Department of English and Comparative Literature

General information

The Department’s long term goals for its majors include these legacies: That each person who graduates with a BA in English from SJSU will have an enduring interest in language and literature; a sense of the presence of the literary and rhetorical past; an awareness of the depth and complexity of human existence, perceived across the boundaries of time, place, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic class, and sexual orientation; a sense of involvement in aesthetic, cultural, and intellectual life, as well as in social and political issues; a developing understanding of the ability of great literature and language to awaken and challenge people to struggle with profound questions of human identity and values; and a personal critical perspective and sense of intellectual independence.