Courses Offered in 2022-2023

FALL COURSES

ENGL 100 Introduction to Literature and Critical Writing (Full-Year)
This course introduces students to the critical tools and methods of literary study, including close reading and argumentative writing. Students will learn about the history of genres (e.g. poetry, drama, and the novel) and forms of literature (e.g. tragedy, realism). Texts may include the earliest writing in English to more recent works in various media. Credit will be granted for only one of ENGL 100, ENGL 110 or ENGL 111/112. Six credits. This course introduces students to the critical tools and methods of literary study.
ENGL 100:11 - Dr. Kara Kilfoil
ENGL 100:12 - Dr. Earla Wilputte
ENGL 100:13H - Dr. Joseph Khoury

ENGL 111 Literature and Academic Writing I
This course provides students with the key skills needed to succeed at university. You will learn how to write argumentatively; how to build a question or problem from a close-reading of a literary work; how to develop that argument by presenting and analyzing evidence; how to engage in scholarly debate; how to do university-level research. Credit will be granted for only one of ENGL 111, 100 or 110. Three credits.
Sections are themed:
ENGL 111:11 - Hope (Dr. Mathias Nilges)
ENGL 111:12 - The Most Important Course of Your University Career (Dr. Laura Estill)
ENGL 111:13 - Best Laid Plans (Dr. Cory Rushton)
ENGL 111:14 - Labyrinths and Rabbit-Holes (Dr. Earla Wilputte)
ENGL 111:15 - Reading Between the Lines: An Introduction to Genre & Narrative (Dr. Kailin Wright)
ENGL 111:16 - Reading Between the Lines: An Introduction to Genre & Narrative (Dr. Kailin Wright)
ENGL 111:21 - Journey’s End (Dr. Suzanne Stewart)
ENGL 111:22 - Writing Well(ness) (Dr. Kara Kilfoil)
ENGL 111:23 - Journey’s End (Dr. Suzanne Stewart)
ENGL 111:26 - Transformation (Dr. Brandi Estey-Burtt)

ENGL 201 Science Fiction and Fantasy
Dr. Cory Rushton
This course will examine the history of speculative literature, including the relationship between science and narrative, the rise of ethnic science fiction and fantasy, and ways in which the future and the past might be imagined. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 215 Principles and Practices of Literary Criticism
Dr. Jason Potts
This course builds on the skills acquired in first year English. We will broaden our understanding of what literature is and how it works. We will develop our abilities to see how different approaches to texts allow us to understand their formal, gendered, historical, political, psychological, racial and sociological impacts. We will expand our practical skills by: enlarging our critical vocabularies; sharpening our argumentative writing abilities; and increasing our proficiency with sources and databases. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 233 Children's Literature: 1865 to the Present
Dr. Brandi Estey-Burtt
Using the landmark publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a starting point, this course provides a critical survey of children’s literature in Britain, America, and Canada. Authors to be studied may include Carroll, L.M. Montgomery, Maurice Sendak, Roald Dahl, R.L. Stevenson, E.B. White, and various picture books. Credit will be granted for only one of ENGL 233 or ENGL 234. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 261 Hollywood Film
Dr. Michael D'Arcy
This course will examine Hollywood film from its origins to the present, focusing on the period that has come to be known as the era of “classical Hollywood cinema” (1927-1960). The course will provide an introduction to film history and to the analysis of film. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits

ENGL 267 Introductory Creative Writing
Dr. Douglas Smith
Students are introduced to the techniques of writing creatively in the genres of poetry, short stories, drama, etc. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits

ENGL 275 Shakespeare and Sex: Love and Lust (P)
Dr. Joseph Khoury
The Victorians censored Shakespeare. A rediscovery of his sexual references tells us not only about Elizabethan England’s sexual mores, but also about its diversity of thought around sexuality. We discover that the Renaissance was much more open and accepting of sexuality than our age. The course will discuss the relationship between love and sex, the nature of desire, the perception of sexuality, the question of consent, perceptions of gender, and perceptions of sexual diversity. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 276 Shakespeare on War and Peace (P)
Dr. Joseph Khoury
Shakespeare was a serious political thinker. We will study his political thought through a close reading of five plays. We will discuss themes such as political ambition; the nature of the political regime and its influence on the public; monarchy and republicanism; the relationship between politics and violence; the causes of political success and decline; the relationship between philosophy and politics and between politics and religion; and the relationship between private and public virtues. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 279 What's Canadian About Canadian Literature? (PCC)
Dr. Kailin Wright
Margaret Atwood asks “What’s Canadian about Canadian literature, and why should we be bothered?” This course tackles this question by examining a variety of forms, such as Canadian fiction, film, art, poetry, music, and drama from the 20th and 21st centuries. Stories define what it means to live in Canada or identify as Canadian. This class concentrates on how the stories we tell shape our own sense of who we are and where we belong. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 314 Contemporary Literary Theory
Dr. Michael D'Arcy
This course introduces students to current directions and interests in literary and cultural criticism, including eco-criticism, theories of film and visual culture, gender and sexuality, psychology, and digital culture. Besides reading relevant theoretical texts, we’ll examine works of contemporary television and film, literary texts, and contemporary music. Credit will be granted for only one of ENGL 314 or ENGL 445. Prerequisite: 9 credits of ENGL; ENGL 215 is recommended. Three credits.

ENGL 322 Intermediate Creative Writing
Dr. Douglas Smith
Students will be expected to choose one genre through which they will continue to explore and develop the basic elements of composition learned in ENGL 231. Prerequisite: ENGL 100, 110 or equivalent; three credits creative writing. Three credits.

ENGL 324 Medieval Manuscripts: from Book of Kells to Book of Hours
Dr. Ranke de Vries
Medieval manuscripts often took years of effort to complete. How were these works of art and scholarship created, and by whom? This course focuses on how English medieval manuscripts were put together, and on how to transcribe manuscript texts in various languages spoken on the British Isles and Ireland, including Gaelic, Old English, French, Welsh, and Latin (no knowledge of these languages required).
Cross-listed as CELT 323. Three credits.

ENGL 391 Selected Topics
Dr. Mathias Nilges
The topic for 2022-2023 is Inconceivable. The inconceivable, a range of fascinating contemporary novels propose, can be understood as a strategically-policed boundary that constrains our imagination and that limits social and environmental progress. In this class, we will examine how literature today grapples with the problem of the inconceivable and with its own relation to and importance for our imagination. Prerequisite: 9 credits ENGL. Three credits.

ENGL 400 Honours Thesis
Honours students write a thesis under the supervision of a faculty thesis director. Students must meet the thesis director in March of the junior year to prepare a topic. Honours students must register for the thesis as a six-credit course in their senior year. The thesis must be submitted no later than March 31 of the senior year. See chapter 4 in the Academic Calendar. Six credits.

ENGL 491 Selected Topics I
Dr. Mathias Nilges
The topic for this 2022-2023 Senior Seminar is Inconceivable. The inconceivable, a range of fascinating contemporary novels propose, can be understood as a strategically-policed boundary that constrains our imagination and that limits social and environmental progress. In this class, we will examine how literature today grapples with the problem of the inconceivable and with its own relation to and importance for our imagination. Prerequisites: third-year standing and 15 credits ENGL. Three credits.

ENGL 497 Advanced Major Thesis
Advanced major students write a thesis as part of the senior seminar. See chapter 4 in the Academic Calendar. No credit.

ENGL 499 Directed Study
In consultation with the department and with approval of the chair, students may undertake a directed study program in an approved area of interest, which is not available through other course offerings. See section 3.5 in the Academic Calendar. Three or six credits.

WINTER COURSES

ENGL 205 Shakespeare Today (P)
Dr. Laura Estill
Who was Othello’s first wife? What would happen if Shakespeare’s characters teamed up to murder their creator? In this course, students read a Shakespeare play paired with one or more adaptations, which could include films, graphic novels, plays, poems, and prose texts. Students will interrogate ideas of high- and low-brow culture and literary canon and learn to think critically about literature, adaptation, popularity. What does Shakespeare mean to us today? Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 223 Creative Writing: Nature, Ecology, Climate Change
Dr. Douglas Smith
This course will require students to write fiction, poetry, and personal essays on the topics of Nature, ecology, conservation, and climate change. Students will be required to conduct research in these areas and apply it to their personal views and convictions. Students will conduct individual and collective in-class editing of their submitted written work on a weekly basis. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 233 Children's Literature: 1865 to the Present
Dr. Kailin Wright ENGL 233 - Children's Literature: 1865 to the Present
Using the landmark publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a starting point, this course provides a critical survey of children’s literature in Britain, America, and Canada. Authors to be studied may include Carroll, L.M. Montgomery, Maurice Sendak, Roald Dahl, R.L. Stevenson, E.B. White, and various picture books. Credit will be granted for only one of ENGL 233 or ENGL 234. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 236 Children’s Film and Television
Dr. Brandi Estey-Burtt
Children’s film and television are highly lucrative and competitive fields. This course will survey landmarks in children’s media across the world, looking at questions of adaptation, suitability, merchandising-driven story, and franchising. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 271 Gothic Fiction: 18th- and 19th-Century Novels (P)
Dr. Earla Wilputte
An examination of the Gothic novel and the cultural forces that produced it. The course will explore supernatural tales from the classical and medieval periods which acted as forerunners to the genre. Authors may include: Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew “Monk” Lewis, and Jane Austen; students may also read Frankenstein and Dracula. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 278 Short Turns: The Short Story in Canada (PCC)
Dr. Kara Kilfoil
The short story is the literary form that has arguably won Canadian Literature the highest sustained international recognition both critically and popularly. This course will engage in in-depth analysis of profound expressions of the construction of the self (or selves) in the modern world. Various voices and narrative modes in dialogue with such questions will be encountered, arising in works from writers of diverse backgrounds and social strata. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 290 The Canterbury Tales (P)
Dr. Cory Rushton
This course will introduce Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, but it does more than that. The generic and formal diversity of Chaucer’s collection allows for discussion of medieval literary form and content, while also introducing significant aspects of medieval culture (the problem of “courtly love,” medical theory and political life). Further, the course allows discussion of manuscript tradition and theories of influence. Credit will be granted for only one of ENGL 290 or ENGL 390. Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or 111/112 or equivalent. Three credits.

ENGL 308 Milton and His Time (P)
Dr. Joseph Khoury
This course will provide an intensive study of Milton’s life and major poems, especially Paradise Lost, and some of his polemical prose. The course will also focus on the historical and political contexts of this revolutionary age, and Milton’s contributions to the Republicanism of the era. Credit will be granted for only one of ENGL 308 or ENGL 312. Prerequisite: 9 credits ENGL. Three credits.

ENGL 327 Medieval Ireland: Celtic Kings, Heroes and Monsters
Dr. Ranke de Vries
From hot-headed heroes to terrifying monsters and death-tales, this course will examine topics and texts from medieval Irish literary tradition in detail. Credit will be granted for only one of CELT 327 and CELT 221. Cross-listed as ENGL 327. Three credits.

ENGL 353 Tolkien and the Inklings
Dr. Cory Rushton
“Versus.” This course will put “traditional” fantasy authors such as Tolkien and Lewis up against those authors who question or write against them, such as Philip Pullman, Madeline L’Engle, and George R. R. Martin. Prerequisite: 9 credits English. Three credits.

ENGL 356 18th-Century Novel and Poetry (P)
Dr. Earla Wilputte
This course will explore, through a variety of lenses, the novel Tristram Shandy, a fictional autobiography that ends four years before the man writing it is born. Bawdy, digressive, philosophical, provocative, sentimental and silly, Tristram Shandy explores how we attempt to connect with one another when words just aren’t enough. Can writing, reading, and conversation save us from solitude and despair? Is laughter the best medicine? Prerequisite: 9 credits ENGL. Three credits.

ENGL 365 Canadian Fiction (PCC)
Dr. Kailin Wright
Students will read novels and short stories, in English, to develop a sense of the
thematic patterns, style, and changing narrative strategies in Canadian fiction,
especially in works since 1930. Credit will be granted for only one of ENGL 365 and 367. Prerequisite: 9 credits ENGL. Three credits.

ENGL 397 Selected Topics in Literature I (PCC)
Dr. Maureen Moynagh
The topic for 2022-2023 is Global Intimacies and the 'World Novel'. How do novels help us think about the kinds of forces that bring people from across the globe into new kinds of proximity, even intimacy? Does it make sense to speak of a “world” novel? What would set such a novel apart from any other novel that circulates in a global literary market? Can novels figure a common life? Prerequisite: 9 credits ENGL. Three credits.

Notes: Normally students enrolling in an honours seminar will have third-year standing and have taken a minimum of 15 credits in English. Priority will be given to honours and advanced major students in English.

ENGL 492 Selected Topics in Literature II (PCC)
Dr. Maureen Moynagh
The topic for this 2022-2023 Senior Seminar is Global Intimacies and the 'World Novel'. How do novels help us think about the kinds of forces that bring people from across the globe into new kinds of proximity, even intimacy? Does it make sense to speak of a “world” novel? What would set such a novel apart from any other novel that circulates in a global literary market? Can novels figure a common life? Prerequisites: third-year standing and 15 credits English. Three credits.