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English 4420

By Katherine Curiel, a finance senior

As a finance student, enrolling in a literature course during my senior year was a bit unplanned. The last time I studied literature was four years ago, to fulfill an Honors Program literature elective. After reading my fair share of Renaissance novels and Elizabethan plays, I was glad to be done with English classes for good. But as soon as I heard the university’s new president, Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., was teaching a course my final semester at Marquette, I jumped at the opportunity to enroll. And I’m glad I did.

The class is similar to any other except for the unique perks that come with having the university president as the instructor. For one, class is held in the Père Discovery Suite on the famous fifth floor of the Alumni Memorial Union. It’s a place few students ever see. With no more than 15 students seated at a round table, it feels much like a very intimate class. At the start of class, we can help ourselves to tea or coffee, which as I have learned in my years at Marquette should be a must for any Monday evening class. (Evening class professors, I hope you’re taking notes.)

Father Pilarz does a great job of keeping the discussion and conversation going. The already-rich content of the poems and plays is deeply enhanced by the examples and additions Father Pilarz brings to the table. He can talk confidently about the historical context and the social issues the pieces were written to address. As in any other literature course, the reading is a handful. The size of our book confirms that. At 2.5 inches thick, more than 3,000 tissue-thin pages and close to 40-50 lines per page, the English Norton Anthology we carry to class is known to a friend and me as the BFB, or the Big Fat Book. So far, I’ve written more essays for this class than I did during any other semester as a business student.

This is the 11th week of class, so I am sure there are more impressions and surprises to come. The class has really taught me to capture the essence of learning in a completely different way than I am used to. Trust me, the way you go about analyzing a poem is not the way you analyze a financial security. I have come a long way in understanding the different dynamics of what it takes to be a well-rounded individual — not just through this class but also throughout my four years at Marquette.