English and Cultural Studies

"Cultural Studies offers study in the nature and criticism of culture and the arts—chiefly literature, film, visual art and popular culture. This interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree program fosters inquiry into the social and political conditions in which thought and expression take place. Forms of cultural expression such as films, literature and paintings are thus analysed both as texts and as practices in context." (from the Cultural Studies homepage)                               

English and Cultural Studies are closely related disciplines. Several of our courses focus on or incorporate theories and approaches associated with cultural studies, and some of our faculty publish their research on topics such as film adaptations, fandom, television, and other media. 

Several English courses can be counted towards a major or a minor in Cultural Studies.  A full list of eligible English courses is on the Cultural Studies website.  In 2010-2011, the English Department is offering the following courses that can be counted as credits in the Cultural Studies program:

ENGL 2263: Detective Fiction
Fall term; half unit
Monday and Wednesday 12:30-1:45
Instructor: John Morgenstern

This course is a study of detective fiction as it has developed from its genteel English and hard-boiled American origins into a form able to embrace serious analysis, feminist perspectives, and post-modernist poetics.

In English 3354, our emphasis will be on an examination of constructions and representations of race in the Canadian literary, theoretical and cultural context.  Our focus will be on twentieth-century writing (fiction, poetry, drama and theory), but we will also be talking about representative works from earlier periods.  We will have a strong and sustained emphasis on literary theory which will enable us to explore the points at which notions of nation, culture, race, and narrative forms intersect in the literary works discussed.  This is not a survey course, and the working assumption for the class is that you will have a strong background in literary study.  It is recommended that students begin reading the longest work on the course, John Richardson's Wacousta, before the term begins.  Grades will depend on oral presentations, active, engaged class discussions, and on written assignments which address both the theoretical and the fictional works.

ENGL 4401:  Special Topic: Tolkien and Myth-makingFall-Winter terms; full unitMonday 6:00 - 8:30 p.m.Instructor: Anna Smol

J.R.R. Tolkien began developing his personal mythology after his experiences in the trenches during the Battle of the Somme, and he continued to expand and rewrite these poems and stories throughout his life.  His early aspiration was to create "a body of more or less connected legend," and although later in life he did not clain to have succeeded, he did leave extensive writings that constitute a Middle-earth legendarium comprised of stories variously classified as myth, heroic romance, or "fairy-story," to use one of his terms for fantasy.  This mythology is the expression of a twentieth-century writer who is responding to some of the crucial events of his time, such as the two world wars, but who is doing so through the lens of medieval languages and literatures. 

In our full-year study of Tolkien's major works, we will be examining how Tolkien worked as a myth-maker and how writers and other artists coming after him have extended his mythology by participating in the world that Tolkien created.  In the first term, the focus will be on understanding the medieval literature in which Tolkien was immersed and on examining how he remade such sources.  We will study theories about folklore and mythology that Tolkien inherited from the nineteenth century, which he revised and redefined in his fiction and in his medieval scholarship; we will also look at his work in the light of twentieth-century theories about myth.  These topics will continue into the second term, but by that time we will also focus on what some cultural studies critics have called a contemporary form of myth-making in the numerous adaptations of Tolkien's stories in professional and fan genres.  An exploration of fandom and the transformative works of fans (and professionals) -- in fan fiction, art, video, drama, and film -- will be the main theoretical focus of the second term.

For English studentes who need to fulfill historical requirements, this course counts as a half unit of credit in medieval literature and a half unit of credit in modern literature.  Further details about the course, as they become available, can be found on the course website:  http://faculty.msvu.ca/asmol/4401.htm.