As an English student at UCC, you’ll develop valuable critical thinking and communication skills through reading, discussing, researching, and writing about literature. While you will study nonfiction works such as letters, journals, autobiographies, and essays, you will mainly focus on creative works such as poetry, short stories, plays, and novels. These works differ from typical readings in other academic disciplines since they are designed to engage the imagination while conveying important insights into human experience.

The great Roman poet Horace described literature as “dulce et utile,” or “sweet and useful.” In other words, the study of literature is practical in that it conveys important, often highly complex ideas about history, culture, society, philosophy, psychology, language … the list goes on. It is also enjoyable, and that is certainly one of the pleasures of majoring in English.