Cultivating Understanding

Novelist Tim O'Brien discussing The Things They Carried during a visit to VU.

The programs of the Department of English are grounded in the belief that the study of language and literature helps people to understand the relation of art to life and helps them as well to understand the world in which they live.

The Department cultivates this understanding by offering courses in writing, in language, and in classical and contemporary works of literature. We believe that a balanced education in humane letters begins with the study of the principles of writing and achieves some degree of fullness through study of the literary traditions of English in Great Britain, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. The principles that courses in English teach and the skills that students develop from class lectures, discussions, research, and writing help to create independent readers capable of sharing the pleasures of literature for the rest of their lives. We believe that the best teaching ends by making the teacher unnecessary.