Undergraduate English Courses 2023-24

This course examines works in a variety of literary periods and genres (that may include fiction, drama, poetry, graphic novels and others) on the topic of love in any of its forms. The course will introduce students to the basic practices of literary study at the university level while exploring various ways that this fundamental set of human emotions has been represented in literature.

In addition to the lecture, students are required to attend a tutorial. All tutorials begin in Week 2.

Introduces students to poetry and poetics from a wide range of styles and periods, and includes an ongoing discussion about poetry's influence on culture. Ideally, students learn to read formal, stylistic, and rhetorical features in the poems, and to consider the ways that poetry challenges our perspectives on language and delves into enduring questions about how meaning is made. Forms and genres may include the sonnet, lyric, villanelle, elegy, ode, spoken word, ballad, dramatic monologue, prose poem, or free verse. This course encourages students to come to a greater appreciation of the pleasures and rewards of reading poetry.

A study of the interconnections between gender and genre in selected plays drawn from all stages of Shakespeare's development as a dramatist.

Exclusions: EN232, EN351

Classic readings in science fiction, from the Victorian era to the New Wave movement. Authors may include H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Aldous Huxley, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick.

Introduces students to some of the significant literary works and the principal historical periods of British Literature, dating from the eighth century up to the Romantic Period (circa 1800). Students learn to situate literary works within their historical contexts and to trace patterns of influence and ideas across various periods. The course also introduces students to some of the important forms of literature, e.g., epic, lyric, tragedy, satire. Possible authors for study include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Pope, Defoe, and Austen.

This course is recommended for English Majors.

Exclusions: EN122, EN244

A study of literary texts, from various periods, that are engaged with the complex relationship between humans, other animals and their environments.

A study of sports as portrayed in contemporary literature across a range of literary genres, with attention to both competitive and leisure pursuits. Themes to be examined may include: the body as a site of exhilaration, effort, and pain; spectacle and spectatorship; heroes and anti-heroes; amateurism versus professionalism; sport’s relationship to fantasy, ritual and myth; gender, race, and performance as they bear on sports; and connections among sport, nation, and other forms of group identity. Authors whose works may be studied include Angie Abdou, Randall Maggs, Marco Ramirez, and Claudia Rankine.

Exclusion: EN209t

A critical examination of the fiction, poetry, and essays of some of the major representatives of pre-20th century American literature. Central political and social trends of the period are explored through literary representations that may include Native American culture, slavery, abolition, puritanism, democracy, subjectivity, and the constitution of national identity.

Exclusion: EN215

This course focuses on the creative processes involved in the making of literature, especially fiction and poetry. Though there are options for creative work in some assignments, this is not a course in creative writing; the readings and assignments in this course will focus on reading and analysing the creative work of others, and discussing the dynamics of revision, development, and collaboration in literary work. We will be concerned with all stages of the creative process, from inspiration through composition, editing, and publishing.

Exclusion: EN209n

This course will introduce students to the practice of creative writing and literary analysis in the genres of short fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. The course will include discussion of how to read like a writer and will explore literary genres and creative methods with opportunities for writing practice in shorter and longer assignments designed to broaden students’ skills and abilities. The dual guiding principles of the course will be examination of how language works in written forms and compositional experimentation with a variety of writing styles. 

NOTE: This is a required course in the Creative Writing Minor (for non-English majors) and the Creative Writing Concentration (for English majors).

A survey of the literature of the early Romantic Period (c. 1780-1810) that foregrounds the influence of revolution and counter-revolution. The course explores works by writers in a variety of genres and styles: sonnets, odes, ballads, lyric poetry, epics, novels, polemic non-fiction, literary criticism and theory, letters, and journals, etc.

Exclusion: EN294

A study of late 20th and early 21st century Anglophone literatures that depict encounters and relationships between people of various cultures, races, religious beliefs, and traditions. Issues to be discussed may include representations of global refugee crises, food production and consumption, and transnational adoption.

Exclusion: EN309m

A critical and cultural survey of the flourishing of the novel as a literary form during the Romantic and Victorian periods. Six representative works are usually selected for study, with emphasis on form, narrative technique and social context (including class and gender). Authors often chosen include Jane Austen, Walter Scott, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Wilkie Collins, W.M. Thackeray, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy and Oscar Wilde.

This course will provide students with a solid foundation in narrative and adaptation theory, as well as an introduction to gaming theory.

Exclusion: EN309k

A study of selected comic and romance episodes from The Canterbury Tales, typically including The General Prologue, The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Tale, The Reeve's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Tale and other related tales.        

Exclusion: EN352

Life writing narrates the story of one’s own or another’s life. In this course, we examine the use and relationship of digital media (digital images, videos, social media, internet), improved communication (email, social media, web 2.0), and increased mobility (tourism, migration) to life writing. We explore the ways identities are fashioned, mediated, remediated, and performed in various forms of 21^st century life writing, including the memoir, graphic narrative, film, autobiographical novel, video and on-line blogs.

Texts to be studied include: Trevor Noah’s Born of a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood; Samra Habib’s We Have Always Been Here; and others. Please read one or two of these books over the summer.

This course provides students with an in-depth analysis of the bildungsroman or coming of age novel. We begin with a brief history of the genre as it takes its form in the later half of the 18th century in response to new notions of "development." We will turn to different definitions of development (personal, historical, economical) as we attempt to understand how the genre charts individual formation alongside, and in response to, notions of social and national progress. While we are interested in the genre as a literary form, we will pay particular attention to the way gender has been represented within its confines. What are the markers of maturation for females in canonical coming-of-age novels, and how are these markers changed and reprioritized as the genre is taken up in various contexts?

This course examines works in a variety of literary periods and genres (fiction, plays, poetry, graphic novels and others) on the topic of catastrophe, with the intent of introducing students to literature addressing catastrophe in the forms of conflict, apocalypse, dystopia, disaster, and others.

In addition to the lecture, students are required to attend a tutorial. All tutorials begin in Week 2.

This course examines works in a variety of literary periods and genres (fiction, plays, poetry, graphic novels and others) on the topics of crime and criminality, with the intent of introducing students to literature addressing themes of surveillance, law-breaking, justice, suspense, villainy, violence, espionage, true crime, civil disobedience, and/or imprisonment.

In addition to the lecture, students are required to attend a tutorial. All tutorials begin in Week 2.

This course will explore the figure of the vampire in five novels.  Discussion will focus on analysis of vampire fiction in the cultural context of each of the texts, including but not restricted to representations of sexuality, contagion, the foreign Other, post-apocalyptic society, same-sex desire, and race.  Some discussion of horror writing as a literary genre will also be provided.  Works to be studied are: Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897); Richard Matheson, I Am Legend (1954); Stephen King, Salem's Lot (1975); Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire (1976); Octavia Butler, Fledgling (2005).

An introduction to brief and medium-length poems from the Middle Ages that deal in matters of the supernatural, myths, and fairy worlds. The course typically includes study of Middle English lyrics, ballads, fables, romances, debates, mystical poems, and a dream-vision by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Exclusion: EN209f

A study of contemporary Canadian and American literature by and about ethnic/racial minority groups or migrant communities, in light of official policies and representations of multiculturalism and diversity. Focusing primarily on Caribbean, Latin American and Middle Eastern perspectives, the course will explore a range of genres (e.g., fiction, poetry, drama, memoir and essay) and topics pertaining to migration, citizenship, ethnicity and culture.

Contemporary readings in science fiction, with specific attention to the central figure of the cyborg and distinctions between the labels “cyberpunk” and “speculative fiction.” Authors may include William Gibson, Orson Scott Card, David Mitchell, and Frederik Pohl.

Exclusion: EN209d

 

A survey of the literature of the later Romantic Period (c.1810-1840) that foregrounds the influence of, and resistance to, dystopian visions of the world. The course explores works by writers in a variety of genres and styles, including sonnets, odes, verse dramas, lyric poetry, manifestos, novels, confessional non-fiction, literary criticism and theory, letters, and journals.

Exclusion: EN294

A study of traditional and current issues in the theory of criticism and literary history. The theoretical approaches to be examined normally include historicism, formalism, structuralism, psychoanalytical criticism, feminism, deconstruction, post-colonialism, Marxism and cultural studies.

Honours English Majors are required to take either this course or EN240 to fulfill their Theory requirement.

Exclusion: EN291

A study of prose, poetry, drama, and fiction-theory addressing matters of gender and sexuality, ethnicity, race and class in Canada, past and present.

Exclusion: EN309r

The 18th century is the first era in which the novel becomes both a popular and professional practice. Many authors capitalized on commercially viable topics, such as sex, scandal, crime, and shopping. Many also wrestled with philosophical and political themes, and an apparent war of extremes – sense and sensibility, science and religion, order and revolution. The novel took many forms in this period, including "true history," memoir, travel fiction, adventure and survival, comic romance, and the gothic.

Creative nonfiction takes the real world as its subject, and like all writing, the composition of creative nonfiction in its various subgenres is a dedicated literary practice. Creative nonfiction is as old as writing itself but subgenres like memoir, narrative journalism, personal essay, and documentary poetry have recently become more popular than ever. This course will instruct students in the reading and writing of creative nonfiction by addressing form, voice, language, style, and structure, along with a study of the debates surrounding the challenges of working with nonfiction material. Assignments will offer students a variety of opportunities to develop their creative nonfiction styles via examples and exercises and will consider the cultural uses of writing creative non-fiction.

NOTE: Students who have passed EN272: Introduction to Creative Writing are allowed into the course without portfolio; contact Joanne Buchan to confirm your credit in that course, and for assistance in registering.

For students who have not taken and passed EN272, entrance to EN369 is by application only. These students must submit a portfolio of 7-9 pages of original creative non-fiction (i.e., personal essays, memoirs, literary journalism) written by the applicant to Prof. Mariam Pirbhai. Please do not send scholarly essays.   

Portfolios can be submitted from May 1 to Dec. 20, 2023 and will be evaluated in order of receipt until the course fills. Upon approval of the portfolio, successful applicants will be given overrides in order to register. For any further information or queries, please contact Prof. Pirbhai directly.

 

This course is designed to teach the fundamentals of writing poetry to students who demonstrate an active interest in the genre. The core texts will introduce students to the practice of writing poetry, including various traditions and techniques as they have been developed or adapted in contemporary Canadian poetry. Students should arrive in the class prepared to write often, submit original poetry for feedback frequently (from both peers and the instructor) and demonstrate an appetite for revision. A wide variety of poetic styles and methodologies will be discussed and assigned as research work, and students will be encouraged to develop their poetic abilities through a series of assignments and exercises.

NOTE: Students who have passed EN272: Introduction to Creative Writing are allowed into the course without portfolio; contact Joanne Buchan to confirm your credit in that course, and for assistance in registering.

For students who have not taken and passed EN272, entrance to EN370 is by application only. These students must submit a portfolio to Prof. Tanis MacDonald. The portfolio is a sample of creative writing (in this case, poetry) written by the applicant, and must consist of one sample of 6-8 pages. 

Portfolios can be submitted from May 1 to Dec. 20, 2023 and will be evaluated in order of receipt until the course fills. Upon approval of the portfolio, successful applicants will be given overrides in order to register. For any further information or queries, please contact Prof. MacDonald directly.

A study of the representations of terrorism in selected works of literature (fiction, drama, poetry), scholarship and theory. This course will examine the intellectual, historical and cultural contexts governing works in (primarily in English) engaged with the notions of "terrorism" and the "terrorist" in a variety of periods, and may include novels such as Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, Don DeLillo's Mao II; plays such as Eugene O'Neil's The Hairy Ape, Kia Kothron's, 7/11; poems such as Amiri Baraka's "Somebody Blew Up America," Solmaz Sharif's Look; memoirs such as Alexander Berkman's Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist; and theoretical texts such as Giorgio Agamben's State of Exception, Jean Baudrillard's The Spirit of Terrorism.

This course will examine recent novels, memoirs, comics, poetry, plays, songs, and screenwriting/filmmaking by Indigenous artists in North America. Students will primarily study works that have emerged within the last decade as part of the Indigenous Literary Renaissance’s second wave. We will consider not only how Indigenous artists draw upon oral tradition, but also how they reinvent genres like speculative fiction, horror, or detective fiction to tell Indigenous stories. The course will include Indigenous authors and artists from both Canada and the United States to give students a broader understanding of contemporary Indigenous artistic production across Turtle Island. It will also provide an opportunity for comparative study of the development of Indigenous Literary Studies in two distinct but overlapping settler-colonial contexts. Authors to be studied may include Louise Erdrich, Layli Long Soldier, Stephen Graham Jones, Waubgeshig Rice, Joshua Whitehead, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and Jordan Abel.