Department of English
English at Brown
Fostering an open understanding of literatures and cultures in English
English at Brown
Fostering an open understanding of literatures and cultures in English
News
Interview with Nonfiction Program Senior Lecturer Kate Schapira about her recent book, Lessons from the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth: How to Live with Care and Purpose in an Endangered World.
Interview | Heroines and Historical Fiction with Ph.D. Student Katherine J. Chen
First-year graduate student Katherine J. Chen, winner of the 2023 American Library in Paris Book Award, returns to the Library to discuss her fictionalized account of the life of Joan of Arc with Patricia Dailey (Columbia University).
Misrecognitions: Plotting Capital in the Victorian Novel
Misrecognitions mounts a vigorous defense of the labyrinthine plotting of Victorian novels, notorious for their implausible concluding revelations and coincidences. Critics have long decried Victorian recognition scenes—the reunions and retroactive discoveries of identity that too conveniently bring the story to a close—as regrettable contrivances. Ben Parker counters this view by showing how these recognition scenes offer a critique of the social and economic misrecognitions at work in nineteenth-century capitalism.
Academic Programs
Undergraduate Studies
We study how literature works, how we understand it, and how we write about it. We examine closely matters of language, form, genre, and critical method.
Nonfiction Writing Program
The Nonfiction Writing Program, unique to Brown University in its scope, teaches the writing of nonfiction in its predominant modes: the academic essay, creative nonfiction, and journalism.
Graduate Studies
Brown's doctoral program in English offers professional training in literary criticism, critical theory, intellectual history, and all aspects of research and pedagogy in the humanities.
For First Year Students
There are several ways to start your journey with English at Brown.
The Department of English offers several pathways for incoming students to deepen and strengthen their ability to think and write about literature and culture.
The Nonfiction Writing Program brings together three forms of writing: academic essay, journalism, and creative nonfiction.