Yale English majors say: don't make us read so many white men!

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by NyWriterdude

English is not a major about the literary traditions of England.

It's a major about advanced reading and writing skills in the English language, which is used by a wide variety of people around the world.

Often in English courses professors assign works written by contemporary writers.

What does "advanced reading" mean? What kind of advanced writing skills, beyond what a student who went to a good HS that taught various writing styles wouldn't already know?

[NyWriterdude]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

What does "advanced reading" mean? What kind of advanced writing skills, beyond what a student who went to a good HS that taught various writing styles wouldn't already know?

There's a huge difference in the kinds of writing one uses in a college and one uses in a high school. Plus especially if they are interested in grad school, English majors may take courses in creative writing, non fiction writing, screenwriting, playwriting, or journalism.

At the graduate level there's also ultimately writing a thesis or dissertation.

Advanced reading? There's a huge difference between reading Thackeray's Vanity Fair than reading snippets of Shakespeare that one would read in high school. There's a massive difference between the texts one reads at the college level, and with one does with those texts at the college level.

Clearly there is no high school program of study that can compete with a BA in English, which one needs to get into fields like advertising and publishing.

[residinghere2007]

Odd article IMO.

I was an English major. I went to an HBCU. I had to take 2 semesters of "Major British Writers" as well, which included a review of the lives and works of all the major authors cited in the OP articles.

If you are an English major, IMO you should take the course. You cannot fully grasp English literature without studying/analyzing canonical authors. Very odd that the Yale students wouldn't want to study these authors. They are a part of the cannon for a reason IMO.

That said, I was also required to take two semesters of "World Literature" whereas we studied literature of a variety of countries/cultures. I had to take 2 semesters of "American Literature." I had to take 2 semesters of "African American Literature" because I attended an HBCU and that was required at my university at the time. I was also required to take "Colonial Literature" for a semester, which included works by authors that were from colonized lands of the British Empire including India, Africa, and the Carribbean amongst others.

Other courses I took were of particular periods, such as "The Romantic Period" which heavily focused on the Keats, Coleridge, Shelly, etc. I also took "Southern Writers" which focused on US writers from the South. I took a seminar course regarding James Baldwin and I took a semester as an elective of "Protest Literature" and "The Harlem Renaissance" and a course focused on Irish literary greats in particular.

You get 4 years of college at a minimum. There is more than enough time to read and learn from the old canonized white authors along with being exposed to and reading a variety of other types of authors.