Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics with a Concentration in Foundations of Education
 

The Literature Concentration The Literature Concentration is one of four concentrations open to PPE students. It is an intensive program of five courses designed for students who seek to gain a broad familiarity with arts and letters. This concentration equips students with a firsthand knowledge of great works of literature and allows those works, as much as possible, to speak for themselves. From the beginning of recorded human history, literature has been the primary means by which people reflected on the world’s perplexities—its richness, disasters, comedies, and defeats. Religious aspiration, profound questioning, lighthearted merriment, and sober reconsideration comprise its texture, as much as artistic ambition and the thrill of hearing something elusive made beautifully clear. Literature is thought and language in pursuit of powerful intuitions about how the world is or how it might be. Even when it seems to tell a plain tale, it draws on the mysterious power of metaphor, which allows us to hear one thing and see another. Partly because all truly educated people have some command of literature, and because all truly effective leaders understand the power of language to shape worlds and worldviews, the Literature Concentration is an important option for PPE students. Each course in the Literature Concentration is also available to students as an elective.
Course		Year	Term	Title	Credits
YEAR 1					CREDITS
POL	110	1	Fall	Introduction to Politics*	3
ENG	110	1	Fall	College Writing I	3
HIS	111	1	Fall	History of the West I	3
REL	112	1	Fall	Introduction to Old Testament	3
URB	110	1	Fall	Introduction to the City*	3
				Fall Total	15
ECO	110	1	Spring	Introduction to Economics*	3
ENG	120	1	Spring	College Writing II   (ENG 110)	3
HIS	112	1	Spring	History of the West II	3
REL	111	1	Spring	Introduction to New Testament Literature	3
PHL	110	1	Spring	Logic*	3
				Spring Total	15
				YEAR 1 CREDITS	30
YEAR 2					CREDITS
POL	215	2	Fall	American Political Thought and Practice I   (POL 110)	3
ECO	210	2	Fall	Macroeconomics*   (ECO 110)	3
REL	212	2	Fall	Foundations of Judeo-Christian Thought*   (REL 111)	3
ENG	253	2	Fall	Persuasive Writing*   (ENG 120)	3
LIT	251	2	Fall	Classical Literature	3
				Fall Total	15
POL	216	2	Spring	American Political Thought and Practice II   (POL 110)	3
ECO	211	2	Spring	Microeconomic*   (ECO 110)	3
MAT	274	2	Spring	Statistics	3
ELEC		2	Spring	Open Elective	3
LIT	252	2	Spring	Shakespeare	3
				Spring Total	15
				YEAR 2 CREDITS	30
YEAR 3					CREDITS
PHL	313	3	Fall	Classical and Medieval Philosophy   (POL 110)	3
POL	315	3	Fall	American Political Thought and Practice III   (POL 110)	3
ECO	311	3	Fall	History of Economic Thought	3
POL	351	3	Fall	Constitutional Law   (POL 216)	3
LIT	351	3	Fall	English and American Poetry	3
				Fall Total	15
PHL	314	3	Spring	Modern Philosophy   (PHL 313)	3
SCI	312	3	Spring	Scientific Reasoning   (PHL 110)	3
POL	312	3	Spring	Enlightenment and Liberal Democracy   (PHL 313, HIS 112)	3
POL	452	3	Spring	Political Economy   (ECO 211)	3
LIT	352	3	Spring	American Literature	3
				Spring Total	15
				YEAR 3 CREDITS	30
YEAR 4					CREDITS
PHL	361	4	Fall	Ethics	3
PHL ELEC		4	Fall	PHL 412: Theories of Human Nature or PHL 351: Culture and Aesthetics	3
POL ELEC		4	Fall	POL 352: Public Policy, POL 451: Civil Rights, POL 452: Statesmanship, or POL 454: American Foreign Policy	3
LIT	353	4	Fall	British and European Novels	3
ELEC		4	Fall	PPE Elective of Choice	3
				Fall Total	15
PHL	312	4	Spring	Philosophical Apologetics   (PHL 110, REL 212)	3
ECO ELEC		4	Spring	ECO 453: The Global Economy or ECO 451: Public Choice	3
PPE	451	4	Spring	Senior Thesis or PPE Elective of choice	3
ELEC		4	Spring	Open Elective	3
ELEC		4	Spring	Open Elective	3
				Spring Total	15
				YEAR 4 CREDITS	30
				TOTAL FOR DEGREE	120

The Literature Concentration begins in the fall of the sophomore year with Classical Literature, which surveys the literary heritage of classical Greece and Rome. In the spring semester, Literature students take Shakespeare, which covers the full range of Shakespeare’s writing, including his sonnets, narrative poems, and plays—comedies, histories, and tragedies. In the fall of their junior year, students take English and American Poetry, an immersion in great poems but also an exploration of how poetry can summon, define, and persuade people about how to live, how to think, and what to aspire for. In the spring of their junior year, students take American Literature, which focuses mainly on the American novel and its double legacy of narrative realism and idealistic yearning. The final course in the Literature Concentration is British and European Novels in the senior year, which gathers together great authors such as Miguel de Cervantes, George Eliot, Victor Hugo, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who have quickened the moral sense as well as the imaginations of generations of readers.

The PPE Literature Concentration differs from many college literature programs in significant ways. First, it is focused almost entirely on reading original works by great writers. We are not using literature to advance any political or ideological point. Second, the Literature Concentration focuses on literature, not on contemporary theories about literature or the nature of language. Third, the Literature Concentration emphasizes deep familiarity with literary works. Students are required, for example, to memorize and recite some of the poems they study, and to enact scenes from Shakespeare’s plays.

The Literature Concentration offers students a way to approach the imaginative horizons surrounding the key social institutions that are the central focus of the PPE program.

* These courses are offered in both the Fall and the Spring, students may take them in either semester.
** Courses in bold (POL 110 and ENG 120) must be taken at King's. No transfer credit accepted.

While the Bachelor of Arts program in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics with a Concentration in Literature may be started at the beginning of any semester, students should be aware that not all courses will be offered each semester.

While completing this course of study, the following requirements must be met:

1. No fewer than 60 of the semester hours of course work must be earned at The King’s College, and these 60 hours of credit must include at least 48 semester hours which apply to this degree.
2. The successful candidate for this degree must have a cumulative GPA of 2.00 in all work completed at The King’s College. In addition, all students must maintain at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA in the courses that are a part of the Common Core.
3. A student must obtain a grade of C or higher in both ENG 110, College Writing I, and ENG 120, College Writing II, within his first three semesters of attendance. Failure to do so will result in dismissal from the College.
4. The successful candidate must satisfactorily complete all the requirements for Interregnum.
5. The successful candidate for the BA degree must obtain approval for graduation from the Office of the Registrar and upon vote of the faculty.