Minors

Students must choose at least four courses (16 units) outside their major department and four courses (16 units) that are not being used to satisfy any other subject requirement.

English

Students majoring in other fields, especially the professional schools, often speak of the ways that literary studies and writing have helped them encounter themselves—their past and their dreams—and discover the power and passion of their self-expression. The English minor requires a minimum of 20 units (usually five courses).

Course lists for the below categories are forthcoming.

One sophomore seminar: ENGL 240

Three courses in breadth requirements:

One course in early literatures

One course in later literatures

One course in interpretive lenses

One upper-division elective

To view course lists for the above bulleted categories, please see our English (Creative Writing) Fall 2023 and on course lists on our major page.
Introductory Seminars

Complete at least two of the following (and keep in mind which additional upper-division courses they’ll facilitate access to as prerequisites):

ENGL-261g “English Literature to 1800”

ENGL-262g “English Literature since 1800”

ENGL-263g “American Literature”

These two courses should be done or in progress of being done before enrolling in upper-division courses or workshops.

Literature written before 1800

Complete one of the following:

ENGL-341 “Women in English Literature before 1800” (formerly ENGL-469)

ENGL-420 “English Literature of the Middle Ages (1100-1500)” (prereq: ENGL-261)

ENGL-421 “English Literature of the 16th Century” (prereq: ENGL-261)

ENGL-422 “English Literature of the 17th Century” (prereq: ENGL-261)

ENGL-423 “English Literature of the 18th Century (1660-1780)” (prereq: ENGL-261)

ENGL-430 “Shakespeare”

ENGL-461 “English Drama to 1800” (prereq: ENGL-261)

ENGL-465 “The English Novel to 1800” (prereq: ENGL-261)

American Literature

Complete one of the following:

ENGL-351 “Periods and Genres in American Literature” (formerly ENGL-451)

ENGL-440 “American Literature to 1865” (prereq: ENGL-263)

ENGL-441 “American Literature, 1865 to 1920” (prereq: ENGL-263)

ENGL-442 “American Literature, 1920 to the Present” (prereq: ENGL-263)

ENGL-445m “The Literatures of America: Cross-Cultural Perspectives”

ENGL-446 “African-American Poetry and Drama”

ENGL-447m “African-American Narrative”

ENGL-448m “Chicano and Latino Literature”

ENGL-449m “Asian American Literature”

Upper-division elective

Any 300- or 400-level course in the English department, including creative writing workshops, such as ENGL-303 “Introduction to Fiction Writing” or ENGL-304 “Introduction to Poetry Writing.”

Two 2-unit ENGL-499 “Special Topics” courses taken during the same or different semesters may be combined for a total of 4 units to meet this requirement, though we cannot guarantee the frequency of such 2-unit ENGL course offerings.

Narrative Structure

Students with an interest in story-telling who are majoring in programs and disciplines other than Narrative Studies now can explore story structure from the perspective of several disciplines. The interdisciplinary minor in Narrative Structure requires a minimum of 20 units (usually five courses, at least one from each category below).

Students entering in Fall 2023 or later will be required to take ENGL 270, “Studying Narrative,” in addition to the other course requirements listed below.

Complete at least one of the following:

COLT-101gp “Masterpieces and Masterminds: Literature and Thought”

COLT-264gp “Asian Aesthetic and Literary Traditions”

CTCS-190g “Introduction to Cinema”

CTCS-200g “History of the International Cinema I”

CTCS-201 “History of the International Cinema II”

CTIN-190 “Introduction to Interactive Entertainment”

EALC-125g “Introduction to Contemporary East Asian Cinema and Culture”

ENGL-105x “Creative Writing for Non-Majors”

ENGL-262g “English Literature since 1800”

ENGL-263g “American Literature”
ENGL-302 “Writing Narrative”

This workshop course is an introduction to the techniques and practice of writing narrative in fiction and literary non-fiction.
Complete one of the following:

CLAS-325 “Ancient Epic”

COLT-312 “Heroes, Myths and Legends in Literature and the Arts”

COLT-345 “Realist Fiction”

COLT-472 “Los Angeles Crime Fiction”

ENGL-361g “Contemporary Prose” (formerly ENGL-455)

ENGL-375 “Science Fiction”

ENGL-425 “English Literature of the Victorian Age (1832–1890)” (prereq: ENGL-262)

ENGL-426 “Modern English Literature (1890–1945)” (prereq: ENGL-262)

ENGL-440 “American Literature to 1865” (prereq: ENGL-263)

ENGL-441 “American Literature, 1865 to 1920” (prereq: ENGL-263)

ENGL-442 “American Literature, 1920 to the Present” (prereq: ENGL-263)

ENGL-447m “African-American Narrative”

FREN-383 “French Women Writers (taught in French)” (prereq: FREN-330)

FREN-404 “Studies in an Author (taught in French)”

GERM-340 “German Prose Fiction from Goethe to Thomas Mann”

GERM-372 “Literature and Culture in Berlin in the 1920s”

SLL-302g “Modern Russian Literature”

SLL-303 “Contemporary Russian Literature”

SLL-344g “Tolstoy: Writer and Moralist”

SLL-345g “Literature and Philosophy: Dostoevsky”

SLL-348 “The Novels of Vladimir Nabokov”

SPAN-304 “Survey of Fiction (taught in Spanish)”
Complete one of the following:

ANTH-372 “Interpretation of Myth and Narrative”

EALC-332 “Modern Korean Literature in Translation”

EALC-342g “Japanese Literature and Culture”

EALC-354 “Modern Chinese Literature in Translation”

EALC-428 “Nature and the Ecological Imagination in Japanese Literature”

EALC-452 “Chinese Fiction”

EALC-455 “Japanese Fiction”

ENGL-444m “Native American Literature”

ENGL-445m “The Literatures of America: Cross-Cultural Perspectives”
Complete one of the following:

CLAS-337 “Ancient Drama”

CTCS-367 “Global Media”

CTCS-392 “History of the American Film, 1925–1950”

CTCS-393 “Postwar Hollywood, 1946-1962”

CTCS-394 “History of the American Film, 1977–present”

CTCS-407 “African American Cinema”

ENGL-363g “Contemporary Drama” (formerly ENGL-463)

ENGL-371g “Literary Genres and Film” (formerly ENGL-471)

ENGL-381 “Narrative Forms in Literature and Film” (formerly ENGL-481)

ENGL-430 “Shakespeare”

FREN-320 “French Cinema”

GERM-360 “20th Century German Prose: Texts and Films”

SLL-346 “Russian Drama and the Western Tradition”

ITAL-360 “Italian Cinema”

SPAN-302 “Survey of Film (taught in Spanish)”

SPAN-306 “Survey of Drama (taught in Spanish)”

Substitutions

Course offerings change, and many departments offer courses that explore narrative but do not appear on our list in the USC Catalogue. Each semester we include these options to be substituted into your minor requirements.

Please inform your primary assigned advisor when you register for a substitution course, as it must be manually processed. Until you inform the staff advisor, the course will not appear on your STARS Report.

Course Substitutions

Early Modern Studies

Have you ever read Shakespeare, and then wondered what was going on at the same time in France or Italy or Spain or the New World? Have you taken acting courses in Shakespeare, and wondered about Cervantes or Dante? Have you studied the paintings of the Renaissance, and wondered about the history or poetry of the time, or wanted to sing its glorious music? Now you can combine your English major (or minor) with the interdisciplinary minor in Early Modern Studies.

This minor brings together the resources of the Departments of English, History, and Art History to study the literatures and cultures of Europe and the Americas from the late medieval period to 1800. It draws upon courses from the Departments of French and Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, Philosophy, American Studies and Ethnicity, the Thornton School of Music, and the School of Dramatic Arts. The minor focuses on the interplay of literary and historical methodologies while promoting an area study in a wide context. The minor includes a senior seminar based on the resources of the Early Modern Studies Institute (a consortium between USC and the Huntington Library), which enables students to learn about current issues in this cross-disciplinary field and about research techniques employed to deal with those emergent issues.

The interdisciplinary minor in Early Modern Studies requires a minimum of 20 units (usually five courses, at least one from each category below).

Complete at least one of the following:

AHIS-230 “Art and Culture in Early Modern Europe”

ENGL-261g “English Literature to 1800”

HIST-103 “The Emergence of Modern Europe”
Complete one of the following:

ENGL-420 “English Literature of the Middle Ages (1100-1500)” (prereq: ENGL-261)

ENGL-421 “English Literature of the 16th Century” (prereq: ENGL-261)

ENGL-422 “English Literature of the 17th Century” (prereq: ENGL-261)

ENGL-423 “English Literature of the 18th Century” (prereq: ENGL-261)

FREN-401 “Studies in Early Modernity” (prereq: FREN-330)

ITAL-350 “Italian Renaissance Literature in Translation”

SPAN-350 “Cultural Cross-Currents of the Iberian Middle Ages”

SPAN-352 “Transatlantic Golden Age: New Worlds Real & Imagined”
Complete one of the following:

AHIS-304 “Italian Renaissance Art: Old Masters and Old Mistresses”

AHIS-343 “Renaissance Art”

AHIS-344 “Baroque Art”

AMST-446 “Cultural Circuits in the Americas”

HIST-309 “Britain and Ireland, 1100-1500 C.E.”

HIST-312 “The Age of the French Revolution and Napoleon”

HIST-316 “The Renaissance”

HIST-325 “Early Modern Britain”

HIST-331 “The British Empire: 1588-1834”

HIST-410 “The Age of Humanism and Reformation”

PHIL-320 “History of Western Philosophy: Modern Period”
Complete one of the following:

AHIS-430 “Studies in Renaissance Art”

AHIS-433 “Studies in Medieval Art”

AHIS-453 “Studies in Baroque Art”

AMST-373 “History of the Mexican American”

ENGL-341 “Women in English Literature before 1800” (formerly ENGL-469)

ENGL-430 “Shakespeare”

ENGL-444m “Native American Literature”

ENGL-461 “English Drama to 1800” (prereq: ENGL-261)

ENGL-465 “The English Novel to 1800” (prereq: ENGL-261)

HIST-307 “Women in Medieval Europe, c. 1000-1500”

HIST-318 “Early American Indian History”

HIST-349 “Colonial North America 1600-1760”

HIST-351 “The American Revolution”

HIST-370 “Spanish America, 1492-1821”

HIST-470 “The Spanish Inquisition in the Early Modern Hispanic World”

HIST-473 “Colonial Latin America Seminar”

HIST-474 “Colonial Latin America Gender and Women’s History”

ITAL-450 “Dante”

MPEM-450 “Collegium Workshop (Performance Early Music)”

PHIL-421 “Continental Rationalism”

PHIL-422 “British Empiricism”

PHIL-423 “The Critical Philosophy of Kant”

SPAN-455 “Picaresque Itineraries: Empire and Its Discontents”

SPAN-460 “Don Quijote” (prereq: SPAN-301)

THTR-302 “Shakespeare in His World”

THTR-313 “Comedy of Manners”

THTR-354 “Acting Shakespeare” (prereq: THTR-101)
ENGL-497 “Senior Seminar in Early Modern Studies”

This interdisciplinary seminar uses the extensive resources of the Early Modern Studies Institute (EMSI) consortium at USC and at the Huntington Library to encourage engagement in current scholarship. It will be based each year on the public conference and speaker series established in advance by EMSI. Students will research in advance the topic areas announced by the speakers, attend sessions, and afterwards explore issues in seminar. Students will develop a research topic of their own that is timely in terms of this cross-disciplinary study and acquire research skills appropriate to their projects. The seminar will be taught each year by faculty from one of the participating departments.