Literature B.A.

Information and Policies

Introduction

The Literature Department at UC Santa Cruz fosters innovative and comparative approaches to reading and interpretation in courses in a variety of languages that encompass traditional literary history, cross-cultural inquiry, current theoretical debates, and new media.

Literature majors learn to read, think, and write critically. These skills have wide applicability, and offer pathways into related disciplines such as history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, politics, and the history of art and visual culture. Literature majors enter a variety of careers ranging from law and journalism to management, government, international studies, publishing, technical writing, and teaching at all levels. The literature major prepares students for careers in digital storytelling and electronic media; film, television, and video; theater and the visual arts; and many other fields.

The Literature Department faculty requires that all literature majors have basic proficiency in a second language. Proficiency in more than one language enhances understanding of any literature and culture. Graduate programs in literature and other humanities disciplines generally require competence in at least one language other than English.

Academic Advising for the Program

Faculty advisors are available in the Literature Department office throughout each academic term; students may make appointments in advance to meet with them. Staff advisors are available by appointment and on a drop-in basis. Students are encouraged to consult with an advisor once per quarter.

Transfer students should also consult the section Transfer Information and Policy.

Advisors for the literature program are available at litdept@ucsc.edu, (831) 459-4778, or by visiting the Literature Department office in Humanities 1, room 303.

Getting Started in the Major

All students considering a literature major or minor should consult with staff and/or faculty advisors at the Literature Department office as early as possible, and declare the major or minor before the end of their sophomore year. Transfer students are urged to declare their major or minor during their first quarter at UC Santa Cruz, and should also consult the section Transfer Information and Policy.

Program Learning Outcomes

Following is a summary of the program learning outcomes for the Literature B.A.:

Students who complete the literature major should emerge with the following knowledge and skills:

A capacity for critical analysis of texts that is attentive to:
- the formal structures, genres, and rhetorical strategies of different kinds of writing, public discourse, and media;
- the historical and social contexts of such texts;
- the role cultural and linguistic differences play in the interpretation of texts read in translation and in a language not one's own.
Effective written communication that demonstrates the following abilities:
- to evaluate multiple interpretations of texts;
- to write effective argumentative prose;
- to situate texts in relation to a critical/theoretical tradition;
- to design and initiate a substantive independent project of research or creative activity.
Experience reading a variety of texts:
- from a breadth of world cultures and traditions;
- from different historical periods, including the pre-modern;
- originally written in languages other than English.

Major Qualification Policy and Declaration Process

Major Qualification

Students must complete LIT 1 or its transfer equivalent in order to declare the literature major or minor.

Transfer students should also consult the section Transfer Information and Policy.

Appeal Process

Students notified that they are not eligible to declare the literature major may appeal this decision by submitting a letter to the department chair within 15 working days from the date of notification. Within 15 working days of receipt of the student's appeal, the department will notify the student and their college of its decision regarding the appeal.

How to Declare a Major

Students must complete LIT 1 or its transfer equivalent in order to declare the literature major. In order to declare the major, students meet with a department advisor to complete and submit a Proposed Study Plan and Declaration of Major/Minor petition. All students considering a major should consult with a department advisor as early as possible to make an academic plan.

Students who have not completed LIT 1 or its transfer equivalent and who are approaching the campus declaration deadline (their sixth quarter, for students admitted as frosh) may petition to declare the literature major. The petition will be approved or denied, or the student will be provided with conditions (completion of LIT 1 or its equivalent with a grade of C or better) that must be resolved within one additional quarter of enrollment.

Transfer Information and Policy

Transfer Admission Screening Policy

Students planning to apply to UC Santa Cruz in this major are not required to complete specific major preparation courses for consideration of admission to UC Santa Cruz.

Students transferring from California community colleges may use an articulated equivalent of LIT 1 to satisfy the LIT 1 course requirement. Students transferring from other colleges may petition to use an introduction to literature course to satisfy the LIT 1 course requirement. Another literature course may be applied toward the LIT 60/LIT 61 or the LIT 80/LIT 81 course requirement.

Transfer students planning to major in literature are strongly recommended to complete the equivalent of one year of college-level study of a language other than English before entering UC Santa Cruz.

Transfer students planning to major in literature with a language literature concentration are strongly recommended to have completed two years of college-level language study (or comparable ability) to allow for a two-year graduation.

Getting Started at UCSC as a Transfer Student

Transfer students may declare the literature major or minor after completing LIT 1 or its transfer equivalent, and are urged to declare the major during their first quarter at UC Santa Cruz.

For information about declaring the literature major or minor, please see the section How to Declare a Major.

A student may receive credit toward the lower-division requirements of the major or minor for up to two courses taken at other institutions.

Students who attend another campus of the University of California may petition to apply a maximum of three upper-division courses toward the literature major, or two upper-division courses toward the literature minor.

Students may not use upper-division coursework taken at non-UC colleges or universities to satisfy upper-division literature major or minor credit.

Letter Grade Policy

Letter grades are required for 75 percent of the upper-division courses applied toward the literature major. The senior seminar or senior thesis must be taken for a letter grade.

Course Substitution Policy

Students who participate in a UC Education Abroad Program and/or attend another campus of the University of California may petition to apply a combined maximum of three upper-division courses toward the literature major, or two upper-division courses toward the literature minor.

Students may petition to receive literature elective credit for a maximum of one upper-division course taken in another department at UC Santa Cruz. In order to petition for a course from another department to substitute for a literature elective, students should submit a current course syllabus to the literature undergraduate program coordinator. Courses accepted from other departments may not be used to satisfy the literature major's critical approaches or distribution requirements.

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 more than 1500 upper-division students from the nine UC campuses every year. Students who participate in a UC Education Abroad Program may petition to apply up to three upper-division courses from EAP toward the literature major, or two upper-division courses toward the literature minor.

Honors

Honors in the literature major are awarded to graduating seniors who have earned a 3.70 to 3.89 grade-point average in their upper-division literature courses. Highest honors in the literature major are awarded to graduating seniors who have earned a 3.90 or higher grade-point average in their upper-division literature courses. Honors are not awarded in the minor.

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 courses LIT 179A, LIT 179B, LIT 190V, LIT 190W, and LIT 195C to satisfy major requirements.

Senior Checklist

Three quarters before anticipated graduation, all literature majors must complete a checklist in collaboration with a department advisor. 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.

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 UC Santa Cruz General Catalog.

Individual Study Credit for the Major

Students may apply a maximum of two of the following courses–LIT 195 (Senior Essay), LIT 198 (Group Tutorial), and/or LIT 199 (Tutorial)–for satisfaction of literature major requirements. LIT 195 may be used only once for satisfaction of literature major requirements.

Intensive Literature Major Option

The intensive literature major requires students to complete upper-division literature coursework in a second language. The intensive literature major is especially useful for students who plan to apply to graduate programs in literature and other humanities disciplines; those programs typically require students to do academic work in at least two languages. In order to satisfy an intensive literature major, students complete all of the requirements for a general literature, language literature, or creative writing concentration (including the critical approaches and distribution requirements); students must also complete at least two additional upper-division courses in a second-language literature studied in the original language, for a total of 14 courses (12 upper-division courses and two lower-division courses).

Two years of college-level language study (or comparable ability) are needed before a student is prepared to enter an upper-division language-literature course. In select languages (Greek, Latin, Middle Egyptian hieroglyphics, Sanskrit), less time is needed for this purpose.

General Literature Concentration

Course Requirements

The general literature concentration of the Literature major requires: (1) basic proficiency in a second language; and (2) 12 courses in literature.

Basic language proficiency: One year (three quarters or equivalent) of college-level study of a non-English language or demonstrated reading ability at this level.
The 12 required courses must include two lower-division and 10 upper-division courses.

Lower-Division Requirements

• Basic language proficiency: One year (three quarters or equivalent) of college-level study of a non-English language or demonstrated reading ability at this level.

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

• Two lower-division courses are required:

LIT 1

Literary Interpretation

Plus

One LIT 60/LIT 61-series course

One LIT 80/LIT 81-series course

LIT 1 is a writing-intensive course.

LIT 60/LIT 61-series courses focus on categories, methodologies, and problems of literary study.

LIT 80/LIT 81-series courses focus on topical, thematic, and comparative studies of literary and filmic texts.

LIT 60/LIT 61 and LIT 80/LIT 81 courses are also recommended for non-majors.

Upper-Division Courses

Ten upper-division courses are required:

LIT 101	Theory and Interpretation	5
LIT 102	Translation Theory	5

Students must successfully complete the language proficiency requirement before enrolling in LIT 102.

Students may substitute one upper-division non-English literature course studied in the original language for LIT 102.

Plus

• Eight additional upper-division literature courses.

These eight courses must between them fulfill the critical approaches and distribution requirements specified below. Some courses may be used to fulfill more than one distribution requirement, as specified below.

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

Critical Approaches Requirements

• Six courses, one satisfying each of the six critical approaches to the study of literature.

While most upper-division courses have two critical approaches designations, no single course may be used to satisfy more than one critical approaches requirement.

Canons: The study of influential authors or works, and their critical afterlives: what books get read, which are forgotten, and how is that decided?

Genres: The study of fiction, poetry, drama, epic, testimonio, etc., across time and space: what happens when we classify together works of similar form?

Geographies: The study of local, regional, national, transnational, or global contexts: how do we use notions of place to group texts together?

Histories: The study of texts through socially or aesthetically defined periods or movements: how do historical pressures affect literature’s possibilities?

Media: The study of the written word as one medium among others: what can we learn from the analysis of visual, performative, sonic, filmic, and other media?

Power and Subjectivities: The study of human and other subjects as individuals and in collective groups: who has the power to speak, write, and read under different social conditions?

The course descriptions in the General Catalog specify the critical approaches satisfied by each course.

These courses may also satisfy distribution requirements (below).

A list of annual course offerings indicating critical approaches and distribution codes for each course is available in the department office and on the Literature Department website.

Distribution Requirements

• Two upper-division courses on literature written before 1750.
• One upper-division course on non-Western literature or literature in a global perspective.
• One upper-division course on poetry and poetics (may not be a creative writing course).
• A senior seminar (a course in the LIT 190 series) or a senior thesis (LIT 195), which satisfies the campus comprehensive requirement (see below).

The course descriptions in the General Catalog specify the distribution requirements satisfied by each course.

Each of these courses may also satisfy a critical approaches requirement (above). Some courses satisfy more than one distribution requirement.

A list of annual course offerings indicating critical approaches and distribution codes for each course is available in the department office and on the Literature Department website.

Disciplinary Communication (DC) Requirement

Students of every major must satisfy that major’s upper-division disciplinary communication (DC) requirement. Literature majors must satisfy the disciplinary communication requirement by passing:

LIT 101

Theory and Interpretation

Comprehensive Requirement

Students must successfully complete LIT 101 before taking any comprehensive requirement.

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

Senior seminar.

The senior seminar (courses in the LIT 190 series) may be counted as one of the required upper-division courses. Several senior seminars are offered each quarter; extensive writing is required in all seminars.

Senior thesis.

Students who wish to propose a senior thesis (30–40 pages) must apply to a Literature Department faculty sponsor at least two quarters before the projected date of graduation. The application must include a proposed subject, a brief outline, a bibliography, and a sample of previous written work. Only those students who have received written permission from a faculty supervisor may complete a thesis to satisfy the senior exit requirement.

A student whose application has been approved may receive course credit toward the major for one independent study (LIT 195A or LIT 195B), and may count LIT 195A or LIT 195B as one of the upper-division courses required for the major.

Planners

Four-Year Major Planner

1st (frosh)	LIT 60/LIT 61 or LIT 80/LIT 81	LIT 60/LIT 61 or LIT 80/LIT 81 (optional)	LIT 1


2nd (soph)	Upper-division LIT course (Media critical approach)	LIT 101	Upper-division LIT course (Power and Subjectivities critical approach)

	Language Level 1	Language Level 2	Language Level 3
3rd (junior)	Upper-division LIT course (Geographies critical approach, global distribution requirement)	LIT 102	Upper-division LIT course (Genres critical approach, poetry/poetics distribution requirement)
			Upper-division LIT course (Canons critical approach, pre-1750 distribution requirement)

4th (senior)	Upper-division LIT course (Histories critical approach, pre-1750 distribution requirement)	LIT 190 (senior seminar)	Upper-division LIT course

Courses required for the major fulfill the TA General Education requirement. Other requirements may be fulfilled depending on the choice of electives. The MF, SI and SR requirements are never fulfilled.

Transfer Student Planner #1 (for transfer students who have completed literature's lower-division and one-year language requirement at the time of transfer)

3rd (junior)	Upper-division LIT course (Canons critical approach, pre-1750 distribution requirement)	LIT 102	LIT 101
	Upper-division LIT course (Genres critical approach, poetry distribution requirement)	Upper-division LIT course (Geographies critical approach, global distribution requirement)	Upper-division LIT course (Histories critical approach, pre-1750 distribution requirement)

4th (senior)	Upper-division LIT course (Media critical approach)	LIT 190 (senior seminar)	Upper-division LIT course
	Upper-division LIT course (Power and Subjectivities critical approach)

Transfer Student Planner #2 (for transfer students who have completed no literature requirements or language coursework at the time of transfer, but have completed most general education requirements)

3rd (junior)	LIT 1	LIT 101	Upper-division LIT course (Genres critical approach, poetry distribution requirement)
	LIT 60/LIT 61 or LIT 80/LIT 81	Upper-division LIT course (Canons critical approach, pre-1750 distribution requirement)	Upper division LIT course (Geographies critical approach, global distribution requirement)
	Language Level 1	Language Level 2	Language Level 3
4th (senior)	Upper-division LIT course (Histories critical approach, pre-1750 distribution requirement)	LIT 102	LIT 190 (senior seminar)
	Upper-division LIT course (Media critical approach)	Upper-division LIT course (Power and Subjectivities critical approach)	Upper-division LIT course

Language Literature Concentration

The language literature concentration examines literature within the frameworks of particular languages or national and regional traditions, and requires that texts be read in the original language. Enrollment in upper-division language literature courses normally requires completion of two years of college-level language coursework, or the equivalent.

Course Requirements

The language literature concentration of the literature major requires: (1) completion of two years of college-level language coursework, or the equivalent; and (2) 12 courses in literature.

The 12 required courses must include two lower-division and 10 upper-division courses.

Lower-Division Requirements

• Language proficiency: Two years (six quarters or equivalent) of college-level study of a non-English language or demonstrated reading ability at this level.

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

• Two lower-division courses are required:

LIT 1

Literary Interpretation

Plus

One LIT 60/LIT 61-series course

One LIT 80/LIT 81-series course

LIT 1 is a writing-intensive course.

LIT 60/LIT 61-series courses focus on categories, methodologies, and problems of literary study.

LIT 80/LIT 81-series courses focus on topical, thematic, and comparative studies of literary and filmic texts.

LIT 60/LIT 61 and LIT 80/LIT 81 courses are also recommended for non-majors.

Upper-Division Courses

Ten upper-division courses are required:

LIT 101	Theory and Interpretation	5
LIT 102	Translation Theory	5

Students must successfully complete the language proficiency requirement before enrolling in LIT 102.

Students may substitute one upper-division non-English literature course studied in the original language for LIT 102.

Plus

• Eight additional upper-division literature courses.

These eight courses must between them fulfill the requirements specified below. Some courses may be used to fulfill more than one requirement, as specified below.

Critical Approaches Requirements

• Six courses, one satisfying each of the six critical approaches to the study of Literature.