The Background and Goals of the English Department
Common Text Program

Faculty members in the Department of English select a common text that commits itself to the university's convictions, one of which values "intellectual inquiry as a life-long habit, the unfettered and impartial pursuit of truth in all its forms, the integration of knowledge across disciplines, and the imaginative and creative exploration of new ideas." Literature is, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn insisted, the only acceptable substitute for experience we have not lived through ourselves; and as such it has the effect not only of widening our horizons of knowledge and awareness, but also “widening the bonds of sympathy," as William Dean Howells once put it.  The study of literature is, then, a form of the cultivation of the ethical and the moral sensibility, achieved by the imaginative entry into the lives of those other than, and often radically unlike, ourselves.

Furthermore, as Pope John Paul II exhorts in his 1990 Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, "Included among [the Catholic university's] research activities…will be a study of serious contemporary problems in areas such as the dignity of human life, the promotion of justice for all, the quality of personal and family life, the protection of nature, the search for peace and political stability, a more just sharing in the world's resources, and a new economic and political order that will better serve the human community at a national and international level. University research will seek to discover the roots and causes of the serious problems of our time, paying special attention to their ethical and religious dimensions." (§ 32) The Department of English aims to explore these "serious contemporary problems" through its common text program selections.  

Students in all sections of ENGL 111 Critical Reading/Writing I: Fiction & Nonfiction and ENGL 190 Critical Reading/Writing: Major Genres read the common text at the same time, whether enrolled in the fall semester or in the spring semester. In the spring semester, students enrolled in ENGL 112 Critical Reading/Writing II: Drama and Poetry sections read a common selection of either poetry or drama.

The department offers a variety of events, such as lectures, panel discussions, films, and dramatic performances to enhance and stimulate students’ reading of the text. For a list of events occurring this semester, please consult our English Department Common Text Events page.

ENGL 112 Drama and Poetry
Common Text Selections