English Literature Courses
Honours Major: English Literature (16 courses)
- ENG-103; 104; 201; 257; 315;
- One of ENG-222 or 232;
- One of ENG-215, 241, 251, 340;
- One of ENG-322 or 332;
- One of ENG-341, 342, 361;
- One of ENG-343, 345, 346;
- One of ENG-347, 357, 376;
- One additional course from ENG-341, 342, 343, 345, 346, 347, 357, 361, 376;
- Four ENG-400-level electives
General Major: English Literature (12 courses)
- ENG-103; 104; 201; 257; 315;
- One of ENG-222 or 232;
- One of ENG-215, 241, 251, 340;
- One of ENG-341, 342, 361;
- One of ENG-343, 345, 346;
- One of ENG- 347, 357, 376;
- One additional course from ENG- 341, 342, 343, 345, 346, 347, 357, 361, 376
- One ENG-200- or 300-level elective
Minor: Literature Stream (6 courses)
- ENG-103; 104; 257;
- Two ENG-300-level literature electives;
- One ENG-200- or 300-level literature elective
Students in honours or general major are strongly recommended to take a second language.
Course Details
Ways of Reading: Fiction ENG-103
Stories: how do they tell us about the world? Looking at short fiction and novels from a range of historical periods, in this course we will cultivate the ability to read with imaginative, intellectual, and spiritual discernment.
Ways of Reading: Poetry and Drama ENG-104
How do poems and plays express human experience? Looking at poetry and drama from a range of historical periods, in this course we will continue to cultivate the ability to read with imaginative, intellectual, and spiritual discernment.
Expository Writing I ENG-201
A course on the art and craft of expository writing–writing that seeks to explore, explain, or argue a topic for a given audience. Students will practice various modes of nonfiction writing, from personal to persuasive essays, so as to learn the knowledge and skills needed to express themselves fluently and literately in written English, whether in print or digitally. Through a workshop format, students will learn seven traits of effective writing, study well-crafted essays on a range of intriguing topics, improve
grammatical correctness in their own writing, gain twenty-first century research skills, and become rhetorically savvy writers. This course is strongly recommended for students considering a career in teaching.
Creative Writing I: Essential Tools and Strategies ENG-203
Energy, imagery, tension, patterns, insight, and revision: this course focuses on tools and strategies such as these, common to all forms of creative writing. Using a workshop format, this course develops students’ imaginative writing skills and cultivates productive writing habits. Students also explore a Christian understanding of the gift and practice of imagination as they experiment in different genres and modes–from fiction and poetry to creative nonfiction, drama, and graphic narratives.
Prerequisites:
ENG-103 or 104 or permission of the department
Playwriting ENG-213
This course focuses on the student’s unique voice and vision primarily expressed through the written word. Providing a forum for presenting works in progress, the course enables students to hear their words read, with feedback and discussion by the instructor and fellow playwrights. Students create scenes emphasizing dialogue and character, and participate in exercises related to narrative and the formation of dialogue.
Prerequisites:
ENG-201 or permission of the instructor
Introduction to Classical Western Mythology ENG-215
An introduction to the central myths and stories that have shaped the literary and cultural imaginations of the Western world. Readings will engage paradigmatic narratives from Greek and Roman mythology.
Prerequisites:
ENG-103 or 104; HIS-105 or permission of the instructor
Canadian Literature Survey ENG-222
This course explores the origins and development of Canadian literature by examining the forces that shaped it, the forms and genres that have characterized it, and the themes that have preoccupied it. As a study of Canadian literature from its beginning in the late eighteenth century to its presence as a contemporary literature in the 1970s, the course pays particular attention to the development of distinctive forms of prose and poetry and their relationship to the faith-perspectives of their practitioners.
Prerequisites:
ENG-103 or 104
American Literature Survey ENG-232
This course surveys American writing from its origins before the United States existed as a nation until the middle of the twentieth century (WWII). Emphasizing the interrelationship between the literature and its historical background, the course includes the study of important prose and poetry from the colonial, revolutionary, Romantic, and Modern periods. Attention is given to this literature’s diverse cultural
strands, the contested space of exploration and colonization (including Puritanism), Enlightenment rationalism and individual liberty, transcendentalism, slavery and civil war, race relations, realism, naturalism, Imagism, and Modernism.
Prerequisites:
ENG-103 or 104
Environmental Literature ENV-241
Studying literary works through an ecological lens will inform and nuance students’ perceptions of the relationship between culture and nature, the foundation of our current environmental sensibilities, and the role of human beings in the care and sustenance of the earth. Using regional and thematic approaches, the course considers the links between literary appreciation and social action.
Prerequisites:
ENG-103 or 104 (Recommended)
Children’s Literature ENG-251
A critical survey of classic and contemporary writing for children, exploring major themes and genres in the history of children’s literature.
Prerequisites:
ENG-103 or 104
The British Novel ENG-257
A survey of the British Novel from its emergence as a literary form to the present day. The novel’s development will be traced through studies of representative writers such as Defoe, Austen, Dickens, Hardy, Woolf, Forster, Orwell, and Barnes.
Prerequisites:
ENG-103 or 104
Expository Writing II ENG-302
An advanced course in essay writing, with a particular emphasis on argumentation. Students will refine their understanding of rhetorical theory and methods, cultivate ethical language practices, develop a mature style through attention to the sentence, and engage in an advanced study of grammar and editing.
Prerequisites:
ENG-201or permission of the instructor
Writing Fiction ENG-303
An intermediate course in the writing of fiction, using a workshop format. Students will
gain experience in crafting fiction through attention to the full range of story elements
and to different narrative genres. Works by other writers are studied in the light of basic
principles of form.
Prerequisites:
B average in Eng-201 and Eng-203 or 213
Journalistic Writing I: Reporting and Newswriting ENG-304
A course in writing for the news media, focusing on print and internet, using a workshop format. Students will examine and discuss examples of professional journalism, try out the basic forms themselves, and give feedback on each other’s work.
Prerequisites:
ENG-201or permission of the department
Journalistic Writing II: Column and Opinion Writing ENG-305
A course in writing columns and opinion pieces for papers, magazines, web journals, and other news media, using a workshop format. Students will examine and discuss examples of professional column writing, practice such writing themselves, and give feedback on each other’s work. Students will learn advanced techniques of interviewing, researching and writing, and will receive some instruction on marketing a column to a periodical publication.
Prerequisites:
Recommended:
ENG-304
Writing Poetry ENG-306
An intermediate course in the writing of poetry, using a workshop format. Students will gain experience in crafting poems through attention to a full range of poetic elements and to different genres. Poems by other writers will be studied in the light of basic principles of form. Through such writing and study, students will cultivate a Christian aesthetic of poetry.
Prerequisites:
ENG-203 or 213
History of Literary Criticism ENG-315
A historical survey of some of the major ideas and practices in literary criticism, from Plato to the middle of the twentieth century.
Prerequisites:
Year 4 standing for general majors; Year 3 standing for honours majors.
ENG-315 is the Capstone Course for the English Department and is required for all majors.
Contemporary Canadian Literature ENG-322
This course explores the blossoming of Canadian literature from the 1970s into the twenty-first century by focusing on the local, regional, national, and global dimensions of this writing. While attending to different regions, the course addresses rich issues at the heart of this national literature: ethnicity, the environment, gender relations, indigenous life, immigrant experience, and religious faith within a postmodern world. While studying the formal conventions and cultural relationships that Canadian writers engage, students will also interact with local writers and visiting poets.
Prerequisites:
ENG-222 or 232
Contemporary American Literature ENG-332
This course studies American poetry and fiction from 1945 to the present, emphasizing the interrelationship between the literature and the tumultuous period in which the United States became a global power. The course includes attention to a central aspect of American experience, race relations; to the unrest and experimentation of the time, represented, for example, by the Beat Movement; and to the contribution of Christian authors to the American canon (e.g. Flannery O’Connor, John Updike, and Marilynne Robinson).
Prerequisites:
ENG-222 or 232
History of Language ENG-340
A study of the development of the English language, from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day.
Prerequisites:
ENG-257 or permission of the instructor
Medieval English Literature ENG-341
A study of the poetry and prose of medieval England, with special attention to the works of Chaucer.
Prerequisites:
ENG-257 or permission of the instructor
Sixteenth-Century English Literature ENG-342
The literature of England from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, including Shakespeare’s non-dramatic poetry and works by Sidney and Spenser.
Prerequisites:
ENG-257 or permission of the instructor
Seventeenth-Century English Literature ENG-343
The literature of the late Renaissance in England, from the reign of James I to the Restoration, including works by Wroth, Donne, Herbert, and Milton.
Prerequisites:
ENG-257 or permission of the instructor
Nineteenth-Century English Literature I: Romantic ENG-345
This course introduces students to the major writers who are associated with English Romanticism (1790-1830), including Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, and Shelley.
Prerequisites:
ENG-257 or permission of the instructor
Nineteenth-Century English Literature II: Victorian ENG-346
Poetry, prose and drama from the Victorian period, including works by Tennyson, the Brownings, Dickens, George Eliot, Arnold, the Rossettis, Hopkins, and Wilde.
Prerequisites:
ENG-257 or permission of the instructor
British Literature, 1900-1950 ENG-347
Literature from the first half of the twentieth century, including works by Hardy, Conrad, Yeats, Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Woolf, and Forster.
Prerequisites:
ENG-257 or permission of the instructor.
British Literature, 1950-Present ENG-357
This course will investigate how British novels, short fiction and poetry are both marked by and speak into the challenging context of rapid change in British society since WW II. The course will include fiction by Golding, Greene, Carter, Byatt, Ishiguro, Barnes, M. Amis, and Z. Smith, and poetry by Auden, Larkin, Hughes, Heaney, G. Hill, and Boland.
Prerequisites:
ENG-257 or permission of the instructor
Shakespeare ENG-361
A study of six representative comedies, histories, and tragedies by William Shakespeare from a number of critical perspectives.
Prerequisites:
ENG-257 or permission of the instructor
Postcolonial Literature ENG-376
An introduction to twentieth century literature in English from South Africa, West Indies, India, and East and West Africa, with some links to literature in contemporary Canada.
Prerequisites:
ENG-257 or permission of the instructor
Senior Writing Project ENG-403
An advanced course in fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry under the supervision of a writing specialist. Students will meet in workshop format and/or with the instructor in personal tutorials.
Prerequisites:
B average in 200-level writing courses; admission is based on portfolio evaluation
Contemporary Critical Theory ENG-416
A consideration of the many different theoretical and critical approaches to literature and cultural studies that have proliferated since the middle of the twentieth century.
Prerequisites:
ENG-315Year 4 standing or permission of the instructor
Studies in Canadian Literature ENG-425
A study of a specific theme, genre, author or group of authors in Canadian literature.
Prerequisites:
ENG-222 or 322; Year 4 standing or permission of the instructor
Modern Canadian Fiction ENG-426
A study of modern and contemporary Canadian short stories and novels, with a focus
on a specific genre, theme, cultural context or region.
Prerequisites:
ENG-222 or 322; Year 4 standing or permission of the instructor
Modern Canadian Poetry ENG-427
A literary and theoretical exploration of the wide variety of styles and genres of poetry presently being written in Canada. As part of their coursework, students will attend readings in local venues, and will host the Canada Council poets at Redeemer.
Prerequisites:
ENG-222 or 322; Year 4 standing or permission of the instructor
The Fiction of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien ENG-446
An honours-level seminar on the lives and major works of these influential twentieth century Christian scholars.
Prerequisites:
Year 4 standing or permission of the instructor
Shakespeare and Theory ENG-447
The interpretation of Shakespeare on the stage and in the academy is shaped by both specific critical theories and general cultural practices. In this seminar course, students will test interpretations of Shakespeare in Formalist, Structuralist, Psychoanalytical, Marxist, New Historicist, Gender, Queer, and Postcolonial criticism.
Prerequisites:
ENG-315,
ENG-361or permission of the instructor
Milton ENG-448
This course is an intensive study of the major poetry and prose of John Milton (1608-1674), following the arc of Milton’s career against the background of the religious, political, and literary controversies of the seventeenth century. Together with shorter poems and selections of prose, students will be studying A Maske, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.
Prerequisites:
ENG-342 or 343 or permission of the instructor (Recommended)
Studies in Selected Literature ENG-475
A study of a specific theme, genre, author or group of authors in selected literature.
Prerequisites:
Year 4 standing or permission of the instructor
Studies in Postcolonial Literature ENG-476
Twentieth century literature in English from countries that were previously British colonies, read in relation to canonical literature from Britain itself.
Prerequisites:
Year 4 standing or permission of the instructor
Honours Writing Practicum ENG-483
An off-campus practicum in writing for students in the Honours Writing Stream. Students specializing in creative writing, expository writing, creative non-fiction, poetry, drama, and journalism are all eligible to apply. For more information please consult the department.
Prerequisites:
ENG-303 & 403 or ENG-304 & 305 (prerequisites or corequisites)
Honours Independent Study ENG-485
For information on setting up an independent study see page 60 of the Academic Calendar.
