Department of English

Literature explores classical and contemporary poetry, fiction, and prose to understand how history shapes and is shaped by artists who use language. Literary theory asks psychological and philosophical questions about how we come to know the world and ourselves through texts and symbolic communication. Literature, as the critic Kenneth Burke said, is "Equipment for Living."

Linguistics is the scientific study of languages. It involves the basic attributes of language - syntax, semantics and pragmatics - and the reasons behind language acquisition and development. Fields include psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, sociolinguistics and discourse analysis.