English Literature
The English & ESL Department offers two associate degrees for students who would like to delve into the study of literature. Both associate degrees prepare students for transfer into four-year undergraduate programs.
Note: This webpage focuses on our AA and AA-T degrees. For general information about the English & ESL Department, please visit the English & ESL Department Main Page.
English Literature Programs
English Associate of the Arts (AA)
The AA in English provides an overview of English literature and composition with flexibility for your own interests. This program is ideal for students who love to read. Here’s what you can expect from the AA in English:
- Study literature by looking at specific time periods, authors, and forms.
- Explore diverse genres such as Science Fiction and Fantasy, Literature and the Motion Picture, and Latin American Literature.
- Work with knowledgeable and inspiring instructors.
- Earn an AA that prepares you for transfer to a four-year university.
- Meet like-minded readers and thinkers.
For more information about the AA in English, contact Jeffrey Nishimura, Chairperson of the English & ESL Department.
English Associate of the Arts for Transfer (AA-T)
The AA-T in English offers a guaranteed acceptance to a Cal State school with standing at the Junior level, meaning that you can save thousands of dollars by starting with LACC. While similar to the AA in English, the AA-T specifically aligns coursework to a Cal State school. This program is ideal for those that love English and want to transfer to a Cal State.
For more information about the AA-T in English, contact Jeffrey Nishimura, Chairperson of the English & ESL Department.
English Literature Courses
After passing our required transfer-level English course (English 101, English 101+104, English 101Z, or E.S.L. 110), students can enroll in our critical thinking, literature, and writing courses, most of which are UC- and CSU-transferable (unless otherwise indicated) and electives in our AA, AA-T, and CoA degrees. These three-unit courses also fulfill the IGET-C requirements for other degrees.
Please check the class schedule of each semester to confirm availability. If you have any questions, please contact the Professor Jeffrey Nishimura, the chairperson of the English & ESL Department.
Offered every fall semester
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B), C-ID (ENGL 140 or ENGL-LIT 180)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 101 or ENGLISH 101Z or E.S.L. 110 or by Appropriate Placement
Students recognize and compare key literary works and ideas of the Western world, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia from antiquity to the seventeenth century, and analyze poetic forms and literary themes significant to the cultures in reasoned analysis.
Offered every spring semester
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B), C-ID (ENGL 145 or ENGL LIT 185)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 101 or ENGLISH 101Z or E.S.L. 110 or by Appropriate Placement
The student will recognize and compare readings from different cultures and synthesize literary forms and themes significant to these cultures in reasoned and cogent analyses. This course is a comparative study of selected works, in translation and in English, of literature from around the world, including Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and other areas, from the mid or late seventeenth century to the present.
Offered every fall semester
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B), C-ID (ENGL 160 or ENGL LIT 160)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 102 or by Appropriate Placement
Students read, discuss and analyze major works of English literature from the beginnings to the late eighteenth century, to develop an understanding and appreciation of the poetry, fiction, and drama of these literary periods and to express that appreciation in reasoned analyses.
Offered every spring semester
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B), C-ID (ENGL 165)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 102 or by Appropriate Placement
Students read, discuss, and analyze major works of English literature from the nineteenth century to the present, to develop an understanding and appreciation of the poetry, fiction, and drama of these literary periods and to express that appreciation in reasoned analyses.
Offered every fall semester
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B), -ID (ENGL 130)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 102 or by Appropriate Placement
Students read American writers and analyze themes from colonial times to 1865. Besides reading the literary works of major writers, students become acquainted with writers who suggest the diversity of subject and opinion in American literature.
Offered every spring semester
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B), -ID (ENGL 135)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 102 or by Appropriate Placement
Students read, discuss, and analyze major American literature from the Civil War Period to the present, in order to understand, appreciate, and investigate multicultural influences within national identity.
Offered Fall 2023
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 101 or ENGLISH 101Z or E.S.L. 110 or by Appropriate Placement
Students read, discuss, and analyze selected short stories and novels written in, or translated into, English from a diversity of cultures and countries to increase students’ understanding and appreciation of the art and craft of fiction writing.
Offered Fall 2024
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 101 or ENGLISH 101Z or E.S.L. 110 or by Appropriate Placement
Students study works by selected poets and their historical background for appreciation of the poetic form, including early verses to 20th and 21st century poetry. Students gain a historical sense and literary appreciation shaped by readings which include stylistically and culturally diverse works.
Offered Spring 2025
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 101 or ENGLISH 101Z or E.S.L. 110 or by Appropriate Placement
Students read key literary works and ideas of recent mainstream and ethnically diverse literature to develop understanding and appreciation of contemporary culture, through reasoned analyses of its literature.
Offered Fall 2024
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 101 or ENGLISH 101Z or E.S.L. 110 or by Appropriate Placement
This course provides an introductory study and overview of Shakespeare’s earlier texts, such as sonnets, comedies, histories, and tragedies. The class explores Shakespeare’s life and times, the Renaissance, and its cultural and historical impact on the dramatist, while offering in-depth analyses of his work.
Offered every spring semester
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE C2), C-ID (ENGL 180 or 145), UC (IGETC Area 3B)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 101 or ENGLISH 101Z or E.S.L. 110 or by Appropriate Placement
Students are introduced to the underlying literary, psychological, and cultural structures of literature written for children. The course focuses on the literary and historical analysis of children’s literature with an emphasis on the nature and development of the genre and why this literature takes so many different forms. Some consideration of the various concepts of the child will be included.
Offered Fall 2023
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 101 or ENGLISH 101Z or E.S.L. 110 or by Appropriate Placement
Students become acquainted with the work of women writers, historical and contemporary, who have made important contributions to literature. Writers to be read include Wollstonecraft, Woolf, Chopin, Austen, Cisneros, Butler, Hong-Kingston, and Cather, among others. Students are expected to write critical essays and a research paper that examine the predominate themes in path-breaking literature by and (to a lesser extent) about women, as well as the various archetypes, images, roles, and statuses of women. Special attention is devoted to traditional literary analysis and interpretation of primary texts through the lens of the various schools of literary criticism.
Offered every summer intersession
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 101 or ENGLISH 101Z or E.S.L. 110 or by Appropriate Placement
The student will examine the comparative arts of literature and the motion picture, analyzing the inherent conflicts of translation between two different mediums. Includes readings of literary works, both classic and modern, screenings of film versions based upon these literary sources, discussion, and writing of critical papers. The course explores the variations in mediums and the act of translation across mediums.
Offered Spring 2024
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 101 or ENGLISH 101Z or E.S.L. 110 or by Appropriate Placement
Students study a selection of significant literary works by Latin American authors. Readings will include selected poems, plays, and fiction by writers such as Pablo Neruda, Galeano, and Jorge Luis Borges, and will explore the themes of magical realism, social engagement, ‘la raza cosmica,’ and Utopian yearnings.
Offered Fall 2023
Transfer Credit: CSU (CSUGE Area C2), UC (IGETC Area 3B)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 101 or ENGLISH 101Z or E.S.L. 110 or by Appropriate Placement
Students read and study works of science fiction, with an emphasis on the use of mythology, science fiction by scientists and non-scientists, philosophically oriented science fiction, and science fiction as fantasy and escape literature.
Meet Our Professors
Visit this page to read profiles of our faculty members.
Faculty Spotlight:
Sara Mortimer-Boyd
When I attended LACC in the 90s, I didn't know if I would ever be accepted by a university or earn a degree. As a first-generation college student, I just knew that I needed to learn and grow.
When I was a student here, my friends and I who worked on the Citadel together (I'm still in touch with two of them!) all agreed that LACC had the "coolest" campus and English department out of all the CCs in the city. All of us had started at other community colleges and ended up at LACC, and we loved it.
While standing in Jefferson Hall waiting for our classroom to open, my friends and I talked about it:
The campus was historic, and it reflected the city we lived in. It was a place where people in Los Feliz, East Hollywood, Silverlake, South LA, and Downtown converged. Residents spent time on the grass with their families. It felt like a hub of diversity, a collection of individuals from every walk of life pursuing their dreams.
To us, the English department was a vibrant place with interesting, talented, and knowledgeable professors. The Creative Writing and Literature classes competed with those at the universities we later attended.
LACC was a home that nurtured my mind and gave me the courage to apply to universities. It took me a long time, but I ended up earning a BA in American Literature & Culture from UCLA, and an MA in English Literature from Loyola Marymount University.
I am grateful to be a member of the faculty at this very special school, my first real home. Everything I experienced as a student still exists here, and it is wonderful to be a part of it in the twenty-first century!
Scholarship Opportunities
Each spring, the English & ESL Department awards several scholarships to deserving English and ESL students. The recipients are honored at our annual Awards Ceremony held in May.
Interested in the Honors Program?