
A minor in Great Books requires four Great Books seminars and four Great Books electives. Great Books seminars are discussion-based, and most fulfill the humanities Foundations and writing intensive requirements. Great Books classes feel like eighteenth-century salons, in which the big ideas of human nature and culture are identified, discussed, and debated. Our courses are a good fit for many humanities and science majors, but particularly for English majors. We emphasize close reading, and provide a broad intellectual foundation for the texts you read in English courses.
Why is Great Books such a perfect minor for English majors? Because not all great books are written in English, and not all great books are fiction or poetry. Great books are written in many languages and encompass many overlapping disciplines: Literature, History, Philosophy, Classics, Political Science, Psychology, Economics, Sociology, Anthropology, Biology, Physics, and more. Great Books is the one truly multi and interdisciplinary program on campus, drawing from diverse fields, cultures, faculty, and texts.
A Great Books minor will teach you to think critically, to think on your feet while grounding you in the important ideas that have shaped the world in which we live. It will teach you to think independently and collectively. It will prepare you for an increasingly difficult and complex world.
For more information about minoring in Great Books, visit the program website at http://www.ecu.edu/greatbooks/index.cfm or contact program director Dr. Helena Feder at federh@ecu.edu.