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Welcome to the
UHCL Literature Webpage!

Suggestions or contributions? Please email Craig White at whitec@uhcl.edu.

This webpage provides a forum of information and expression concerning our Literature program and its gifted, hard-working, unpredictable students.

Click on the tabs above to find the information you seek, or email the Literature program contact person, Professor Gretchen Mieszkowski, at mieszkowski@uhcl.edu.

Professor Gretchen Mieszkowski's book, Medieval Go-Betweens and Chaucer's Pandarus, was published last month by Palgrave Press: http://www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/product.aspx?isbn=140396341X

Associate Professor Craig White's Student Companion to James Fenimore Cooper will be published this month by Greenway: http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/GR3413.aspx

Lit Wit Jeopardy a great success . . . ,

Approximately 200 current and former students and their families witnessed a victory by the aggressive Skyhawks over the passive-aggressive Bluebirds.

Thanks to Sigma Tau Delta, the Literature Honor Society, & its president Linsey Allnatt for hosting!

(Saturday, 4 November 2006)

The purpose of the UHCL Literature program . . .

Speak, muse!

Literature is the verbal expression of our identities, dreams, desires, and more. Reading literature we learn about other people, other times and other places; we learn ourselves.

The Literature program at UHCL serves purposes identical or similar to English departments at most universities. Why are we called Literature instead of English? UHCL, formed in the 1970s, has never had language departments; therefore, no need to distinguish "English" from "Spanish" or "French." Also, Literature indicated range to study texts beyond the English tradition. Practically, however, to meet student career interests  the program has increasingly conformed to state requirements for an English department and major. However, the Literature name lasts, partly to retain some of the program's original adventurousness. "Literature" soon becomes second nature for our students, who study styles of writing and meanings of texts far more than the workings of a particular language.

A B.A. or M.A. student of Literature at UHCL finds opportunities to read canonical authors of the English, American, and Continental traditions, as well as writings by members of emergent and overlooked groups in women's literature, ethnic and minority literatures, and postcolonial literature.

Required introductory courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels (LITR 4130: Literary Studies & LITR 5132: Literary Theory) help students learn standard literary conventions and postmodern forms that generate textual and cultural meaning. Reading texts as expressions of cultures leads to appreciation of literature's significance in developing our lives, motivations, and goals.

Faculty offer daytime and evening upper-level undergraduate seminars in literature, creative writing, cultural studies, film studies, technical writing, business writing, and composition.

The evening MA program offers a traditional Literature degree, pedagogical and professional tracks, a concentration in American Studies, and the option of a creative thesis or project in place of the standard critical thesis or project.

The University Writing Center (located in SSB 2105) is directed by Professor Chloe Diepenbrock. The Center's well-trained staff, specializing in a variety of disciplines, is available to provide peer-counseling for writers at any stage in the process. The Writing Center assists all members of the UHCL community in mastering all stages of the writing process. Through the Center for On-line Tutoring, the Writing Center assists students who cannot conveniently come to campus for an appointment.

To contact the Writing Center, see links elsewhere on this page or click here: UHCL Writing Center.

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