To stay abreast of our rapidly changing world, the Literature program in Florida State University's Department of English has been reconceived as the new Literature, Media, and Culture program. The retooled program, to be launched in fall 2018, has been designed to give students a more unified and common experience, combining reading for fun and insight with opportunities to pursue studies in such fields as writing, publishing, education, law and social work.

The impetus for updating the program came from concerned faculty.

“Students were being exposed to a range of texts and ideas, but nothing that really helped them to understand the principle identity of the field, nothing to glue together what they were learning in different classes,” said Professor Robin Goodman, the director of the Literature, Media, and Culture program.

The glue that will now bind those studies will be four core classes, a gateway course into the major, a course in literary theory and criticism, and two more in literary history. The gateway course aims to teach students what literature, media and culture stand for, the relevance of the questions it raises, and the greater economic and political context and significance.

“In other words, we think that literature, media and culture are central to considering how we navigate the complex political world of our day and what it means to exist as social beings with an understanding of the vitality of human differences and of the workings of power,” Goodman said.

The rest of the courses in the major will be in diversity-focused, pre-1800 and genre electives. Students will still have a freedom to explore and develop their interests.

Goodman says that the media and culture aspect of the program has always been present in literature; it is just now being drawn out and made more distinct.

“Really since the 1960s, but especially since the so-called ‘culture wars’ of the 1980s, what literature was, according to those who specialized in studying it, began to fundamentally change,” she said. “Literature could no longer be understood only as written texts but its narratives, languages, and forms of imagination were recognized as fundamental to other forms of cultural expression. Film has always been inside the literature major, as has popular culture studies. I myself often teach film studies and feminist studies. The faculty felt that the new title of the major reflected more closely what we were already doing.”

Fall undergraduate courses reflect these ideas, as well as the creative space faculty have when students are able to explore ideas more. Courses include:

• AML 4604: “The African American Literary Tradition: Meditations on the Body,” taught by Professor Maxine Montgomery. It is described as situating “representative novels within the larger conversational framework of the black body — in motion, scarred, dismembered, and remembered.”
• AML 3682: “American Multi-Ethnic Literature: What is Asian American Literature?” taught by Assistant Professor Frances Tran. The course “introduces cross-cultural literary traditions, looking at historical rationales and interconnections among communities as well as vital differences.”
• LIT 4385: “Major Women Writers,” taught by Professor Celia Caputi. The course will examine some works from notable women writers like Toni Morrison and Virginia Woolf.

More information on the Literature, Media, and Culture program can be found at http://english.fsu.edu/programs/literature.

Additional Fliers:

• Futures for Literature Majors: Ways to Make a Living (and Love Your Job)

• The (Financial) Value of Literature Majors

• What Can I Do With My Literature Major?