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 other information about the English & ESL Department, please visit the English & ESL Department Main Page.

 

Ralph Ellison on a postage stamp
Artist rendition of Mary Shelley's face covered with text from Frankenstein
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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.

English Department Professors at Commencement Ceremony

Meet Our Professors

English Faculty & Staff Page

 

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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. 

English & ESL Department Scholarships 

Department Chair at Awards Ceremony

 

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Graduating students throwing caps into the air

Interested in the Honors Program?

Ralph Bunche Scholars Program

 

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English & ESL Department

Office Hours and Location

Mondays to Thursdays: 8:00AM - 4:00PM
Fridays to Sundays: Closed

We are located on the 3rd Floor of Jefferson Hall in room JH 301.

Contact

Jeffrey M. Nishimura, Department Chair
Email: nishimjm@lacitycollege.edu
Phone: (323) 953-4000 ext. 2706

The Chair usually attends meetings in the afternoon, so please call before you come.

Jasminee Haywood-Daley, Secretary
Email: haywooj@lacitycollege.edu
Phone: (323) 953-4000 ext. 2700