-classical literature.

Modern Literary Studies

The study of literature of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Examines ways in which modernity in general and literary modernism and postmodernism in particular emerge and develop in different countries and cultures.

World Literature and Cultural Studies

The study of literature and cultural production both within a global context and within specific histories and economies. Courses move beyond the literary text to include nonverbal forms of representation such as social movements and everyday life practices.

Comprehensive Requirement

Seniors may select one of the following options to satisfy the campus exit requirement:

For students in the creative writing concentration, a creative writing project under the supervision of a faculty member (Literature/Creative Writing 194 or 195) is required. Students must successfully complete Literature 101 before taking any comprehensive requirement.

General Information

Creative writing courses. Any qualified student may take creative writing courses for credit toward graduation. Only students accepted into the creative writing concentration, however, may use Literature/Creative Writing 180, 183, 191, 194, and 195 to satisfy major requirements.

Declaring the major. Students declare a major in literature by completing and submitting a Proposed Study Plan and Declaration of Major/Minor petition. All students considering a literature major should consult with staff and/or faculty advisers as early as possible and declare the major before the end of their sophomore year. Transfer students are urged to declare the major in the first quarter at UCSC

Double major. A student studying literature as part of a double major must fulfill all of the requirements for any concentration in the literature major in addition to all of the requirements in another major field. No course may be counted toward both majors.

The literature minor. The minor in literature comprises eight courses:

Transfer credit. A student may petition to receive credit toward the lower-division requirements of the major for up to three courses taken at other institutions. An introduction to literature course may be used to satisfy the Literature 1 course requirement. Any other two literature courses may be applied toward the Literature 61 series and the Literature 80 series course requirements. Transfer of Credit petition forms are available in the Literature Department Office.

Credit for repeated courses. Courses that vary significantly in material or methodology from one presentation to the next may be repeated for credit and are so designated in the course description in the UCSC General Catalog.

Advising. Faculty advisers are available in the Literature Department Office throughout the week during each academic term; students may make appointments in advance to meet with them. Staff advisers are also available on a drop-in basis. Students are encouraged to consult with a faculty adviser once a quarter.

Senior checklist. Three quarters before anticipated graduation, all literature majors must complete a checklist in collaboration with a department adviser. The purpose of the checklist is to confirm progress toward graduation and the satisfaction of all major requirements. Completion and approval of a senior checklist are required for graduation.

Opportunities for study abroad. The University of California’s Education Abroad Program (EAP) operates study centers in countries throughout the world, all associated with host institutions of high academic standing. EAP serves over 1500 upper-division students from the nine UC campuses every year. Students who participate in a UC Education Abroad Program study year may petition to apply up to three courses from EAP toward the major. Petition forms are available in the department office.

The Graduate Programs

The Doctoral Program

The UC Santa Cruz doctoral program offers an innovative multidisciplinary approach to literary studies under the auspices of the Department of Literature. While the program affords a coherent academic experience for all students, the final choice of programmatic emphasis and a trajectory of concerns is decided by each individual. Because the program is relatively small, students are able to work closely with faculty throughout their graduate careers and are encouraged to take advantage of the rich array of events, research clusters, and lectures offered on campus.

The doctoral program reflects faculty interests in American, Asia/Pacific, and New World studies; world literature and cultural studies; European literature from the classical to the early modern period (pre- and early modern studies); eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century literatures; gender studies; post-colonial and emergent literatures; and textual studies. Students may elect to participate in cooperative programs between literature and women’s studies or American studies and receive a designated emphasis on their degree.

Among the areas that represent special strength in the department are contemporary American literature and poetics; Latin American/Latino literature; literatures of the Americas, a cross-border hemispheric perspective that envisions the Americas as an area of study; world literature and cultural studies, which treats literary, intellectual, and cultural production in globally historicized contexts; nineteenth-century studies; and pre- and early modern studies, where comparative and interdisciplinary work is encouraged and which includes classical literature and philosophy, medieval and Renaissance French, Italian, and English cultures and literatures (including visual culture), and Spanish Golden Age literature. Within all areas, faculty draw on wide-ranging critical practices such as feminism, race and gender studies, Marxism, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and culture studies.

The program requires significant literary work in two languages. All students are required to complete a minimum of two courses, preferably three, in a second-language literature in which the reading is done in the original language. The second literature must serve as a component of the qualifying exam that certifies the student’s readiness to begin writing the dissertation. Primary concentrations are available in English/American, French, and Spanish/Latin American/Latino literatures. Secondary concentrations are available in all of the above, plus German, Italian, Latin, and Greek, as well as other non-English literatures relevant to individual areas of concentration.

The common requirements are as follows:

A master’s degree is conferred upon request to Ph.D. candidates who have completed the course work requirements for the doctorate. (The teaching assistant training and supervised teaching experience are not considered part of the course work requirements for the M.A.) In addition to completing the required course work, students must write a master’s thesis under the supervision of a faculty adviser or successfully complete the Literature Ph.D. Qualifying Exam.

More detailed information for prospective graduate students, including application and admission to graduate studies, examinations, and requirements for the doctor of philosophy degree, is available from the Division of Graduate Studies and on the department web site: http://humwww.ucsc.edu/lit/.

Graduate students in literature may obtain a parenthetical notation on their diploma that they have specialized in women’s studies and/or American studies. Applications and requirements for obtaining these notations are available at the respective program and department offices.

The Master’s Program

A separate master of arts degree program in literature is intended for students whose aim is to expand their literary/critical training and to proceed to a Ph.D. program at another institution. Priority for admission is given to students interested in underrepresented areas of study within the Literature Department’s offerings, such as the non-English language literatures and, more broadly, in critical theory.

The M.A. program requires students to complete the equivalent of nine seminars of graduate-level study in literature, including a capstone requirement, the master’s thesis. Requirements may not be completed in less than one year; the maximum time to obtain a degree is two years.

The common requirements are as follows:

The Literature Department does not normally provide financial support to students pursuing the M.A. degree; some teaching assistantships do become available. Admission to the M.A. program does not constitute admission to the Ph.D. program, and students may not automatically transfer into the Ph.D. program from the M.A. program; they must reapply. Further information and application materials are available from the Division of Graduate Studies: http://gradstudies.ucsc.edu.