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September 2000, update of June 1988
Anthony Vaver, Humanities Librarian
The English and American Literature department offers both undergraduate and graduate programs.
The undergraduate English concentration is designed to train students in the formal analysis of literary texts and to introduce them to their literary and cultural heritage. The department offers three tracks for undergraduate majors: a Main Track, an Honors Track, and a Creative Writing Track.
The graduate program in English and American literature is designed to offer training in the interpretation and evaluation of literary texts in their historical and cultural contexts. English and American Literature offers only a Ph.D program. (An M.A. can be earned during the Ph.D. program, but the department does not offer a terminal M.A. in English and American Literature.)
The Brandeis English Department offers courses dealing with a variety of authors, literary movements, historical periods, and critical theory. For example, graduate seminars in recent years have included: Theories of the Novel; The Ethics of Representation in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Fiction; Interdisciplinary Approaches to American Literature; American Bestsellers; Versification; Representations of Eighteenth-Century Marriage; and Sex and Culture. All students are expected to become familiar with the major English and American writers and to have a broad background in all literary periods.
Though the Brandeis English Department does not offer a degree in Creative Writing, many of the faculty members and graduate students are published (and publishing) poets and fiction writers. A generous endowment from the Fannie Hurst Foundation allows the department to appoint visiting writers-in-residence for a semester at a time. Among them have been Alice Walker, Olga Broumas, Denise Levertov, Adrienne Rich, Mark Strand, Mark Doty, Stephen McCauley, and Louise Gluck.
Although Brandeis is a young university, vigorous efforts have been made to develop a true research library; the holdings in English are strong, especially in scholarly journals and microform reprints of original materials. Since the department attempts to cover all fields of English and American literature, the library collects as deeply as possible in all areas of the subject.
The Brandeis University Libraries participates in the Boston Library Consortium Small Press Poetry Agreement. Currently, the agreement is in its third year of a five year commitment, with the possibility of extension at the end of the five years.
The Brandeis University Libraries is responsible for collecting all poetry published by the following presses: Bilingual Press, City Lights Press, Coffee House Press, Graywolf Press, and New Directions. Other BLC libraries are required to collect comprehensively in poetry from their assigned publishers. The agreement does not exclude the Brandeis University Libraries from buying small press poetry from publishers not assigned to our library.
The collection mainly consists of English literature from Great Britain and the United States. Other literatures written in English-from Canada, the Carribean, Africa Australia, New Zealand, and India-are becoming increasingly important. Significant works, at the very least, are acquired from this emerging body of English literary study, and more emphasis in collecting these literatures will likely be needed in the future.
The collection covers as deeply as possible all English literature (from the Old and Middle English periods onward) and the entire span of American literature (from the colonial period onward). Because of the difficulty in defining significant current fiction and poetry, acquisitions in these areas emphasize major authors who receive critical acclaim. Most books by and about these authors are supplied automatically by the library's Blackwell approval plan (British, American, and Commonwealth authors). Other authors are selected on an individual basis. Current poetry published by a major press is also acquired, along with those books that satisfy our commitment to the BLC Small Press Poetry Agreement.
The library purchases mainly current materials, although retrospective materials are added when special needs arise or when time permits. Rare books and special editions are rarely added to Special Collections.
English is the primary language of the collection. Critical and historical materials, however, are often acquired in the original language. Translations of English literary works into other languages are not purchased. Romance and Comparative Literature and the Germanic and Slavic Languages collections generally cover the acquisition of translations of world literature into English.
Monographs are collected as deeply as is possible in all areas of English literatures.
The department has a strong interest in periodicals, in both current subscriptions and retrospective runs.
The library buys or subscribes to electronic indexes and full-text databases that offer research value. Electronic texts for computer analysis are not currently bought. Links to free websites are not actively collected together on the library's website.
The library has a strong collection of original materials in microform. Microform research collections continue to be added as funds become available.
Dissertations are not actively collected, unless they appear in published form from a press.
Videos are of interest to the department and are added to the collection when appropriate. Audio materials are acquired on a selective basis.
Materials are located in standard locations throughout the library.
The Baldwin Shakespearian collection makes the subject of Shakespeare particularly important to the collection. The Hofheimer collection contains many important editions from a wide range of English and American literature, although the collection is not entirely cataloged at this point.
| Literary History and Criticism | Research |
| History of English Literature | Graduate Study |
| Anglo-Saxon Literature | Graduate Study |
| Anglo-Norman (Early and Middle English) | Graduate Study |
| Renaissance | Research |
| Shakespeare | Research |
| 17th and 18th Centuries | Research |
| 19th Century | Research |
| 20th Century | Graduate Study |
| Contemporary Literature | Undergraduate Study |
| Literary History and Criticism | Research |
| History of American Literature | Graduate Study |
| Colonial Period | Graduate Study |
| 19th Century | Research |
| 20th Century | Graduate Study |
| Contemporary Literature | Undergraduate Study |
| Other Literatures Written in English | Undergraduate Study |