As an English major, every semester I am excited to scroll through the course catalogue and see what riveting courses will be offered by the English Department. While I do find interesting courses, I always end up with a nagging feeling that there are courses I would like to take that are not being offered. To me, it would be beneficial if there were more literature courses centered on race, gender and sexuality offered in the department.
First and foremost, as stated by the English Department on its website, “foreign literatures fall outside of our field,” meaning that the curriculum of the English Department is grounded in the fact that they explicitly do not teach works in translation. Instead of considering itself solely to be a department for “English,” it should take on the view of being a department for “literature,” which encompasses a lot more literary movements and literary diversity.
In the course catalogue it states: “Majors are required to take two units of work in literature written before 1800 and one unit of work in literature written before 1900. They must also take one course that focuses on issues of race, gender, sexuality or ethnicity.” It is extremely problematic that the pre-1800 and pre-1900 courses include classes such as “Pre-Modern Drama: Text and Performance before 1800” or “Pride and Prejudice: British Literature from 1640-1745.” While these courses are interesting and thought-provoking, they are based in discourses of literature written mainly by white males. Nowhere within the course selection for these particular requirements are there literature courses featuring people of color, women or members of the LGBTQ community. Yes, there are courses such as “Latino/a Literature” but there is no such course that can be put toward the pre-1800 or pre-1900 requirement.
There have been many works written before the 20th century that focus on issues of race, gender, sexuality and ethnicity which could very well fulfill the requirements.
Rather than making available only a minimal number of courses that are offered concerning race, gender, sexuality or ethnicity, it would be beneficial if a wider array of courses were devoted explicitly to these issues. Not even a third of the courses offered by the English Department are overtly focused on any of these topics. It is interesting to find that, out of 12 units, an English major is required to take only one course that directly concerns any one of these four topics. Even more interesting is that only one course out of nearly 60 specifically scrutinizes the topics of gender and sexuality.
From looking at the present courses offered by the English Department, there is a sense that an expansive view of the world is missing. Literature is able to provide a multitude of different perspectives, opinions and experiences, and I cannot see why Vassar’s English Department should not take advantage of literature’s versatility. Vassar College encourages its students to take courses out of their divisions so that they leave here with a wider view of the world. The English Department can help to provide the Vassar community with a different view of the world, whether they are astronomy majors or art majors.
Students taking a literature course about transexuality, for example, would be more socially aware individuals outside of Vassar. Class discussions would benefit from diversifying the English Department’s curriculum, as a lot of the discussions currently taking place leave out people of color, women and members of the LGBTQ community seeing as they are not present within much of the literature being read.
A range of literature courses—whether they are concerned with South American texts, texts from Asian women or texts from such queer studies scholars as David M. Halperin—would also allow for more cross-listing and broaden the interdisciplinary learning that is encouraged at Vassar College. As literature encompasses not only fiction works but non-fiction works as well, science majors for example could be offered a course that explores the history of science with texts from influential scholars in the field.
What I propose is a shift in perception of what writers and pieces are important to discuss. Alongside a course that focuses solely on Shakespeare there should be more courses that focus solely on writers like Toni Morrisonv, Zora Neale Hurston or authors who must be read in translation, like Gabriel García Márquez. To really make the race, sex, gender and ethnicity requirement count, we should also have more courses that analyze queer literature and texts written by women. Including such courses would help to shape discussions about issues that are real, contemporary and generally not addressed.
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