Read, write, repeat.
If you’ve ever taken a college English course, then you’re probably familiar with this cycle—one that can often be stressful when you’re required to brainstorm and settle on a unique idea that you’re confident can be supported with nonredundant, compelling evidence throughout a five to ten-page paper.
Although the thought of writing long essays sounds horrible, I believe that these courses have so much more to offer than painful assignments. They reflect on larger histories, those of which are important to our contemporary world, and reveal deeper takeaways about various aspects of life.
As a student who has completed her English degree, here are my favorite English courses at UC Davis:
ENL 149-2: Romance to Fantasy
From barbaric cyclops to chivalric knights, ENL 149-2 is a portal to the fantasy realm where strange adventures, love stories, and combat for victory are constant. The texts are originally in Middle English, thus providing a further immersion into the stories and revealing interesting meanings with their word choices. I always looked forward to this course because of the breadth of world-building and escapism from reality.
ENL 177: Study of an Individual Author
Oftentimes we are required to read multiple books from an array of authors, but ENL 177 focuses on a single author, which is plenty to talk about. This course delves into the political, social, and historical circumstances that the author was living through and how they navigate these aspects in their narratives. I found this course interesting because it allows you to gain a much deeper understanding of the histories from the author’s time period such as women’s rights, colonialism, social mobility, and capitalist ideology.
ENL 156: The Short Story
If you’ve ever been overwhelmed by the requirements to read four-hundred page novels, ENL 156 is a great course involving short stories that will make you think as deeply as you would for longer readings. They allow us to peer deeply into a character and their world in a space of a few pages. I enjoyed this course because I could finish reading the stories in a timely manner while going back to analyze the larger themes.
ENL 144: Post-Civil War American Literature
The past has always had an influence on the present, and ENL 144 makes these histories known through novels that discuss upheavals in social, cultural, and political identity. The readings for this course will increase your awareness about what led our society to its present state and the sentiments that persist today such as Jim Crow segregation laws and the residential schooling system of indigenous people. I loved this course because the readings often paralleled an event that was going on in the current news, which made me feel that there is relevance to what I am reading.
ENL 180: Children’s Literature
If you thought children’s books were only for children, you’d be wrong and ENL 180 will prove it to you. The course will allow you to think about how the stories you read as a child have shaped you into the person you are today and the impact of reading them as an adult. I had a pleasurable time in this class because the text was easy to understand but complex at the same time. It was also interesting to explore the censorship, revisions, and adaptations some stories had and why it was done. Some stories were not as innocent as I remembered when I read them as a child.
Taking English courses has made me fall in love with reading again and each course has given me several takeaways to apply to my personal life and carry with me as I grow older. I encourage you to give these courses a chance and I hope you will feel the same kind of wonder and excitement as I did once I stopped seeing reading as a time-consuming assignment.