English Courses
EN1013 Literary Heritage I
Credit hours: 3
This course presents English literature through an historical survey of major authors. In this way, students are introduced to a wide variety of literary genres and themes. Instruction in grammar and the composition of formal academic essays is also given.
Prerequisite: Grade 12 English
EN1023 Literary Heritage II
Credit hours: 3
This course continues the historical survey of major authors and continues to provide extensive instruction and exercise in composition and the writing of formal academic essays.
Prerequisite: Grade 12 English
EN2013 Literary Heritage III
Credit hours: 3
A wider continuation of EN1013 and EN1023, this course provides a fuller survey of English literature in its historical context, particularly up to 1700. It also focuses on the critical, composition, and research skills necessary for students to become successful English majors.
EN2023 Literary Heritage IV
Credit hours: 3
A continuation of EN2013, this course includes a selection of classics in all genres from 1700 up to the present day. It assists students in developing the critical, composition, and research skills necessary to become successful English majors.
EN2313 Early Canadian Literature
Credit hours: 3
This course follows the development of Canadian Literature from the nineteenth century to the mid- twentieth century. It includes a wide range of literature including poetry, humour, folklore, novels, and drama.
EN2323 Modern Canadian Literature
Credit hours: 3
A survey of modern and contemporary Canadian literature, this course includes all genres and representative works from various regions of the country from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Through the discussion of selected themes, students will better understand their environment in Canadian society through its reflection in literature.
EN3003 Medieval Literature
Credit hours: 3
This course examines the major medieval epics and romances. Though texts are studied first in translation, the course will also serve to introduce Old English, Middle English, and the specialized poetic languages of courtly romance and medieval theology. The subsequent influence of these major texts on later literary and popular culture will also be considered.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3013 Shakespeare I
Credit hours: 3
This course is an examination of the earlier works of Shakespeare (prior to 1600), including his early tragedies, history plays, and comedies. It integrates his work within the cultural dynamics of the period and emphasizes both the literary and performance aspects of the plays.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3023 Shakespeare II
Credit hours: 3
This course explores the post-1600 plays of Shakespeare, particularly his “problem plays,” later tragedies, and romance plays, emphasizing both their literary and performance aspects.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3033 Shakespeare at Oxford I
Credit hours: 3
A further examination of the earlier works of Shakespeare (prior to 1600), this course is delivered in England in conjunction with the Oxford Study Programme and includes visits to relevant sites in and around Oxford, London, and Stratford, as well as the opportunity to see a number of plays staged by professional theatre companies.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3043 Shakespeare at Oxford II
Credit hours: 3
A further examination of the post-1600 plays of Shakespeare, this course is delivered with the advantages of being in England in conjunction with the Oxford Study Programme.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3053 Narrative Theory
Credit hours: 3
This course provides a theoretical foundation for the major in Communication Arts – Theatre. It considers both historical and contemporary perspectives on both the philosophical themes and practical applications of narrative theory as they relate to the process of generating effective communicating.
Crosslisting: CO3053 Prerequisite: CO1203
EN3133 Renaissance Literature
Credit hours: 3
This course is a study of the major developments in all genres of English Renaissance literature, except Shakespearean drama.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3203 History of Drama
Credit hours: 3
An introduction to the history of drama, this course surveys a wide range of plays, considering both the external relationship of playwright, performers, and audience, and the internal aesthetic techniques found within each play.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3213 History of English Drama I
Credit hours: 3
This course explores drama from its inception in Ancient Greece to the stage in Restoration England, with emphasis on the relationship between drama and its cultural context, and the historical shifts in and practical considerations of theatrical practice. (This course is normally offered in England as part of the Oxford Study Programme.)
Crosslisting: CO3133, HI3273
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3223 History of English Drama II
Credit hours: 3
This course is a continuation of EN3213 and explores drama from the eighteenth century to the present day. (This course is normally offered in England as part of the Oxford Study Programme.)
Crosslisting: CO3143, HI3283
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3303 18th Century Literature
Credit hours: 3
This course is a survey of the major genres of 18th-century literature, including satire, comedy, journalistic and critical prose, comic opera, poetry, evangelical literature, and the beginnings of the novel.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3413 Romantic Literature
Credit hours: 3
This course covers Romantic literature in English with special emphasis upon the major poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, and Keats.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3423 Victorian Literature
Credit hours: 3
This course covers Victorian poetry and prose with special emphasis on the social contexts of the period as they are reflected in literature.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3513, 3523 Directed Studies in English
Credit hours: 3
These courses are available for students when their interests and the professor’s expertise allow for a more in-depth tutorial approach. Students must be highly capable and must have completed upper level prerequisite courses in the area of the directed study.
Prerequisite: Permission of the Registrar
EN3613 Children’s Literature
Credit hours: 3
This course includes classic works of children’s literature (such as Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Alice in Wonderland), Canadian children’s literature (such as Anne of Green Gables), and both Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lewis’s Narnia series. Throughout, attention will be given both to understanding this rich literature and to considering how it might be taught to children.
Crosslisting: ED3613
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3623 Victorian Britain
Credit hours: 3
This course explores British life, culture, and literature in the nineteenth century. Emphasizing both the historical and literary aspects of Victorian Britain, it examines a wide range of topics, from the British Empire, gender, class, science, and religion, to Victorian life-writing and prose.
Crosslisting: HI3133
Prerequisites: HI 1413 (or HI1113) and HI1703 (or HI1713 or HI1723 or HI1123 or HI1423) or six credit hours in History at the 2000 level
EN3713 The Development of the Novel
Credit hours: 3
This course is a study of the novel through its formative years and its classic achievements until it becomes the dominant literary genre of the twentieth century.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3723 Twentieth Century Novel
Credit hours: 3
An examination of the development of the novel in the twentieth century, this course emphasizes both the aesthetic qualities and the social and intellectual contexts of selected novels.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3733 Twentieth Century Poetry
Credit hours: 3
This course examines major works in both modern British and modern American poetry from Yeats and Eliot to contemporary writers. It considers the history of twentieth century poetry with reference to the development of individual writers and in the context of important cultural and aesthetic features of modern times.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3743 Twentieth-Century Postcolonial Literature: Africa and Asia
Credit hours: 3
This course will explore a selection of important twentieth-century postcolonial works from Africa and Asia. Particular emphasis will be paid to their meaning and status as postcolonial texts.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3753 American Literature I
Credit hours: 3
A survey of major American authors from the colonial period to the mid nineteenth century, this course reflects a diversity of perspectives from a number of ethnic, religious, and intellectual contexts. It examines how these works begin to express value and a sense of cultural identity that is distinctively “American.”
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3763 American Literature II
Credit hours: 3
A survey of major American authors from the mid nineteenth century to the present day, this course is concerned with the profound changes in American society as reflected in its literature. Particularly, this course considers the rise of realism, naturalism, modernism, and post-modernism in the context of American culture.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3823 Writing by Women
Credit hours: 3
This course examines writing by women in a variety of genres from the medieval period to the twentieth century to provide an understanding of women’s literary tradition and pertinent practical and theoretical concerns.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3853 Classical Background to English Literature
Credit hours: 3
This course examines the classical writers and texts most influential on the subsequent texts of English literature, exploring their literary forms, religious mythology, and literary or rhetorical theory.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3873 The Bible and English Literature I
Credit hours: 3
This course examines the influence of the Bible on English literature, showing how key biblical characters, themes, and images frequently reappear – either literally or as archetypes – in poetry, drama, and fiction. This course covers much of the Old Testament, from Genesis up to and including the Song of Songs. For English majors, this course may fulfill three credit hours of their Biblical or Christian Studies requirement.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3883 The Bible and English Literature II
Credit hours: 3
This course examines the influence of the Bible on English literature, showing how key biblical characters, themes, and images frequently reappear – either literally or as archetypes – in poetry, drama, and fiction. This course begins with the Hebrew prophets and then covers the entire New Testament, up to and including the Book of Revelation. For English majors, this course may fulfill three credit hours of their Biblical or Christian Studies requirement.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3893 Literary Criticism
Credit hours: 3
This course is designed to consolidate the reader’s interpretive skills through a critical examination of the foundational assumptions or underlying worldview in various schools of contemporary literary theory; within this process, students will compare and contrast diverse understandings of the nature of language, literature, and literary criticism.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3933 Effective Writing
Credit hours: 3
This course explores the techniques necessary to produce good critical thought and focused, effective writing. Students will develop their skills by studying relevant theory, analyzing sample works, and writing original works of their own.
Crosslisting: CO3933
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3973 Creative Writing: Poetry
Credit hours: 3
This course introduces the craft of writing poetry, offering instruction in a wide variety of aesthetic forms and genres in both traditional and free verse poetry.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3983 Creative Writing: Drama
Credit hours: 3
This course introduces the craft of writing drama, offering instruction in the development of dramatic plot, character, imagery, theme, and stagecraft, as well as in more specific dramatic forms such as soliloquies, dialogues, and meta-dramatic techniques.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN3993 Creative Writing: Fiction
Credit hours: 3
This course introduces the craft of writing fiction, offering instruction in the use of prose to develop plot, character, imagery, and theme, with special attention given to the crucial role played by narrative point of view within short stories and novels.
Prerequisites: EN1013, EN1023, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4143 Chaucer
Credit hours: 3
This intensive study of Chaucer’s major work, The Canterbury Tales, examines the text in Middle English, with supporting audio and translation aids, to appreciate the linguistic inventiveness, narrative artistry, and theological wisdom of Chaucer’s work.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4253 Donne and Herbert
Credit hours: 3
An intensive study of the poetry and prose of John Donne and George Herbert, this course emphasizes the poets’ common roots in English religious culture.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4413 Austen
Credit hours: 3
This course is an in-depth exploration of Jane Austen’s major novels as texts that show Austen’s development as a novelist and that engage with and reveal the social and intellectual influences of the period. Critical reception of her work, both now and in her own time, will be considered, along with revisions of her work through video.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Third-year University Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4473 Barrett Browning and C. Rossetti
Credit hours: 3
This course examines two of the major Christian female poets of Victorian England, focusing on the interaction of their art, gender, and religion.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4483 Dickens
Credit hours: 3
This course examines the novels of Charles Dickens in detail to develop students’ appreciation for his achievement as one of the world’s most popular and important writers.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4513, 4523 Advanced Directed Studies in English
Credit hours: 3
These courses are available for students when their interests and the professor’s expertise allow for a more in-depth tutorial approach. Students must be highly capable and must have completed upper level prerequisite courses in the area of the directed study.
Prerequisite: Permission of the Registrar
EN4803 J.R.R. Tolkien
Credit hours: 3
This course provides an in-depth look at the literary achievement of J.R.R. Tolkien, beginning with its mythological foundation in The Silmarillion, and then moving to the third age of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Attention will also be paid to Tolkien’s philosophy of fantasy literature as expressed in his Tree and Leaf.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4813 T. S. Eliot
Credit hours: 3
This course examines the poetry, prose, and plays of T.S. Eliot, read against the cultural backdrop of early twentieth-century Europe. Themes explored include Eliot’s engagement with religious writers from ancient to contemporary contexts, and the impact of his work as poet, essayist, lecturer, and editor upon the twentieth-century.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4823 Milton
Credit hours: 3
This course provides an intensive study of the major poetry and prose of John Milton (1608-74), with a particular emphasis on his theology.
Crosslisting: RS4823
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4833 C.S. Lewis
Credit hours: 3
This course explores the literary and intellectual achievements of C.S. Lewis, noting especially the close relationship between his fiction and nonfiction, and showing how the ideas of the latter are expressed throughout the former’s artistic symbols and stories. In addition to selected Tales of Narnia, and creative dialogues such as The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters, novels such as Perelandra and Till We Have Faces are also studied.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4863 Laurence and Avison
Credit hours: 3
This course is an intensive study of two major Canadian Christian female writers: the novelist Margaret Laurence and the poet Margaret Avison.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4923 20th Century Postcolonial Authors
Credit hours: 3
This course examines some of the major 20th century postcolonial authors from Africa, Asia, and South America.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4933 European World Authors
Credit hours: 3
This course will explore a selection of highly influential European authors, particularly the great Russian novelists, but also selected works by Italian, French, German, and Spanish authors.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4943 Southern U.S. Fiction
Credit hours: 3
This course examines a number of significant Southern U.S. writers who have used their setting to explore the conflict between the curse of history and the possibility of Christian faith.
Prerequisites: EN1013; EN1023; and either EN2013, Upper Level Standing, or Permission of the Registrar
EN4983 Senior Project in Creative Writing
Credit hours: 3
Students who have satisfactorily completed two of the 3000-level creative writing courses can complete their concentration in creative writing by writing an extended example in the genre of their choice.
EN4996 Honours Thesis
Credit hours: 6
Certain exceptional students, upon request prior to the completion of their third year, may be granted permission to write a thesis as an element of their Honours degree requirements.
