From Struggling Writer to English Major
How Matt Wylie Discovered His Major
Written by Katie Kortepeter
Sophomore Matt Wylie can often be found on the quad reading Faulkner or David Foster Wallace. He arrived from sunny California “firmly undecided” about what to study, and because Hillsdale does not require a major declaration right off the bat, he was able to explore before picking his path. Like the rest of Hillsdale, Matt took his two Great Books core English classes, and like so many Hillsdale students, he struggled to write good papers at first.
“Failing to produce a clear reading of a text on Great Books made me really want to see what it was like to know what was going on in a book and be able to express it,” Matt says. By the next semester, he’d gotten the hang of literary analysis. In Great Books II, he finally felt like his writing expressed what he wanted it to.
“I realized that any individual book is an incredible place where understandings of the human person and the world are at play, and the way they unfold is worth investigating.” Matt’s Great Books classes were eye-opening because they taught him how coming to understand a text helps understand reality. It is this search for understanding that led him to declare an English major.
Matt believes the quality of English professors at Hillsdale makes the college a unique place to study literature.
“My English professors have delivered a substantive, thoughtful lecture every class, mixed with delightful anecdotes and doses of their charming and humorous personalities,” Matt says. “They also show an incredible care and devotion for their students.” He noted that Hillsdale professors focus on closely analyzing a text and letting it speak for itself rather than embracing modern interpretive trends like so many English departments today.
Matt’s journey at Hillsdale has also been formed by the visiting writers program.
“Even as a freshman, I spent time with visiting writers at off-campus houses where they removed whatever facade comes with the public persona of being an author. They became people I was having conversations with, who happened to have penetrating insights into the human condition.” After meeting and conversing with an author face-to-face, Matt can reread their books and discover that authors are simply humans trying to make sense of actuality.
“It keeps a study of literature grounded in reality,” he says.
He didn’t come to Hillsdale with a specific major in mind, but Matt’s epiphanies in Great Books class and interactions with professors and authors ultimately made his choice clear.
“Getting to know a character or appreciating a description of a landscape is analogous to making a friend or being struck by the beauty of a place,” he says. “Studying English teaches you how to be better at knowing the world.”
Hailing from Indianapolis, Katie Kortepeter, ’17, is an English and French major. She frequently swing dances, speed reads Tolstoy, and practices her Chinese as a bubble tea waitress.