Literary Studies in English includes all of the department's graduate courses in periods, genres, and authors in British and American literature, our offerings in literature in English from other areas of the world, and our courses in language, criticism, and theory. This wide range reflects the broadening of the discipline that has taken place in the last twenty years and the diversity of interests and scholarly commitments of both our faculty and our students.

Because of the way in which the study of literature has evolved, it is easier to describe some of its principal foci than it is to identify its boundaries. One central concern is with the reading and interpreting of texts. We usually think of literature as a verbal medium, though it overlaps with such forms as dance and film, and as primarily written, though it includes oral literature as well. Since its object is verbal, the study of literature includes a concern with language, both formally and historically, and with the relationship between language and human social relationships and institutions. The notion of a literary text presumes an aesthetic, a tradition of form, and particular skills of reading, all of which are culturally based, and which are themselves the proper objects of our examination. Literary texts also shape and are shaped by the contexts in which they arise, and can thus be examined with relation to religion and philosophy, the sciences, the plastic, visual, and musical arts, and political issues, social structures, gender roles, and other ideological formations.

Each of these ways of viewing literature poses its own challenges, and no single reading strategy will be equally appropriate for all of the texts that claim our attention as "literary." The courses that we offer engage with fundamental issues of literary study while acknowledging the diversity of literary texts. The author, period, and genre courses that make up the most traditional part of our discipline remain the site for some of its most exciting developments. Without neglecting the foundation provided by earlier critics and scholars, we also address the ways in which recent theoretical insights have changed how we read both well-studied and less familiar texts. In addition, we offer a variety of courses that address formal, political, linguistic and historical issues of particular relevance to our location in Hawai'i and the Pacific, and also take up more general debates in Asian American and post-colonial studies. Our courses in language, film, performance, and oral literature consider the methodologies of other disciplines that border on and contribute to literary study.

With such a variety of texts and methods, no one can expect to become an expert on everything that is included within "literary studies" today. The department thus encourages diversity and seeks to preserve an atmosphere that is congenial for investigation and for debate. Both our course offerings and the concentration requirements are designed so that M.A. students will become familiar with a broader range of literary texts, will deepen their understanding of the texts that interest them the most, and will expand their familiarity with the scholarly tools and research methods of our discipline so that they may actively participate in the field's on-going critical and theoretical debates.