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The Cornell Literatures in English Department retains the pluralistic ideals of the university’s founders and continues to respond to and embody a constantly evolving discipline. Within the department, ongoing debates about the role of critical theory or cultural studies, the status of popular culture, the relevance of film studies and hip hop, or the definition of the words “English” and “literature” themselves have led to new understandings of the discipline, as well as a range of textual productivity, from producing critical editions to writing poetry.
Outside the department, the growth of interdisciplinary work has led to a range of connections across the humanities at Cornell, from comparative literature to medieval studies, from Asian-American Studies to feminist, gender and sexuality studies, with English faculty maintaining affiliations in all of these disciplines.
Along with teaching more than a third of the Freshman Writing Seminars offered by Cornell’s Knight Institute of Writing in the Disciplines, the Literatures in English Department’s nourishing of this wide range of scholarly and creative writing has maintained the department’s central importance in the humanities at Cornell and world-wide.
In “Critical Hits,” a new essay anthology co-edited by J. Robert Lennon, writers explore their own experiences with video games, and how those simulated worlds connect to real life.
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From Oprah and the Obamas to lesser-known heroes, Joseph Holland ’78, MA ’79 finds words to live by.
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Over two decades since Ammons’s passing, an open mic tradition is being revived thanks to a gift from his student Beverly Tanenhaus ’70.
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Humanities scholars have an important role to play in the current political struggle to stave off environmental collapse, Caroline Levine argues in her new book.
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Poet and memoirist Garrett Hongo will read from his work on October 26 in the Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium.
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The performance will feature singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré, who wrote the music for the original production.
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Held Oct. 20-21, “Lest Silence Be Destructive" will feature readings, discussions and the first public performance of a musical album based on Viramontes' work.
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Tung-Hui Hu will talk on “The Grid vs. the Set: Early Attempts at Classifying Data” October 18.
Read more"If you read quickly to get through a poem to what it means, you have missed the body of the poem."
— M.H. Abrams, Class of 1916 Professor Emeritus