Question of the Month:
What undergrad class(es) best prepared you for
grad school?
Rebecca Hamill: Coastal Carolina
University, Conway, SC
Literary Theory was most helpful in preparing
me for grad school. In addition to a 400 level class on lit theory,
I was fortunate enough to have a couple of professors who included
theory in their lit classes as it applied to the literature. I think
it helped me to further develop critical thinking skills.
Katie Crawford: Clemson University
Shakespeare 400 level courses showed me how to
analyze period pieces and appreciate the language.
Jude Morris: University of Pittsburgh
Literary Criticism was required for English majors.
I can’t say I enjoyed the class, but I learned a lot. A class
I did enjoy and which I’ve drawn from again and again was Classical
Mythology. I’m also grateful for the firm grounding in philosophy
that was required during my post baccalaureate studies when I was
earning my teaching certificate in Pennsylvania; it has proven very
useful in interpreting literature.
Steve Bellomy: Florida Atlantic
University
Critical Approaches to Literature
Jennifer O’Bryon: University
of Florida
Really the teacher was and is the most
important part of any class. But I would say that my 20th century
British Novel class was the most helpful because it was the most similar
in structure to a graduate level class. Also, that teacher had us
write four papers using four different critical approaches –
which we also taught us (Barthes, Neo-Aristotelian, Foucault, and
Bakhtin) so it was really helpful to learn a little bit about critical
theory, which frankly, I never even knew existed. That class was helpful
because of the specific structure and teacher, not because the 20th
Century British Novel is so important.
Also, I found Romantic Poetry and Shakespeare
very helpful simply because they are very popular, and it helps to
have a basic understanding of them.
Megan Koon: Furman University
Survey of British and American
Literature until 1796; Survey After 1796. These courses were required
for the undergrad degree and they were very helpful because they exposed
me to a variety of authors, genres, and titles and helped me decide
which would be most interesting to pursue in graduate school.
Humanities sequence (English, Religion, History
class) introduced us to not only literary but historical texts such
as the Bible, Confessions, Communist Manifesto, etc. and helped us
to learn to integrate the three disciplines which I think is a very
important skill in the English graduate program.
Also, Literary Criticism at Furman because we
learned various methods for interpreting and reading novels and also
were horrified by a great research paper and a strict professor which
nevertheless got us ready to write for graduate school.