Narrative Studies (BA)

Complete this course in your first few semesters at USC:

• ENGL-270g “Studying Narrative”

Choose one course from this list based on your interests.

• COLT-101gp “Masterpieces and Masterminds: Literature and Thought”
• COLT-373 “Literature and Film”
• CTCS-190g “Introduction to Cinema”
• CTCS-191 “Introduction to Television and Video”
• CTIN-190 “Introduction to Interactive Entertainment”
• ENGL-261g “English Literature to 1800”
• ENGL-262g “English Literature since 1800”
• ENGL-263g “American Literature”
• ENGL-280g “Introduction to Narrative Medicine”
• ENGL-371g “Literary Genres and Film”
• ENGL-381 “Narrative Forms in Literature and Film”
• THTR-125 “Text Studies for Production”
• THTR-403 “The Performing Arts”

Choose one course from this list based on your interests.

• CTWR-409 “Fundamentals of Screenwriting: Character, Conflict and Story”
• ENGL-105x “Creative Writing for Non-Majors”
• ENGL-302 “Writing Narrative”
• ENGL-303 “Introduction to Fiction Writing”
• ENGL-305 “Introduction to Creative Nonfiction”
• ENGL-402 “Narrative Composition”
• ENGL-404 “The Writer in the Community”
• THTR-365 “Playwriting I”
• THTR-366 “Playwriting II”

Choose one course from this list based on your interests.

• AMST-200g “Introduction to American Studies and Ethnicity”
• AMST-274w “Exploring Ethnicity through Film”
• AMST-285g “African American Popular Culture”
• AMST-325gw “The Middle East in Hollywood”
• AMST-333 “Religion in the Borderlands”
• AMST-385 “African American Culture and Society”
• AMST-448 “Chicano and Latino Literature”
• ANTH-263g “Exploring Culture through Film”
• ANTH-333g “Forms of Folklore”
• COLT-250g “Cultures of Latin America”
• COLT-365 “Literature and Popular Culture”
• CTCS-192g “Race, Class, and Gender in American Film”
• CTCS-392 “History of American Cinema to 1960”
• CTCS-393 “Topics in Historical Cinema and Media”
• CTCS-394 “History of American Cinema since 1960”
• CTCS-407 “African American Cinema”
• CTCS-414 “Latina/o Screen Cultures”
• DANC-312gw “African American Dance”
• ENGL-290 “Cultural Studies: Theories and Methods”
• ENGL-381 “Narrative Forms in Literature and Film”
• ENGL-392 “Visual and Popular Culture”
• ENGL-447 “African-American Narrative”
• HIST-380 “American Popular Culture”
• MUSC-200gw “The Broadway Musical: Reflections of American Diversity”
• MUSC-320gw “Hip-hop Music and Culture”
• MUSC-460 “Film Music: History and Function from 1930 to the Present”
• THTR-395 “Drama as Human Relations”
• THTR-405 “Performing Identities”

Choose one course from this list based on your interests.

• AMST-325gw “The Middle East in Hollywood”
• ANTH-263g “Exploring Culture through Film”
• ANTH-365 “Life History in Anthropological Perspective”
• ANTH-372 “Interpretation of Myth and Narrative”
• COLT-264gp “Asian Aesthetic and Literary Traditions”
• COLT-303 “Globalization: Culture, Change, Resistance”
• COLT-375 “Latin American Cultural and Literary Theory”
• COLT-382gw “Zen and Daoism in Asian Literature”
• CTCS-200g “History of the International Cinema I”
• CTCS-201 “History of the International Cinema II”
• EALC-125g “Introduction to Contemporary East Asian Cinema and Culture”
• EALC-332 “Modern Korean Literature in Translation”
• EALC-333g “Introduction to Korean Film”
• EALC-342gp “Japanese Literature and Culture”
• EALC-358g “Transnational Chinese Literature and Culture”
• EALC-380 “Cultural Topics in East Asian Literature”
• EALC-385 “Myth, Folklore, and Fantasy in Japanese Literature and Film”
• EALC-452 “Chinese Fiction”
• EALC-455 “Japanese Fiction”
• ENGL-333g “Literature of Gandhi’s India”
• ENGL-374 “Literature, Nationality and Otherness”
• ENGL-444 “Native American Literature”
• ENGL-445 “The Literatures of America: Cross-Cultural Perspectives”
• ENGL-450 “Caribbean Literature”
• FREN-320g “The French New Wave and its Legacy”
• FREN-375gw “Global Narratives of Illness and Disability”
• GERM-360g “20th Century German Prose: Texts and Films”
• ITAL-360g “Italian Cinema”
• MDES-343g “Modern Arab Culture and Literature”
• SPAN-301 “Introduction to Literature and Film”
• SPAN-302 “Screen Cultures: From Film to the Internet”
• SPAN-380g “Literature of Mexico”

Choose one course from this list based on your interests.

• AMST-301gp “America, the Frontier, and the New West”
• AMST-378 “Introduction to Asian American History”
• CLAS-325 “Ancient Epic”
• CLAS-337gp “Ancient Drama”
• CLAS-380 “Approaches to Myth”
• COLT-312 “Heroes, Myths and Legends in Literature and the Arts”
• COLT-324 “Women in Medieval and Renaissance Europe”
• COLT-374g “Women Writers in Europe and America”
• COLT-475 “Politics and the Novel”
• COLT-476 “Narrative and the Law”
• ENGL-351 “Periods and Genres in American Literature”
• ENGL-352g “Bookpacking”
• ENGL-364 “The Modern Novel”
• ENGL-372 “Literature and Related Arts”
• ENGL-422 “English Literature of the 17th Century”
• ENGL-423 “English Literature of the 18th Century (1660–1780)”
• ENGL-424 “English Literature of the Romantic Age (1780–1832)”
• ENGL-425 “English Literature of the Victorian Age (1832–1890)”
• ENGL-426 “Modern English Literature (1890–1945)”
• ENGL-430 “Shakespeare”
• ENGL-440 “American Literature to 1865”
• ENGL-441 “American Literature, 1865 to 1920”
• ENGL-461 “English Drama to 1800”
• ENGL-465 “The English Novel to 1800”
• ENGL-466 “The 19th Century English Novel”
• GERM-340 “German Prose Fiction from Goethe to Thomas Mann”
• GERM-372g “Literature and Culture in Berlin in the 1920s”
• ITAL-350g “Gender and Sexuality in Renaissance Italy”
• ITAL-381 “Storytelling in the Italian Tradition”
• SLL-302g “Modern Russian Literature”
• SLL-344g “Tolstoy: Writer and Moralist”
• SLL-345g “Literature and Philosophy: Dostoevsky”
• SPAN-304 “The Art of Fiction”
• SPAN-372 “Modern and Contemporary Latin American Fiction”
• THTR-301 “Greek and Roman Theatre”
• THTR-302 “Shakespeare in His World”

Choose one course from this list based on your interests.

• AMST-448 “Chicano and Latino Literature”
• AMST-449 “Asian American Literature”
• COLT-345 “Realist Fiction”
• COLT-348 “Modernist Fiction”
• COLT-420 “The Fantastic”
• COLT-472 “Los Angeles Crime Fiction”
• COLT-475 “Politics and the Novel”
• EALC-354g “Modern Chinese Literature in Translation”
• ENGL-361g “Contemporary Prose”
• ENGL-363g “Contemporary Drama”
• ENGL-375 “Science Fiction”
• ENGL-376g “Comics and Graphic Novels”
• ENGL-442 “American Literature, 1920 to the Present”
• ENGL-447 “African-American Narrative”
• FREN-347g “Race, Gender and Power in Francophone Literature”
• SLL-303 “Contemporary Russian Literature”
• SLL-348g “The Novels of Vladimir Nabokov”
• SPAN-372 “Modern and Contemporary Latin American Fiction”
• THTR-314 “Advanced Topics in Modern Drama”
• THTR-401 “Contemporary Theatre in a Changing World”

Choose two upper-division (300-level or above) electives from the categories above, based on your interests, from different departments.

Complete this course during the fall or spring of your senior year. Most or all of your major requirements must be completed before enrolling in ENGL-492.

• ENGL-492 “Narrative Studies Capstone Seminar”

A Narrative Studies degree can help prepare you for a career in entertainment, journalism, business, technology, law, medicine, public policy, or many other fields. Because of this, many of our students combine Narrative Studies with other majors for a double major. It is also possible to combine a major in Narrative Studies with a major in English.

Narrative Studies is an unusual major, which makes it perfect for study abroad. Students participating in overseas studies through USC Dornsife travel all over the world. You can choose courses from many countries, programs, and languages.

In recent semesters, students in Narrative Studies have taken classes like “The Limits of Access to Truth: Realism and Fiction in Literature and Cinema in Latin America” at the University of San Andrés in Argentina and “The Making of Modern Fantasy” at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

As part of your application to study abroad, you will select courses to be pre-approved by your academic advisor to meet your major requirements.

Visit Narrative Studies Overseas to explore your opportunities abroad.

Our students complete internships and volunteerships tutoring students at neighborhood elementary schools, working at marketing firms, assisting in faculty research, and working at film and television production companies. These opportunities complement the intensive study and professionalization on campus in classes and co-curricular activities, and they guide students toward the diverse set of careers open to those with liberal arts educations.

Students can find these opportunities through the USC Career Center at careers.usc.edu, and students majoring in Narrative Studies are eligible to apply for the USC Dornsife Gateway Internship Program.

Students majoring in Narrative Studies are eligible to apply to our progressive degree program in Literary Editing and Publishing and earn both their bachelor’s and master’s degrees in just five years.

Literary Editing and Publishing (MA)