The most rewarding classes are those that offer a subject to be passionate about. As seniors prepare to graduate, a senior seminar class is required. For English majors, senior seminar requires the continuous study and analyzing of a text throughout the semester. English majors read anywhere from 5 to 30 texts a semester! This includes novels, short stories, poems, essays and articles. So when it comes to choosing a text for senior seminar, what we’re saying is, you got options. You can review an old syllabus or two to refresh yourself on novels you were passionate about. If you haven’t taken the course yet, here’s five novels that were assigned reads, and are guaranteed to give you content to write about.
The Things They Carried
Tim O’Brien writes a raw, captivating novel that details the horrors of war through numerous war stories. O’Brien invites readers to question morality and what it means to be human in a war, a place with no morals.
Symptomatic
Danzy Senna writes a quiet, coming of age novel published in 2001. It portrays the conflicting identity of a mixed race person in racially tense America. The narrator navigates through opposition and stereotyping from both the White and the Black community. She struggles to find her identity while others quickly prescribe it for her.
America is in the Heart
Carlos Bulosan writes a semi autobiography published in 1941. It details the complicated struggles he and his family face as Filipino and Filipino-Americans. Carlos portrays the aching desire to have a home and a homeland. This novel shows the harsh realities of poverty, immigration, racism and more. It is bound to make you pick it up, put it down, analyze and pick it back up.
Madame Butterfly
John Luther Long writes an epic unrequited love story between a young Japanese girl Cio Cio San and a U.S. Navy officer, Pinkerton. Their love story portrays the western fetishism of Japanese women and other Asian cultures. Their love harbors tragic consequences where masculinity, femininity, lust and truth are all questioned.
The Round House
Louise Erdrich writes a captivating coming of age novel about a Native American teen on the hunt for his mothers brutal attacker. When authorities fail to investigate her attack, Joe along with his friends Cappy, Angus and Zack, set out to find the attacker. This novel wrestles with the implications of poverty, racism, masculinity and more.
A Common Place 