Loose Canon

English 5, the freshmen course in literature and composition, is a staple of virtually every student's experience. For many years the curriculum was standardized. "Way back when I first came here, it was Paradise Lost, one of Shakespeare's plays, and the professor's choice of Walden or Heart of Darkness," recalls English department chair William Cook, who arrived at Dartmouth in 1973. Ypday the entire syllabus is left to the individual instructor's discretion. Students may no longer bond across generations over having survived Milton, but variety, says Cook, "makes for a much richer program."

Today's English 5 reading list covers anywhere from three to 11 books, and there is, at least, breadth in the offerings. While some professors hold to a traditional list (the section taught by Miriam Richards includes Othello, Paradise Lost, and Heart of Darkness), others prefer to offer a wide array of texts stretching from the early seventeenth century to the present day. Among the titles members of the class of 2002 will be reading: Catcher in the Rye, Bastard out of Carolina, Hobomok, The Scarlet Letter, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Ceremony, Charlotte Temple, Global Citizen, Beloved, Fire in the Belly, Night, The English Patient, The Brothers Karamazov, Snow Falling on Cedars, and the Bible.