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
Upcoming Events
News
What is the purpose of a novel? How satisfactory are the meanings that literary critics assign to novels? How has the novel changed? What does the novel share with cinema, and what does that mean for thought and literary criticism in the contemporary period? Iqra S. Cheema talks with Timothy Bewes about these and other questions as addressed in his book Free Indirect.
Orion Magazine
First Passage
In this essay featured in Orion Magazine, Elizabeth Rush travels to Antarctica as she considers motherhood in an age of glacial loss.
SEISMA Magazine
INSIDE THE MIND: PAUL ARMSTRONG
Interview with Paul Armstrong in June 2022 about his work on literature and neuroscience in Seisma, a London-based magazine that focuses on the relations between art and science. The discussion focuses on Paul's books How Literature Plays with the Brain: The Neuroscience of Reading and Art (2013) and Stories and the Brain: The Neuroscience of Narrative (2020), and examines the differences between taxonomic and phenomenological literary theories as well as types of cognition such as perception and selfhood as they relate to reading and literature. How might a neuro-phenomenological approach to literary studies facilitate our understanding of the interrelation between humans and literature?
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.