"Lothlorien" (detail) by Karen Livingstone, submitted as part of an ENGL 4401 creative project / critical analysis
Courses at the 3000 or 4000 level require successful completion of at least one unit of literature at the 1000 level. At least one unit at the 2000 level is recommended.
ENGL 3300: Eighteenth-Century Literature
Fall - Winter terms; full unit
Tuesday and Thursday 10:30-11:45
Instructor: John Morgenstern
This course is a study of the literature from 1660 to 1800, from Dryden to Blake. The course will begin with a consideration of the neoclassicism of the early part of this period and trace the subsequent developments that lead to the rise of the novel and to a new poetry of sensibility.
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ENGL 3308: Romantic Revisions
Winter term; half unit
Tuesday and Thursday 1:30-2:45
Instructor: Mackenzie Bartlett
This course studies the ways in which the “second generation” of Romantic authors adopted, queried, and revised the concepts and poetics that informed the writings of first generation Romantics such as Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Blake. We will pay particular attention to the shifting representations of nature, industry, imagination, aesthetics, and the sublime in a variety of literary genres and modes of expression, including poems, plays, novels, essays, and art produced between the 1790s and 1830s. Romanticism flourished during a period of political revolution and social upheaval, and this historical backdrop will be central to our discussions of the texts that emerged at this time.
Readings will include:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
Don Juan by Lord Byron
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey
Selected poetry by Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Byron, and others
Please note: You do NOT need the prerequisite (ENGL 3307) listed on WebAdvisor to take this course. In order to register without the prerequisite, please see the instructor, Mackenzie Bartlett (msvu.ca) in Seton 307, or contact Karen Macfarlane (msvu.ca).
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ENGL 3328: Studies in Victorian Culture
Winter term; half unit
Monday and Wednesday 3:05-4:20 p.m.
Instructor: Karen Macfarlane
From memento mori to monsters, séances to specters, this course will focus on the pervasive influence of the gothic on Victorian literature and culture. This is a huge topic, so our focus will be narrowed to an exploration of the intersections between the gothic and empire with an emphasis on the tensions enacted on bodies: specifically (but not limited to) domestic and "foreign" bodies and bodies that are rendered foreign through their contact with "other" spaces. While we will cover texts, images and cultural practices from throughout the Victorian era, our emphasis will be on the fin-de-siècle (roughly 1870s to 1900).
There will be a sustained emphasis on literary theory in this course and a significant part of the course grade will be devoted to in-class discussion. WARNING: because of the nature of this topic, some material on this course could be disturbing to some students.
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ENGL/ WRIT 3330: Myths and Theories about Writing
Fall term; half unit
Tuesday and Thursday 1:30-2:45
Instructor: Susan Drain
Pre-requisite: (ENGL 1170/1171 or ENGL 1155) or (WRIT 1120 and one of ENGL/WRIT 2220, ENGL/WRIT 2221 or WRIT 2222)
This course addresses some fundamental questions about writing: where do ideas come from? How is writing accomplished? Can writing be taught? What makes "good writing"? In exploring these questions, we will examine our own practice and assumptions, and look back at some traditional and historical answers. Our main focus will be on the ideas explored in readings from recent theorists and researchers in the field of rhetoric and composition. Of interest to anyone who writes or struggles with writing (in other words, everyone), this course provides a framework particularly important for potential teachers, editors, and critics.
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ENGL 3332: Advanced Studies in Writing II
Winter term; half unit
Tuesday and Thursday 1:30-2:45
Instructor: Susan Drain
This course offers a chance to explore a special topic in writing at an advanced level. The topic for this course is technical communication, which is far more than a dry "how-to" business. We will look at technical communication as a matter of genre, and we will be applying our understanding of ethics and of persuasion viewed rhetorically, including audience and purpose. Three particular topics include writing on-line documents, document design, and usability. Expect many exercises and considerable collaboration, since technical communciation is rarely an individual responsibility. At the end of the course you should have a portfolio of projects to show a prospective employer.
Prerequisite: Permission of the Instructor. Normally permission will be granted to students who have completed WRIT 1120 and one half unit of another WRIT or ENGL/WRIT course. ENGL/WRIT 2220 is recommended.
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ENGL 3342: Modern Fiction
Winter term; half unit
Monday and Wednesday 11:05-12:20
Instructor: Graham Fraser
The purpose of this course is to explore some facets of Modernism through reading works by some of the major novelists of the period. We will examine the innovations of Modernist literature against the background of nineteenth-century realism, both in terms of the forms and content of the works we read. We will also look into connections between Modernist fiction and other Modernist movements in art (especially visual art) and the larger cultural, scientific, philosophical, and political shifts and crises which informed the Modernist period.
While these works represent some of the greatest ambitions and achievements of twentieth-century literature, they are also often dense, demanding, and even intentionally difficult and obscure. This course will aim to help you approach these complex works, but we will also examine why an artist would choose to write in a "difficult" manner in the first place, with special reference to the nature of art and the artist as represented in the works themselves.
Tentative text list:
Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, selected stories
Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Woolf, To the Lighthouse
Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight
O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds
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ENGL 3348: Contemporary Culture: Representations of 9/11
Fall term; half unit
Tuesday and Thursday 12:30 - 1:20
Instructor: Graham Fraser
On the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, this course will investigate the aesthetic response to the event. Course texts will be situated in a theoretical context considering the ethics and aesthetics of writing (or otherwise bearing artistic witness to) disaster or cultural trauma. The course will center on literary representations of the attack, but will unfold from there into explorations of how film, architecture, visual art, music, and the internet strive to represent the 9/11 attacks. We will also consider the culture of commemoration as a form of -- or substitute for -- representation, with special attention to the tenth anniversary observances.
Tentative texts will include DeLillo, Falling Man; Beigbeder, Windows on the World; Amis, The Second Plane; Moore, Farenheit 9/11; Speigelman, In the Shadow of No Towers; Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Theoretical readings will be drawn from Blanchot, The Writing of the Disaster, Baudrillard, The Spirit of Terrorism; Zizek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real.
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ENGL 3363: Feminisms and their Literatures Fall - Winter terms; full unit
Tuesday and Thursday 3:05-4:20 p.m.
Instructor: Rhoda Zuk
This course is a cross-cultural survey of women's writings from 1970 to the present. This course will examine feminism as a plurality and its activity as an international literary movement. (Also listed under Women's Studies).
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ENGL 3364: Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
Fall term; half unit
Monday and Wednesday 11:05-12:20
Instructor: Reina Green
While entire courses are devoted to studying the plays of Shakespeare, he was not the only playwright of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century whose plays are still studied and recognized for their dramatic and literary innovation. This course is a study of his rivals: playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe , Ben Jonson, and John Webster, who worked alongside or in competition with Shakespeare, and who influenced him or were influenced by him. Particular attention will be given to the connection between the drama and the social, political, and intellectual developments of the time, to changing stage practices, and to issues of gender and its representation. It is strongly recommended that students take ENGL 2201: Shakespeare either before or concurrently with this course.
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ENGL 3366: The Nineteenth-Century British Novel Fall term; half unit
Monday and Wednesday 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Chris Ferns
This course is a study of the development of the British novel in the nineteenth century, from Austen to Hardy, and the ways in which it reflects the social, political, and economic changes of the period.
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ENGL 3375: Studies in Medieval CultureWinter term; half unit
Tuesday 4:30 - 7:00 p.m.
Instructor: Adam Hutka
This course is an interdisciplinary study of a particular topic which, in addition to including examples of Middle English literature, may also include the visual arts, and philosophical, medical, legal, and theological texts from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries.
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ENGL 3376: Studies in Medieval Literature
Fall term; half unit
Tuesday 4:30-7:00 p.m.
Instructor: Anna Smol
By the fourteenth century, going on a pilgrimage was a common medieval practice and a well-known symbol for life on earth. This course will examine several Middle English texts founded on the literal and figurative idea of pilgrimage. The main focus will be Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, an anthology of different types of stories -- from philosophical and pious to comic, satiric, and bawdy -- all set within a narrative framework of pilgrimage. We will also read The Book of Margery Kempe, the life story of a woman who defied the conventions of her class and gender and who frequently felt compelled to leave her home on various pilgrimages. Some brief excerpts from William Langland's Piers Plowman will also provide a look at a text based on an allegory of pilgrimage that satirizes fourteenth-century English society.
Successful completion of this course will accomplish several aims. You will learn about some of the major authors and genres in medieval English literature, thus extending your knowledge of the English literary tradition and possibly challenging your preconceptions about the society and literature of this time. You will learn to read Chaucer's work in Middle English, which will also give you an awareness of the history and development of the English language. You will gain experience communicating ideas orally and in writing. While acquiring a knowledge of research conventions and resources, you will be able to investigate topics that interest you, ranging from the nature of fiction, authorship, canonicity, and authority, to ideas on fate and fortune, to representations of gender, sexualities, race, and marriage -- to name a few of our recurring subjects of discussion. You will also have an opportunity to respond to the texts through various creative arts.
Further details about the course can be found at: http://faculty.msvu.ca/asmol/3376.htm
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ENGL 4408: Critical Theory
Fall term; half unit
Monday and Wednesday 3:05-4:20 p.m.
Instructor: Karen Macfarlane
This course is an overview of literary critical theory in which students will be introduced to the major figures, issues and debates in the field of literary critical theory. Some attention will be paid to the historical underpinnings of contemporary theoretical debates, but our focus will be on the movements of the latter part of the twentieth century.
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ENGL/WRIT 4410: Directed Study
Prerequisite: written permission
This is an open course, permitting upper-level students to pursue study in a specific area not accommodated in the regular course program. The student designs the syllabus in consultation with the supervising professor. Students intending to take this course must obtain departmental approval before registration. Depending on the topic, this course may be offered only as ENGL or only as WRIT.
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ENGL 4499: Honours Thesis
Prerequisite: written permission
This course is intended to give practice in independent research, requiring an extended piece of writing. The student designs a syllabus through prior consultation with the supervising professor.
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