A study of the Canadian short story. This course traces the development of the Canadian short story, examining narrative techniques, thematic concerns, and innovations that captivate writers and readers alike.

A study of Dante’s Inferno and its influence on later art and literature. Inferno describes a journey through the nine circles of hell, where figures from history, myth, and literature undergo elaborate punishments. Dante’s poem has inspired writers and artists since its composition, from Jorge Luis Borges to Gloria Naylor to Neil Gaiman. In this course, we will read Inferno together with a selection of 19th, 20th, and 21st century works based on Dante. Throughout, we will explore how Dante’s poem informs and inspires poetic creativity, social commentary, and political critique. No prior knowledge of Dante or Inferno is necessary; we will encounter the text together.

Pre-1900 course.

An introduction to the historical and cultural developments that have shaped the study of literature in English before 1700. Focusing on the medieval, early modern, and Restoration periods, this course will examine the notions of literary history and the literary “canon” and explore how contemporary critical approaches impact our readings of literature in English in specific historical and cultural settings.
Pre-1900 course

An introduction to the historical and cultural developments that have impacted the study of literature in English from 1700 to our contemporary moment. This course will familiarize students with the eighteenth century, Romanticism, the Victorian period, Modernism, and Postmodernism, and will attend to the significance of postcolonial and world literatures in shaping the notions of literary history and the literary “canon.”
Pre-1900 course

The history of Shakespeare and (on) film is long, illustrious—and prolific: there have been at least 400 film and television adaptations and appropriations of Shakespeare over the past 120 years, from all over the world. But how and why do different film versions adapt Shakespeare? What are the implications of transposing a play by Shakespeare to a different country, era, or even language? What might these films reveal, illuminate, underscore, or re-imagine about Shakespeare, and why? In this course, we will explore several different Shakespearean adaptations together with the plays they adapt or appropriate. We will think carefully about the politics of adaptation and appropriation; about the global contexts and place of Shakespeare; and about the role of race, gender, sexuality, disability, empire and colonialism in our reception of Shakespeare on, and in, film.
Pre-1900 course.

The goal of this course is to familiarize students with Greek and Latin mythology. Readings will include classical materials as well as important literary texts in English that retell classical myths.
Pre-1900 Course

A study of the romance a genre whose episodic tale of marvellous adventures and questing heroes have been both criticized and celebrated. This course looks at the range of a form stretching from Malory and Spenser through Scott and Tennyson to contemporary forms such as fantasy, science fiction, postmodern romance, and the romance novel.
Pre-1900 course

An introduction to the poetry and plays of William Shakespeare, this course situates his works in the literary, social and political contexts of early modern England. The main emphasis will be on close readings of Shakespeare's sonnets and plays, to be supplemented by classical, medieval, and renaissance prose and poetry upon which Shakespeare drew.
Pre-1900 course.

A continuation of ENGB32H3, this course introduces students to selected dramatic comedies, tragedies and romances and situates Shakespeare's works in the literary, social and political contexts of early modern England. Our readings will be supplemented by studies of Shakespeare's sources and influences, short theoretical writings, and film excerpts.
Pre-1900 course.

An introduction to the short story as a literary form. This course examines the origins and recent development of the short story, its special appeal for writers and readers, and the particular effects it is able to produce.

An introduction to children's literature. This course will locate children's literature within the history of social attitudes to children and in terms of such topics as authorial creativity, race, class, gender, and nationhood.

Pre-1900 course.

This course considers the creation, marketing, and consumption of popular film and fiction. Genres studied might include bestsellers; detective fiction; mysteries, romance, and horror; fantasy and science fiction; "chick lit"; popular song; pulp fiction and fanzines.

A study of extended narratives in the comic book form. This course combines formal analysis of narrative artwork with an interrogation of social, political, and cultural issues in this popular literary form. Works to be studied may include graphic novels, comic book series, and comic book short story or poetry collections.

This course will explore Tolkien's writing, including selections from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, together with the medieval poetry that inspired it. We will consider how the encounter with medieval literature shapes Tolkien’s attitudes toward themes including ecology, race, gender, and history.

Pre-1900 course.

What is the relationship between “literature” and video games? This class will explore how we can read this relatively new – but increasingly dominant – media against and alongside more established literary forms like prose, poetry, and film, and will give students the opportunity to practice critical close reading skills. The course will focus on thematic and formal resonances between digital texts (“games”) and traditional texts (“literature”), and will also explore questions of direct adaptation (books that become games, games that become film, etc.).

An examination of the development of a tradition of women's writing. This course explores the legacy and impact of writers such as Christine de Pizan, Julian of Norwich, Mary Wollstonecraft, Anne Bradstreet, Margaret Cavendish, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Emily Dickinson, and Margaret Fuller, and considers how writing by women has challenged and continues to transform the English literary canon.
Pre-1900 course

An exploration of the many intersections between the worlds of literature and science. The focus will be on classic and contemporary works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama that have illuminated, borrowed from or been inspired by the major discoveries and growing cultural significance of the scientific enterprise.

A focused introduction to the writing of poetry. This course will enable students to explore the writing of poetry through reading, discussion, and workshop sessions.

A focused introduction to the writing of fiction. This course will enable students to explore the writing of short fiction through reading, discussion, and workshop sessions.

A focused introduction to the writing of creative non-fiction. This course will enable students to explore the writing of creative non-fiction through reading, discussion, and workshop sessions.

Building on the fundamental critical writing skills students have already mastered in English A02, English B72 is designed to advance students' critical thinking and writing skills in response to a wide range of literary texts and genres. In this context, students will learn how to compose, develop, and organize sophisticated arguments; how to integrate and engage with critical sources; and how to polish their writing craft. Ultimately, students will become more confident in their writing voices and growing abilities.

An interdisciplinary exploration of the body in art, film, photography, narrative and popular culture. This course will consider how bodies are written or visualized as "feminine" or "masculine", as heroic, as representing normality or perversity, beauty or monstrosity, legitimacy or illegitimacy, nature or culture.

This course explores the creative, interpretive, social, and political effects of our interactions and experiments with digital forms of literature: novels, short stories, plays, and poems, but also video games, online fan fiction, social media posts, and other texts typically excluded from the category of the "literary." The course attends both to texts written before the digital turn and later digitized, as well as to "born-digital" texts. It surveys the history of shifts within the media landscape - from oral to written, from manuscript to print, from print to digital. Over the course of the semesters, we will explore a variety of questions about digital literary culture, including: How does a text's medium - oral, manuscript, print and/or digital - affect its production, transmission, and reception? How do writers harness, narrate, and depict the use of digital technologies? How does digital textuality challenge earlier conceptions of "literature"? How does digitization shape our work as readers and critics? By reading "traditional" literary forms alongside newer ones, we will investigate how the digital age impacts literature, and how literature helps us grapple with the implications of our digitized world.

An examination of three or more Canadian writers. This course will draw together selected major writers of Canadian fiction or of other forms. Topics vary from year to year and might include a focused study of major women writers; major racialized and ethnicized writers such as African-Canadian or Indigenous writers; major writers of a particular regional or urban location or of a specific literary period.

An analysis of Canadian fiction with regard to the problems of representation. Topics considered may include how Canadian fiction writers have responded to and documented the local; social rupture and historical trauma; and the problematics of representation for marginalized societies, groups, and identities.

An introduction to the craft of screenwriting undertaken through discussions, readings, and workshop sessions.

This course is a creative investigation into how, through experimentation, we can change poetry, and how, through poetry, we can change the world. Our explorations are undertaken through writing assignments, discussions, readings, and workshop sessions.

An introduction to the writing of comics undertaken through discussions, readings, and workshop sessions.

A study of major Canadian playwrights with an emphasis on the creation of a national theatre, distinctive themes that emerge, and their relation to regional and national concerns. This course explores the perspectives of Québécois, feminist, Native, queer, ethnic, and Black playwrights who have shaped Canadian theatre.

This multi-genre creative writing course, designed around a specific theme or topic, will encourage interdisciplinary practice, experiential adventuring, and rigorous theoretical reflection through readings, exercises, field trips, projects, etc.