Learning Objectives for the Major

The learning objectives for the major are consonant with the general philosophy of Trinity College, with the departmental goals outlined above, and with the more specific guidelines on education in modern languages set forth by the Modern Language Association.

  • Majors should be able to read literary and cultural texts in relation to philosophical, cultural, social and historical contexts.
  • Majors should be able to close-read literary and cultural texts, engage in critical analysis of these texts, and make arguments about them based in a disciplinary understanding of argument and evidence.
  • Majors should be able to write about literary texts with conceptual complexity, informed at least in part by familiarity with literary and cultural theory.
  • Majors should be able to locate their own argument in in a critical conversation, with understanding of discipline specific use of secondary sources.
  • Majors should be able to write rhetorically powerful original literature (in the case of creative writing) and/or rhetorically powerful and logically convincing work about literature (in the case of literary criticism).