IVC Literature Program
Literature courses at IVC are designed to prepare students for further
study at four-year institutions, to teach techniques of careful and informed
reading, and to enhance students' understanding and therefore enjoyment
of literature. These courses introduce the major genres and traditions
of literary expression across a broad range of cultures, historical periods
and geographical areas. At the same time, the program explores the way
that literature has been approached within the professional field of literary
study. Courses cover historical kinds, forms, and traditions of literature,
exploring the way that literature can reflect, reproduce and create culture,
history, and what we take to be reality by shaping the way that we individually
and collectively perceive both other people and cultures, as well as our
own social and natural environment.
Professional students of literature recognize that literature is far
more than just a form of entertainment, or a recreation that allows us
momentary escape from the "real" world, but indeed is an essential element
of the real world-part even of reality itself. We learn to see our world
through stories told to us as children, and often each person constructs
her own life as a narratives in which she plays the part of hero. By offering
us the opportunity to tease out a few threads of the culture's texture,
we can come to understand the weave of the whole.
In addition to professional interest, the IVC faculty has been drawn
to the study of literature out of love for its enduring beauty and variety,
and for the unique perspective it offers on how we as individuals relate
to each other, to our cultures, and to our world, and we hope to share
that love with students as they explore their own literary interests.
We hope that the study of literature and of the different kinds of literary
analysis will enhance the enjoyment and appreciation of literature that
brings students to our program in the first place. Our courses exist to
improve and refine reading practice, and thereby to help students engage
more completely in the literary experience, while at the same time understanding
the role of that experience in our everyday lives.
The Associate Degree Major with a Literature Emphasis
Students majoring in English at the lower-division level concentrate
on learning how to interpret literature critically and imaginatively,
and how to write prose that is clear, exact, and expressive. Thus the
major is appropriate for students who desire or require the ability to
be closely attentive to language and to its ramifications. Students anticipating
careers in law, education, communications, governmental affairs, and business
may find the English major especially helpful. The wide versatility of
the English major makes it generally appropriate for students whose career
inclinations may be uncertain or indefinite, since the abilities one masters
as an English major may be applied to a wide range of contexts and circumstances
The major is also designed for transfer students intending upper-division
study in literature, criticism, or related fields.