Fall 2026 – Course Descriptions
ENGL 204: Business and Technical Writing
See the Calendar description of this course.
Multiple Sections
ENGL 208: Introduction to Public Speaking
See the Calendar description of this course.
Multiple Sections
ENGL 221: North American Indigenous Literatures (online)
Professor Sally Carpentier
This course provides an introduction to the ways in which a particular text can be read critically. The course is both theoretical and practical. Students will learn the critical vocabulary associated with a particular theoretical approach and then apply it in their readings of one text. No prior knowledge of theory is necessary; however, by the time the course is over, students will be equipped to read a variety of texts in multiple ways, regardless of the discipline (anthropology, criminology, philosophy, psychology) to which their career paths will lead. The course will be structured in such a way that students will have the opportunity to share their research with their classmates and to pursue areas dictated by their own interests or chosen career fields. This course is also a requirement for those planning on pursuing a major or a minor in English and would be of benefit for students intending on pursuing advanced studies in any of the disciplines.
ENGL 232: Children's Literature
Professor Nicole Klan
English 232: Secret Escapes and Heroic Journeys: An Introduction to Children’s Literature
This course will explore contemporary children’s literature with some attention to early folk tales and religious texts. We’ll read picture books and novels to understand how authors and illustrators construct imaginary worlds for children or represent past ones. How do adult assumptions about children influence the stories they tell? What do their stories reveal about social concerns, cultural values, and collective fantasies? Possible texts may include The Secret Garden (Burnett), The Wild Robot (Brown), Wolf Wilder (Rundell), Ebb and Flow (Smith), White Bird (Palacio), and The Girl and the Wolf (Vermette).
ENGL 233: Literature and Film
Professor Janet Grafton
This course looks at film adaptations of works about writers and the writing process, using the medium of film to explore a range of literary genres, from nonfiction and investigative journalism to poetry and novels. Feature films that centre on writers and writing will be used to explore the relationship between the storytelling mediums, paying attention to how writers and the writing process are characterized, romanticized, and criticized, as well as the decisions involved in the adaptation process.
Films and their corresponding literary works could include Spike Jonze’s Adaptation (based on writer Charlie Kaufman’s struggles to adapt Susan Orlean’s “The Orchid Thief), Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (based on Louisa May Alcott’s novel, Little Women), and Julian Schnabel’s Before Night Falls (based on Reinaldo Arenas’ autobiography).
ENGL 274: Literary Traditions
Professor Neil Surkan
ENGL 274 F26: Ruin Ruminations
The Old English word “dustsceawung” translates, roughly, to “contemplation of the fact that dust used to be other things — the walls of a city, the chief of the guards, a book, a great tree.” Simply put, the destination of all things is dust, and remembering that we will someday be dust can be a means of finding peace. This course will examine the literary tradition of ruminating on ruins, from the earliest English poems all the way up to our present moment, in order to find both consolation and inspiration in the aftermath. Across the centuries, abandoned, eroding, wrecked, and deserted places — both metaphorical and literal — have fascinated poets, novelists, playwrights, and essayists alike. Whether nostalgically recollecting the “good old days,” lamenting the current state of disrepair, or enthusiastically looking ahead to whatever fantastical future will rise from the ashes, the speakers, narrators, characters, and essayists in this course begin at the end as they survey the damage — facing off with fate and faith alike. We presently find ourselves in an increasingly tenuous (and dire) relationship with the environment, which is forcing us to reckon with a future where previous ways of life will no longer be sustainable: how might reading a historical array of ruin ruminations heighten our sense of accountability, encourage us to scrutinize our complicities, and steady our resolve? Might we refresh our convictions among the wastes?
Spring 2026 – Course Descriptions
ENGL 204: Business and Technical Writing
See the Calendar description of this course.
Multiple Sections
ENGL 208: Introduction to Public Speaking
See the Calendar description of this course.
Multiple Sections
ENGL 220: Canadian Literature in Context
Professor Toni Smith
A topical introduction to Canadian literature in a broader cultural context. The course explores distinctive elements of Canadian literature as well as characteristics shared with other cultures, historical and modern. ENGL 220 was formerly called ENGL 205 and ENGL 206; credit will not be granted for both courses.
ENGL 230: Literature and Pop Culture
Professor Daniel Burgoyne
This course explores intersections between literature and popular culture beginning with early 20th-century pulp fiction and then following its influence on examples of genre fiction up to the present day. With a focus on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ serialized novel, A Princess of Mars, as well as a sampling of stories published in pulp magazines in the 1920s through 40s, we’ll consider how pop culture encouraged formulaic narratives and stereotypes while broadening reading audiences and forging distinct genres, such as westerns, romances, science fiction, and detective fiction. Our later exploration will include examples of Romance, YA Fiction, and Comics. We’ll make use of different critical approaches to pop culture to think about how the popularization of stories shapes our sense of literature and the world.
ENGL 240: Ways of Reading
Professor Clay Armstrong
A topical examination of different theoretical approaches to analyzing literature, this course familiarizes students with major critical terms and their practical application in the understanding of literature. Learning outcomes emphasize your abilities with close analysis of the primary texts, academic research on different schools of criticism, and the total writing process. In particular, students will consider the origins, practice, limitations, and influence of New Criticism: a way of reading literature that shaped the university Literature classroom for much of the twentieth century. Rather than seeing poetry and fiction through the lens of cultural history or the intent of the author, New Criticism focuses concretely on “close reading” of the text, or the thing itself. We will explore key essays associated with the development of New Criticism and a range of literatures that draw attention to conspicuous play between form and content.
ENGL 273: Ancients and Moderns
Professor Anna Atkinson
One of the best-beloved of English children’s literary series, C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia owes a lot of its structure and symbolism to a much older text: the Bible itself. In this course, we’ll read through the Chronicles, while reading parallel biblical texts, and consider the re-creation and interpretation of the biblical original that Lewis undertakes. We’ll celebrate the literary achievements of both texts, but we’ll ask some necessary questions as well. The assumption of white supremacy will come up; so will issues of class, age, and gender, in both the Bible itself and Lewis’s recreation. No biblical knowledge is necessary! Only a willingness to approach both Narnia and the Bible as texts worthy of—and needing!—a critical eye as they are read.
FILM 220: Special Topics in Film Studies
Professor Paul Watkins
FILM 220 Screening Truth to Power examines cinema as a force for social change. Roger Ebert famously called cinema an “empathy machine,” and film has been embedded in social and political conversations since its inception. In this course, we will examine films that challenge patriarchy and the male gaze (including Barbie and Portrait of a Lady on Fire), films that focus on race and class (such as Do the Right Thing, Parasite, and No Other Choice), films that use body horror to explore social panic, particularly around AIDS (The Thing, The Fly), and finally films dealing with revolution and social justice (The Battle of Algiers, Beans, No Other Land). I look forward to an exciting semester with you! Viewer discretion is advised.