Current Courses

3 credits

Description:
Intensive practice in academic essay writing. Emphasis on grammatical and well-reasoned expository writing, essay organization, preparation of research papers, and proper acknowledgment of sources. Frequent written exercises and development of composition skills. Use of Writing Centre resources required outside regular class hours. This course is not required for students in the Specialization, Major or Minor in English programs.

3 credits

Description:
Practice in the writing of technical reports. Topics include exposition, argumentation,
presentation of technical data, and effective communication. Frequent written exercises and development of composition skills. Use of Writing Centre resources required outside regular class hours. This course is not required for students in the Specialization, Major or Minor in English programs.

3 credits

Description:
Development of critical reading skills and coherent discourse. Study of the proper use and acknowledgement of sources. Works by English-language prose authors provide matter for frequent written exercises. This course is not required for students in the Specialization, Major or Minor in English programs.

3 credits

Description:
Development of critical reading skills and coherent discourse. Study of the proper use and acknowledgement of sources. Works by English-language dramatists and poets provide matter for frequent written exercises. This course is not required for students in the Specialization, Major or Minor in English programs.

3 credits

Description:
Development of critical reading skills and coherent discourse, both written and spoken. Study of selected authors before 1700 will furnish subject matter for frequent written exercises. This course cannot be combined for credits with ENG2122.

Section A & B: Victoria Burke
Section C & D: TBA
Section E: Nicholas von Maltzahn

3 credits

Description:
Development of critical reading skills and coherent discourse, both written and spoken. Study of selected authors since 1700 will furnish subject matter for frequent written exercises. This course cannot be combined for credits with ENG2123.

3 credits

Description:
Development of critical reading skills and coherent discourse, both written and spoken. Study of selected authors since 1700 will furnish subject matter for frequent written exercises. This course cannot be combined for credits with ENG2123.

Section A: Lauren Gillingham
Introduction: This course is designed to introduce you to English literature written since 1700, and to help you become a stronger writer of essays that take an analytical approach to literature. We will read and discuss a variety of texts written from the early eighteenth century to the early twentieth century, by authors primarily from England, Scotland, and Ireland. Our readings will include a selection of poetry, prose, and drama from each of the four historical eras that are included in this literary history: the eighteenth century (roughly, 1700-1790), the Romantic period (1790-1830), the Victorian period (1830-1900), and the Modernist period (1900-1940). We will analyse the language and forms in which our authors articulated and critiqued some of the key issues of their day, which ranged from rapidly expanding cities to rapidly expanding reading audiences, from anxiety about industrialization to anxiety about the self, and from changing gender relations to changing notions of identity. One of our principal objectives will be to investigate how literature relates to the social and historical concerns of its moment, and how its formal properties shape the ways in which we, as  contemporary readers, engage with those concerns.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading: 
Essay One (15%), Essay Two (30%), Midterm Test (15%), Final Exam (30%), Class Participation (10%)

Texts:
Stephen Greenblatt, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 9th edition. Volumes C to F.

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Section B: James Brooke-Smith
Introduction: The purpose of this class is to introduce students to some of the major works of British Literature written after 1700 and to hone their skills in literary analysis and essay writing. The course covers the period from the turn of the eighteenth-century, through the Romantic and Victorian periods, and ends
with the advent of literary modernism. We will read representative works from each of these periods and, in doing so, will build up a repertoire of technical terms and interpretive skills, while also learning about the social and historical contexts in which the works were originally produced. This course will equip students with the skills and knowledge that will serve as the basis for their future studies in the
English department and beyond. Instruction will take the form of lectures, in-class exercises, and discussions.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
In-Class Participation (15%); Short Essay (10%); Mid-Term Exam (25%); Final Essay (25%); Final Exam (25%)

Texts:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 9
th Edition (Norton 2012), Volumes C, D and E
Rudyard Kipling, Kim (Oxford)

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Section C: Mary Arseneau Section D & E: Donald Childs

3 credits

Description: Development of skills in written communication. Review of grammatical usage and basic principles of composition. Analysis of samples of effective business prose. Reserved for students enrolled in a baccalaureate program of the Telfer School of Management.

3 credits

Description: Introduction to literature written primarily for children.

3 credits

Description: Introduction to the genre from its beginnings to the present.

3 credits

Description: Survey of literature devoted to the Arthurian legends.

Section A: David Staines
Introduction: Survey of literature devoted to the Arthurian legends. An introduction to the history and literature of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The course will explore Arthur’s earliest appearances in medieval chronicles, and then study in detail his development in medieval literature and his reappearance in the Arthurian renaissance of Victorian England.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Midterm 20%; essay 40%; final exam 40%

Texts:
Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain (Penguin)
Wace and Layamon, Arthurian Chronicles (Univ. of Toronto Press)
Chrétien de Troyes, The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes (Indiana Univ. Press)
Boroff, Marie, trans., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Norton)
Malory, Morte d’Arthur (Penguin)
Tennyson, Alfred Lord, Idylls of the King (Penguin)

3 credits

Description: Study of the complex relationships between analytical psychology and literature through readings of selected texts.

3 credits

Description: Study of fiction founded on scientific theory or hypotheses and new or speculative technologies.

Section A: James Brooke-Smith
Introduction: In this class we use science fiction to think about mankind’s relationship with the media technologies that have helped to reshape society over the last two centuries: printed books, electric telegraphs, radios, televisions, cinemas, digital computers. Drawing on a wide range of media objects, this hybrid course – part in-class, part on-line – will introduce students both to the history of science fiction and key debates in media and communication theory. The course
is intended as an experiment in new technologies of learning. It is an open invitation to students who are interested in using digital technologies to learn, teach, collaborate, and communicate in new and productive ways.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
On-Line Exercises (40%); Mid-Term Exercise (20%); Final Project (40%)

Texts:
H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds (Modern Library)
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (Ace Trade)
Philip K. Dick, Ubik (Vintage)
William Gibson, Neuromancer (Ace Trade)

3 credits

Description: Fiction of the supernatural and horror fiction from the 18th century to the present.

3 credits

Description: Analysis of the translation of literary texts into film/video, with a view to illuminating the distinctive strategies and properties of the two art forms.

Section A: David Jarraway
Introduction: The recent block-buster translation of canonical authors to the Big Screen—Jane Austen, Henry James, E.M. Forster, etc. –will prompt this course to investigate the various ways literary texts become co-ordinate with film texts in their corporate effort to delight and instruct. As a laboratory example, therefore, the focus of study will be the genre of the “crime story” in both literature and film, and in particular, will train critical attention exclusively upon so-called “noir
narratives,” that is, upon a selection of “hard-boiled” crime novels of the 1950s, and their generic translation to Hollywood’s silver screen in the form of “film noir” drawn exclusively from the work of Alfred Hitchcock within roughly the same time period. Students are also advised that “literary” as well as “screen theory” will constitute a significant portion of the readings assigned for the course.

Method:
Problem-posing dialogue and discussion-in-group, rather than conventional lecture-format.

Grading:
One Shorter Paper (10%), one Longer Paper (“Mid-Term Exercise”) (25%), and Oral “Group Report” (25%), and a final “Take Home” Examination (30%), complemented by a participation grade (10%).

Texts:
Robert Polito, ed., Crime Novels, Vol. 2: American Noir of the 1950s (Library of America)
*R. Stam & T. Miller, eds., Film and Theory: An Anthology (Blackwell)
*Xerox Packet (available at Repro Services, Morrisset Library [ground floor])
*Texts marked with an asterisk are works of “literary theory”. All the above texts (except the
Xerox Packet) are available from UOttawa Bookstore (University Centre).
Four of the following film-texts directed by Alfred Hitchcock:
--Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
--Rope (1948)
--Strangers on a Train (1951)
--Rear Window (1954)
--The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
--Vertigo (1958)
--North by Northwest (1959)
--Psycho (1960)

3 credits

Description: Study of literary texts which reflect, and reflect upon, the physical world, and our complex relationships with it.

3 credits

Description: Study of the works of writers from diverse English-speaking cultures, such as those of Africa, Australia, India, New Zealand, and the West Indies.

Section A: Nicholas von Maltzahn

Introduction: This section of the course emphasizes the shift from colonial to post-colonial in twentieth-century works in English from Great Britain, the Caribbean, India and Nigeria. Works under consideration are likely to include: Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Rudyard Kipling, Kim; James Joyce, Dubliners; V.S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas; Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children; Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman. We shall also make use of a course-book with poems by Rudyard Kipling, W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, and Les Murray.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
First paper (25%); Midterm (25%); Final examination (50%)

Texts:
Editions to be announced. Books available at Benjamin Books (on Osgood St., just east of the central campus).

3 credits

Description:
Study of the relationship between literature and the sciences, including literary texts’ representation of the sciences, and literary aspects of scientific writing.

Section A: TBD

3 credits

Description: Study of major European works that have influenced the development of English literature.

Section A: Dominic Manganiello
Introduction: After seven centuries Dante remains a luminous presence, a catalyst of literary renewal. Many twentieth-century writers, such as James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and William Golding, invoked the medieval poet as a major precursor. The course will accordingly examine Dante’s presence in English literature with special emphasis on the various ways in which modern authors adopted, adapted, and transformed his ideas, themes, and attitudes in
their fiction.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Class exam (20%); Essay (40%); Final Exam (40%)

Texts:
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Hell. (translator Dorothy L. Sayers) (Penguin)
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Purgatory. (translator Dorothy L. Sayers) (Penguin)
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Paradise. (translator Dorothy L. Sayers) (Penguin)
Dante Alighieri, Vita Nuova. (Oxford)
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man. (Penguin)
Charles Williams, Descent into Hell. (Eerdmans)
Charles Williams, All Hallows’ Eve. (Regent)
C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce. (Harper)
J.R.R. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf. (Harper Collins)
William Golding, Pincher Martin. (Faber)
Wendell Berry, Remembering. (Counterpoint)
Samuel Beckett, More Pricks than Kicks. (Grove Press)

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Section B: Ian Dennis
Introduction: This course studies major European works which have influenced the development of English Literature, paying special attention to literary treatments of the theme of romantic love. Reading in modern translations, we will begin with the love sonnets of Dante and Petrarch, which inspired the English sonnet tradition, including Sidney and Shakespeare. Next will be Ariosto’s sixteenth-century masterpiece Orlando Furioso, whose boundless narrative energy was absorbed by a multitude of writers from Spenser to Byron to Tolkien. In the late eighteenth century, Goethe’s hugely influential Sorrows of Young Werther both expressed the
apogee of the Age of Sensibility and charted the passions of the Romantic Era to come. Flaubert’s Madam Bovary follows, easily one of the most important of novels in that genre’s great period of dominance, as well as a landmark in the history of romantic love and romantic illusion. We will conclude with A Doll’s House, in which perhaps the greatest of the era’s dramatists, Henrik Ibsen, surveys the state of modern marriage. For their term essays, students will be asked to examine the relationship between one of these works and one or more in English.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Final Essay (40%), Mid-Term Test (15%), Final Examination (45%)

Texts:
Ludovico Ariosto. Orlando Furioso. (Oxford 2008)
Dante Alighieri. Vita Nuova. (Oxford 2008)
Gustave Flaubert. Madame Bovary. (Oxford 2008)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The Sorrows of Young Werther. (Oxford 2012)
Henrik Ibsen. Four Major Plays. (Oxford 2008)
Francesco Petrarch. Selections from the Canzoniere and Other Works. (Oxford 2008)

6 credits

Description: Survey of major Canadian writers.

Section A: Gerald Lynch
Introduction: This course surveys Canadian literature from the late eighteenth century to the present, focusing on representative works and major authors in their historical and cultural contexts.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
First-term essay (4-6 pp.), 20%, Mid-course examination, 25%, Second-term essay (6-8 pp.), 25%, Final examination, 30%

Texts:
Bennett and Brown, A New Anthology of Canadian Literature in English, Third Edition (Oxford Canada)
Leacock, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (Tecumseh)
Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (M&S)
Atwood, Oryx and Crake (M&S)

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Section B: Robert Stacey
Introduction: This course is a survey of Canadian literature from the mid-nineteenth century to the contemporary period. We will read key texts in a variety of genres (fictional, poetic, and dramatic) with an attention to the different ways in which these texts speak to the historical and cultural contexts of their production and reception. Texts will be arranged in thematic “units”, each focusing on a particular aspect of Canadian history and culture. The focus of the course is on English-Canadian literature, though we will look at a few French-Canadian works in
translation.

Method:
Lecture and discussion, plus web and audiovisual presentations where appropriate.

Grading:
Two 2000-word essays (25% each), midterm exam (20%), visual poetry assignment (5%), final exam (20%), attendance and participation (5%).

Texts:
Margaret Atwood, Journals of Susanna Moodie
Christian Bok, Eunoia,
Dionne Brand, Thirsty
Douglas Glover, Elle
Anne Hebert, Kamouraska
Tomson Highway, Dry Lips Oughtta Move to Kapuskasing
Hugh MacLennan, Barometer Rising
Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion
Martha Ostenso, Wild Geese
Judith Thompson, The Crackwalker
(All other course texts are available at Benjamin Books, 122 Osgoode)

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Section C: David Staines
Introduction: A study of the development of Canadian literature in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twentyfirst centuries.

Method:
Lecture and discussion

Grading:
Attendance and participation 10%; minor essay 20%; major essay 30%; first examination 15%; second examination 25%. Students who miss more than three classes during the year will not be permitted to sit the second examination.

Texts:
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (McClelland and Stewart)
-------- The Journals of Susanna Moodie (Oxford University Press)
Carole Gerson and Gwendolyn Davies, eds., Canadian Poetry from the Beginnings through 1914
(New Canadian Library)
Thomas King, Medicine River (Penguin)
Stephen Leacock, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (New Canadian Library)
Hugh MacLennan, Barometer Rising (New Canadian Library)
Rohinton Mistry, Tales from Firozsha Baag (New Canadian Library)
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (New Canadian Library)
Alice Munro, Lives of Girls and Women (New Canadian Library)
Michael Ondaatje, The Cat's Table (Vintage)
Martha Ostenso, Wild Geese (New Canadian Library)
Sinclair Ross, As for Me and My House (New Canadian Library)
E.T. Seton, Wild Animals I Have Known (New Canadian Library)
Brian Trehearne, ed., Canadian Poetry 1920-1960 (New Canadian Library)

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Section D: Cynthia Sugars
Introduction: This course will survey the major writings and cultural-historical developments in Canadian literature beginning in the 1500s, with the early explorers to North America, and concluding in the contemporary period. We will be discussing representative works and major authors in their cultural and historical contexts.

Method:
Lecture and class discussion

Grading:
Two research essays 15% and 20%; Mid-term test 10%; Christmas exam 25%; Final exam 25%; attendance, participation, film questionnaires 5%. Students must complete all of the essays and exams in order to pass the course.

Texts:
Sugars and Moss, eds. Canadian Literature in English: Texts and Contexts Volumes I and II
(Pearson-Penguin) [Both volumes]
Susanna Moodie. Roughing It in the Bush (NCL)
Jane Urquhart. Away (McClelland)
Margaret Atwood. Surfacing (NCL)
John Gray and Eric Peterson. Billy Bishop Goes to War (Talonbooks)
Tomson Highway. The Rez Sisters (Fifth House)
David Chariandy. Soucouyant (Arsenal Pulp)
Thomas King. Green Grass, Running Water (Harper)
(texts available at Benjamin Books, 122 Osgoode St.)

6 credits

Description: Survey of major American writers.

Section A & B: Bernhard Radloff
Introduction: Survey of American literature in its historical and social context, with particular emphasis on the religious and political culture of the American colonies and the Republic.

Method:
Lecture and discussion

Grading:
Midterm 20%, Essay I 15%, Essay II 25%, Final Exam 40%

Texts:
Nina Baym, gen. ed., Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th ed., shorter (Norton)
Fitzgerald. F.S., The Great Gatsby (Scribners)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Norton Critical)
Norris, F., McTeague (Norton Critical)
West, N., The Day of the Locust (Signet)

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Section C & D: David Rampton
Introduction: In this course students will examine the growth of American literature from colonial beginnings to national and international stature. While the focus will be on representative works and major authors, attention will also be given to intellectual and cultural contexts to provide a firm basis for the students’ understanding of assigned texts.

Method:
Lecture and discussion

Grading:
Term work 60%; final examination 40%

Texts:
Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8
th ed., shorter (Norton)
N. Hawtorne, The Scarlet Letter (Penguin)
E. Hemingway, In Our Time (Scribner)
K. Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five (Dell)
Texts (available at Benjamin Books, 122 Osgoode St.)

3 credits

Description: Survey of Shakespeare's work to c. 1603.

Section A: Victoria Burke
Introduction: This course examines Shakespeare’s plays written before 1603, covering three dramatic genres of Shakespeare’s early career: comedy (Comedy of Errors), tragedy (Titus Andronicus; Hamlet), and history (Richard III; Henry IV, Part I). We will explore the plays as literary texts, as theatre, and as glimpses into the culture of Elizabethan England. By the end of the term, the student should have acquired a good knowledge of the nature andrange of Shakespeare’s Elizabethan dramatic genres; the conditions of performance and their effect on play structure; pertinent aspects of the historical, intellectual, social, and cultural contexts of the plays.

Method:
Lecture, discussion, brainstorming.

Grading:
Midterm exam (20%), Term Paper (25%), Final Exam (50%), Class Participation (5%)

Texts:
The Norton Shakespeare (second edition, gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt, 2008) has been ordered
for this course, however you may use any scholarly edition (i.e., with a detailed introduction
and notes) of the collected works or of single plays.

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Section B: Victoria Burke
Introduction: In this course we will examine a selection of histories, comedies, and tragedies written by Shakespeare before 1603: Richard III, Richard II, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet. We will consider the plays as both literary and theatrical works, and their relation to the culture of the time.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Midterm Take-home Test (20%), Essay (35%), Attendance and Participation (5%), Final Exam (40%)

Texts:
Greenblatt, Stephen, et al, eds. The Norton Shakespeare. 2nd edn. (Norton, 2008)

3 credits

Description: Survey of Shakespeare's work after c. 1603.

Section A: TBA

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Section B: Irene Makaryk
Introduction: This course will examine a selection of Shakespeare’s plays written after 1603. Attention will be given to the theatrical as well as to the literary study of the plays with a special focus on construction (design). The larger cultural, historical, and socio-political contexts will also be explored. By the end of the term, the student should have acquired a basic knowledge of aspects of the nature and range of Shakespeare’s Jacobean dramatic works; the conditions of performance
and their effect on play structure; pertinent aspects of the historical, intellectual, social, and cultural contexts of the plays.

Method:
Lecture, discussion

Grading:
Midterm (20%), Term Paper (25%), Final Exam (50%), Class Participation (5%)

Texts:
A good, scholarly edition (with detailed introductions and notes) of Shakespeare’s plays such as The Norton Shakespeare. Also recommended are single volume editions of the plays (Signet, Pelican, Penguin, Arden, New Cambridge, Oxford).

3 credits

Description: This introductory workshop focuses on the writing of short fiction.
As a preliminary to registration, applicants must submit a hard copy portfolio (up to 10 pages) of their writing to Creative Writing, Department of English, University of Ottawa, 70 Laurier, Arts Hall, Room 338, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N6. Translated literary work from other languages will also be considered. Students will be selected solely on the basis of aptitude as indicated by work submitted. Starting May 1, portfolios will be accepted and considered for admission until the course is full. However, students are encouraged to submit their portfolios before July 11, as courses tend to fill up quickly. Students will be notified of their acceptance no later than one month before the beginning of term. As acceptance is not guaranteed, students submitting portfolios are advised to register for an extra course to ensure against being left short of credits in case of non-acceptance. Repeatable for credit, with different content. Since all material presented in this course must be computer-generated, candidates should take this into consideration before making application.

Section A (Short Fiction): Seymour Mayne
Introduction: This introductory workshop focuses on the writing of short fiction. The professor’s written approval is required for registration in this course.

Method:
Discussion, seminars, and examination of literary texts, magazines, and online resources.

Grading:
Written work, 60%; attendance, class participation, and in-class work, 40%. All assignments are compulsory.

Texts:
No text required. Suggested readings will be brought to class attention throughout the term.

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Section B (Short Fiction and Science Fiction): Amal El-Mohtar
Amal El-Mohtar is the author of The Honey Month (Papaveria Press, 2009), a collection of poems and stories written to the taste of 28 different kinds of honey. Her poetry has won the Rhysling Award (2009, 2011) and the Richard Jefferies Prize (2012). Her short fiction has been nominated for the Nebula award and appeared in numerous anthologies including The Year’s Best Fantasy and Science Fiction (2011, Rich Horton, ed.), The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities (2011, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, eds.), The Mammoth Book of Steampunk (2012, Sean Wallace, ed.), Glitter and Mayhem (2013, Lynne and Michael D. Thomas, eds.), and Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories (2014, Julia Rios and Alisa Krasnostein, eds.), as well as in award-winning magazines such as Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, and Apex. She has written multiple essays on Doctor Who, included in Chicks Unravel Time (2012, Deborah Stanish and L. M. Myles, eds.), Queers Dig Time Lords (2013, Sigrid Ellis and Michael D. Thomas, eds.), and
Companion Piece (2014, L. M. Myles, ed.), and regularly contributes reviews and articles to NPR Books, Tor.com, and Publishers Weekly. She is also a founding member of the Banjo Apocalypse Crinoline Troubadours performance collective (bactroubadours.com) and Editor-in-Chief of Goblin Fruit (goblinfruit.net), an online quarterly dedicated to fantastical poetry.

Introduction: This introductory workshop to the craft of writing short fiction will have a special focus on the rhetorical modes of fantasy and science fiction. The first half of the course will be devoted to the study of craft and composition (voice, style, setting, worldbuilding, etc) through analysis and discussion of published
works, while the second half will consist of peer critique of students’ own work. Attendance and participation in class discussion are therefore key; this is reflected in the grading. The professor’s written approval is required for registration in this course.

Method:
Discussion, seminars, and examination of literary texts, magazines, and online resources.

Grading:
Written work, 60%; attendance and class participation, 40%. All assignments are
compulsory.

Texts:
No text required. Students are however encouraged to familiarise themselves with two reference texts:
Science Fiction: Stories and Contexts ed. Heather Masri. ISBN 978-0-312-45015-1
Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction ed. Jeff VanderMeer. ISBN 978- 1419704420
Further suggested readings will be brought to class attention throughout the term.

3 credits

Description: Study of major poets and prose writers of the Romantic period.

Section A: Ian Dennis
Introduction: This course offers an in-depth examination of one of the most important figures of British Romanticism, Lord Byron, and surveys other major texts from the period. We will devote about a month to Byron, as well as reading poetry and non-fiction prose by a range of other figures, including William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Final essay (40%), Term work (20%), Final examination (40%)

Texts:
Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Ninth Edition: Volume D,
The Romantic Period (Norton, 2012).
Lord Byron. The Major Works (Oxford 2008)

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Section B: Ian Dennis
Introduction: This course offers an in-depth examination of one of the most important figures of British Romanticism, William Wordsworth, and surveys other major texts from the period. We will devote about a month to Wordsworth, as well as reading poetry and non-fiction prose by a range of other figures, including William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats and Lord Byron.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Final essay (40%), Term work (20%), Final examination (40%)

Texts:
Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Ninth Edition: Volume D,
The Romantic Period (Norton, 2012).
William Wordsworth. The Major Works (Oxford 2008)

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Section C: Ian Dennis

3 credits

Description: Selected prose and poetry of the 20th century.

Section A: Dominic Manganiello
Introduction: This course offers an introduction to selected works by some of the main British writers of the twentieth century. Emphasis will fall on the intellectual and literary forces which shaped the modern period.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Class exam (20%); Essay (40%); Final Exam (40%)

Texts:
Stephen Greenblatt, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature (The Twentieth Century and After),
Vol. F. (Norton, 9th edition)
Virginia Woolf. To the Lighthouse. (Oxford)
T.S. Eliot. The Cocktail Party (Faber)
J.R.R. Tolkien. Tree and Leaf. (Harper Collins)

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Section C: Donald J. Childs
Introduction: We will study selected texts written between the 1880s and the 1950s by Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, T.E. Hulme, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Samuel Beckett, and a number of others. The goal will be to highlight strategies of innovation in technique, topic, and idea that authors used to make literature modern.

Method:
Lecture

Grading:
Students must write a paper of 2,000 words (worth 50% of the final mark). Students may write a second paper of 1,200 words, due at the exam, which will reduce the first paper’s value to 25% of the final mark and will itself count for 25% of the final mark. There will be a final exam worth 50% of the final mark.

Texts:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. Norton 2012. Vol F.

3 credits

Description: Short story in Canada from the 19th century to the present.

Section A: Janice Fiamengo
Introduction: This course surveys Canadian short fiction from the early twentieth century to the present, focusing on works by major writers in the genre.

Method: 
Seminar and Discussion

Grading:
Short essay (20%), Mid-term test (20%), Major Essay (30%), Final Examination (30%)

Texts:
Stephen Leacock, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (New Canadian Library)
Margaret Laurence, The Tomorrow-Tamer (New Canadian Library)
Alice Munro, Lives of Girls and Women (Penguin)
Alistair MacLeod, The Lost Salt Gift of Blood (New Canadian Library)
Zsuzsi Gartner, All the Anxious Girls on Earth (Key Porter)

3 credits

Description: Study of major works of the period, including Chaucer.

Section A: Geoff Rector
Introduction: This course offers a social and rhetorical introduction to Middle English literature, generally focusing on the Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, the reputed ‘Father of English Poetry.’ Along with the tales of this, Chaucer’s great unfinished masterpiece, we will read other major literary works of the Middle English period (1200-1500), including two poems of the alliterative tradition (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and St. Erkenwald), the short 13th century romance
‘Sir Orfeo,’ as well as some Middle English lyrics. These other works will allow us perspective, not only on the nature of Chaucer’s achievements– his paternity of English literature– but also on the question of the tradition or traditions of Middle English literature. That is, given its wide variety of form, style, dialect– and even language– and its patent differences, even alterity, from modern English literary traditions, we will ask how Middle English fits in to the tradition and how (or whether) we can consider Chaucer its progenitor.

Method:
Lecture and discussion

Grading:
Participation (20%: recitation 5%, response 5%, class participation and attendance 10%); Essay #1 (20%); Essay #2 (30%); Final Exam (30%)

Texts:
- Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Boenig and Taylor eds. (Broadview, 2008).
Available at Benjamin Books, 122 Osgoode.
- other texts and readings will be available via Virtual Campus.

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Section B: TBA

3 credits

Description: Study of major works of the period.

Sections A & C: Jennifer Panek
Introduction: A study of English literature of the sixteenth century, with focus on the development of the English sonnet tradition, and Book Three of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene.

Method:
Lecture and discussion

Grading:
Midterm 25%; term paper 30%; final exam 40%; class participation 5%.

Texts:
Edmund Spenser’s Poetry, ed. Hugh Maclean and Anne Lake Prescott (Norton)
Shakespeare, Sonnets (Signet Classic will be ordered for the course, but you may use any
edition as long as it has thorough footnotes)
A course reader containing sonnets from Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella, available at
Laurier Office Mart (226 Laurier Ave. E.)

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Sections B: Nicholas von Maltzahn
Introduction: A study of English literature from Wyatt to Shakespeare, with special reference to the poetry of the period. This section of the course emphasizes the works of Edmund Spenser and focuses on his epic The Faerie Queene.

Method:
Lecture and discussion

Grading:
Optional midterm 20%; Final essay 40% (50%); Final examination 40% (50%)

Texts:
Richard Sylvester, ed., English Sixteenth-Century Verse (Norton)
Philip Sidney, A Defence of Poetry, ed. J. A. Van Dorsten (Oxford)
Edmund Spenser’s Poetry, ed. Hugh Maclean and Anne Lake Prescott (Norton)
Shakespeare, Sonnets (any scholarly edition will do)
Texts will be available at Benjamin Books, 122 Osgoode.

3 credits

Description: Study of major works of the period.

Section A: Victoria Burke
Introduction: This course will study a selection of English poets from the seventeenth century, including Ben Jonson, John Donne, Mary Wroth, George Herbert, and Katherine Philips. We will also read John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Method:
Lecture, Discussion, and Small Group Work

Grading:
Midterm Take-Home Test (20%), Essay (35%), Class Participation (5%), Final Exam (40%)

Texts:
Seventeenth-Century British Poetry 1603-1660. Ed. John P. Rumrich and Gregory Chaplin. (New
York, 2006)
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. (New York, 2008) Course pack

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Sections B & C: Nicholas von Maltzahn
Introduction: A study of English literature from Donne to Dryden, with special reference to the poetry of the period. This section emphasizes the achievement of John Milton by focusing on his epic Paradise Lost.

Method:
Lecture and discussion

Grading:
Midterm 20%; Final essay 40%; Final examination 40%

Texts:
John Rumrich and Gregory Chaplin, ed., Seventeenth-Century British Poetry, 1603-1660 (New York: Norton, 2006)
John Milton, Paradise Lost, ed. David Kastan (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2005)
Texts will be available at Benjamin Books, 122 Osgoode.

3 credits

Description: Study of major works of the period. (Formerly: ENG3350).

Section A: Frans De Bruyn

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Section B & C: Sara Landreth
Introduction: This is a survey of English literature from 1688-1789. Eighteenth-century readers and writers witnessed revolutionary changes to their literary landscape. These transformations stemmed not only from a sharp increase in the number and kind of printed texts, but also from the shifting divide between what counted as “fact” and “fiction.” Our readings are organized under three generic headings: prose, drama and poetry. In all three units, we will discuss the cultural
contexts of religion, science, government, war and attitudes toward non-European cultures. We will address the major genres and modes of the period, including proto-novelistic fiction, the epistolary novel, travel writing, mock-epic, satire, pastoral and georgic conventions, ballad opera and comedy of manners.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Participation (10%), Midterm Essay (20%), Final Essay (35%), Final Exam (35%)

Texts:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. C (8th edition)
Frances Burney, Evelina (Broadview)

3 credits

Description: Readings in the 18th
- and early 19th
-century novel.

Section A: Sara Landreth
Introduction: This course focuses on seven works of prose fiction published between 1725 and 1818. These texts exemplify the popular genres, modes, and narrative forms of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain, including the secret history, the epistolary novel, the picaresque, the sentimental, the Gothic, and the mock-Gothic. This course will also consider a number of important cultural and historical factors, including warfare, religious movements, scientific empiricism, print culture, gender roles, and colonialism. The novels and proto-novelistic texts
on our syllabus respond to a network of interrelated lines of inquiry: What is an action? What is free will? What is self-control? What is belief? What is a reader? What is a writer?

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Attendance, Participation & Discussion Starters 10%; Midterm 20%; Term Paper 35%; Final Exam 35%

Texts:
Eliza Haywood, Fantomina and other Stories (Broadview)
Samuel Richardson, Pamela (Oxford)
Henry Fielding, Shamela
Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote (Oxford)
Frances Burney, Evelina (Broadview)
William Godwin, Caleb Williams (Broadview)
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (Norton)

3 credits

Description: Study of major poets and prose writers of the Victorian period.

Section A & C: Lauren Gillingham
Introduction: In this course we will study a selection of poetry, prose, and prose fiction from the Victorian period in order to examine the language and literary forms in which the Victorians articulated some of the key social, cultural, and political issues of their age. The issues that we will explore in the course include: the role of culture in an industrial society; religious doubt and scientific development; gender, sexuality, and identity; poverty, work, and class politics; and race,
empire, and civilization. The prevailing question that will structure our consideration of these issues will be: how does literature relate to and shape Victorians’ engagement of these issues? We will ask, that is, how and why does literature matter? To answer that question, we will analyze the ways in which the literary properties of our texts shape the Victorians’ articulation of social-historical concerns, and the ways in which we, as contemporary readers, engage with
those concerns.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Midterm Test (20%), Final Paper (35%), Class Participation (10%), Final Exam (35%)

Texts:
The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. 2
nd edition. Vol 5: The Victorian Era. (Broadview,
2012)
H. Rider Haggard. She (Broadview, 2006)

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Section B: TBD

3 credits

Description: Study of major Victorian novelists.

Section A: TBD

3 credits

Description: Study of dramatic literature produced in Britain over the course of the twentieth century.

Section A: Craig Gordon
Introduction: This course will explore a range of dramatic literature produced in Britain over the course of the twentieth century. Beginning with early-century responses to the theatrical forms (melodrama, the well-made play, and the drawing-room comedy) that dominate the Victorian stage, we will consider the influence of realist and naturalist theatre before moving on to examine the more
experimental, avant-garde theatre that becomes increasingly important in the later half of the century. We will be especially interested in exploring the ways in which the theatre functions as a powerful means of registering and responding to a range of important social and political changes that shape British culture across the century. How is the stage alternately (or sometimes simultaneously) used as a technology of social commentary, political activism, affective provocation, or philosophical reflection? In considering the plays on the syllabus, we will explore various interpretive strategies for approaching our texts, but will also examine the
limitations of treating them exclusively as examples of dramatic literature by attending to the institutional contexts and performance practices that shape their cultural significance.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Midterm: 20%; Participation: 10%; Term Paper: 35%; Final Exam: 35%

Texts:
Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest. Broadview
G. B. Shaw: Mrs. Warren’s Profession. Broadview
Cicely Hamilton: Diana of Dobson’s. Broadview
John Osborne: Look Back in Anger. Penguin
Harold Pinter: The Caretaker & The Dumb Waiter. Grove
Samuel Beckett: The Collected Shorter Plays. Grove
David Hare: The Secret Rapture and Other Play. Grove
Tom Stoppard: Arcadia. Faber
Sarah Kane: Blasted. Methuen Drama
Patrick Marber. Closer. Samuel French
*NB*: Due to questions of text availability, the syllabus is tentative. Students wishing to get a
head start on reading for the course should contact the professor for a finalized syllabus.

3 credits

Description: Advanced study and practice of contemporary critical methodologies. (Formerly: ENG2325).

Section A: Craig Gordon
Introduction: This course will provide an introduction to a range of influential literary and critical theories that have been articulated since, roughly, the turn of the 20th century. The goal of this course will not be to supplant our “naïve” reading practices with ostensibly more “scientific” approaches to the interpretation of literature, but to explore the history of recent theoretical models (including
feminism, formalism, historicism, Marxism, postcolonialism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, and structuralism) as a means of developing a series of theoretical vocabularies and frameworks within which we can reflect more rigorously and self-consciously upon what it is that we do when we read and interpret literary texts. The basic supposition of the course, that is, will be that even our most “naïve,” pre-critical acts of reading are predicated upon a number of important but often
unexamined assumptions about the nature of literary texts and the process of reading; it will be our goal to use various recent theoretical models as a means of critically reflecting upon and examining the implications of those assumptions. In that light, our investigations will be guided by a few key questions: How do we understand language, the medium in which all literary works are produced?
How do we understand specifically literary language (including questions of form), as opposed to the other sorts of language with which we interact on a day-to-day basis? How do we understand human subjectivity (either as the object of literary representation, or as it is affected by the act of reading)? And, how do we situate literary texts (and our interactions therewith) in relation to the broader social, cultural, historical, and political contexts within which they are produced and
received? Though the bulk of our attention will be devoted to reading, understanding, and responding to a variety of theoretical texts, we will also test the usefulness of our theoretical models in relation to the practical criticism of a small selection of literary texts.

Method:
Lecture and Discussion

Grading:
Midterm: 20%; Participation: 10%, Term Paper: 35%; Final Exam: 35%

Texts:
Course Kit of Theoretical Readings
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (Broadview Press)
Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness (Bedford/St. Martin’s Press)

3 credits

Description: A study of the works of Jewish Canadian writers in English. (Also offered as CDN3383).

Section A: Seymour Mayne
Introduction: This course will focus mainly on the work of the major Jewish Canadian writers who have emerged in the past seventy-five years. We will examine Klein's poetry and prose, then turn to the work of Irving Layton, Miriam Waddington, Adele Wiseman, Mordecai Richler, Leonard Cohen and other
contemporary figures. Attention will also be paid to the work in translation of Yiddish Canadian writers of the same period. We will consider how Jewish Canadian writers have influenced and shaped the development of Canadian literature, and how they have contributed to the recent multicultural renaissance in Canadian writing.

Method:
Lectures, class discussion, seminars; use of archival and audio-visual material.

Grading:
Seminar assignments including paper, class participation and attendance 60% (20% seminar presentation; 30% paper; 10% participation and attendance; tests and mid-term examination 40% (10%, 20%, 10%).

Texts:
The following texts are either in print and/or on reserve at Morrisset Library. Many are also available from book dealers specializing in Canadiana. Students need not purchase all of them and should consult the instructor before acquiring texts:
Klein, A.M., The Second Scroll (McClelland & Stewart, New Canadian Library)
___________, Selected Poems, Z.Pollock, S. Mayne and U. Caplan, eds. (University of Toronto Press)
Layton, Irving, A Wild Peculiar Joy: The Selected Poems (McClelland & Stewart)
Waddington, Miriam, Collected Poems (Oxford University Press)
___________, Apartment Seven: Essays Selected and New (Oxford University Press)
Levine, Norman, Champagne Barn (Penguin Books)
Wiseman, Adele, The Sacrifice (McClelland & Stewart, New Canadian Library)
Richler, Mordecai, The Street (McClelland & Stewart, New Canadian Library)
Cohen, Leonard, Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs (McClelland & Stewart)
___________, The Favourite Game (McClelland & Stewart, New Canadian Library)
Michaels, Anne, Fugitive Pieces (McClelland & Stewart)
Rotchin, B. Glen, Halbman Steals Home (Dundurn)
Mayne, S. and B. G. Rotchin, eds., A Rich Garland: Poems for A.M. Klein (Véhicule)
Telushkin, Joseph, Jewish Literacy (HarperCollins)

Information on 4000-level courses
The English department offers two kinds of courses at the 4000 level: seminars and special topics courses. Both kinds of courses provide an opportunity to read and discuss literature with a small group of advanced undergraduate students (no more than 15 in a seminar, and up to 25 in a special topics course) and a professor working within his or her particular area of interest. 4000-level courses, as you can see from the descriptions, are focussed on a specific topic, allowing you to explore a small, interrelated body of literary works with a level of depth and interaction not possible in large lecture classes. They are an excellent way to pursue further
study of an author, genre, period, or theme which you enjoyed in one of your earlier courses. That said, you are certainly not expected to be an expert in the course topic, or to have any special preparation beyond what you’ve already gained from the classes you’ve taken so far. In a seminar, you will be required to give one or more oral presentations, and, typically, to lead a period of class discussion afterwards. Your professor will provide detailed instructions on what these presentations should involve, and will be more than happy to discuss his or her
expectations. You will also be expected to be an active participant in class discussion throughout the term. Most seminars do not have a final exam (although some do), so your grade will typically be based on oral presentations, class participation, and a major essay submitted at the end of term. There may also be other required components, such as submitting brief written responses to readings, or posting on an online discussion forum. If you are planning to continue on to graduate school, seminars are invaluable preparation for the kind of work required in graduate courses. Special topics courses, organized for a somewhat larger group of students, are similar to seminars in many ways but may involve more lecturing and fewer student presentations. Some may require a final exam. While, like seminars, they provide intensive study of a specific literary topic, they are more geared towards the needs of students who do not intend to continue on to a Master’s program in English literature. This difference is reflected in the program requirements stipulating that all English Specialization students must take at least one seminar, while Major students may opt to take two special topics courses.

How to get the most out of your 4000-level courses:
• Read the course descriptions carefully and choose a course that genuinely interests you. This is your chance to take a class on a subject you enjoy, with other students who are similarly interested in the material. Besides, it’s much easier to participate in a class where people are talking about something you care about!
• Attend every class. The work of a seminar or special topics course is done in class,
through engaging with your classmates and your professor in discussion of the text for that class.
• Do your reading. Keeping up with the reading is important for any class, but especially for a small 4000-level class. It’s hard (not to mention risky) to talk about something you haven’t read. On the other hand, when you’ve done your reading, you’ll have the chance to direct the class conversation—which is largely student-driven—towards aspects of the text that interest you.
• Talk to your professor. Even if you don’t think you have questions about your
presentations or final paper, it is always helpful to go and discuss what you’re working on before you present or submit it.
• Don’t be intimidated. Professors understand that speaking up in class comes more
naturally to some students than to others, but they also expect you to make an effort. Don’t sit there in awe of your more vocal classmates: they don’t necessarily have any more insight into the text than you do. When in doubt, ask questions: good questions are even more welcome in class discussion than good answers!
Special Topic Courses

3 credits – Special Topic

Title: Modernity and (Dys)topia
Professor: Bernard Radloff
Introduction: This course will examine the Utopia of Thomas More and Bacon’s New Atlantis in the light of theories of modernity and two 20th century dystopian responses to early modern utopianism: Huxley’s Brave New World and Orwell’s 1984. More’s Utopia and Bacon’s New Atlantis will be critically examined in the light of the “secularization” thesis and competing theological theories of the foundations of modernity. The dystopias of Huxley and Orwell will be approached from related
perspectives with particular reference to Habermas’ defence of the Enlightenment and Foucault’s anti-Enlightenment narrative.

Method:
Lecture, Discussion, Presentations

Grading:
Paper 1: 30%, Presentation and Written Report: 20%, Final Take-Home Examination: 50% 

Texts: 
Bruce, Susan, ed. Three Early Modern Utopias. Utopia, New Atlantis, and The Isle of Pines. (Oxford)
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World (Vintage)
Orwell, George. 1984 (Penguin)
Course Area: Renaissance Term: Winter 2015 Timetable

3 credits – Special Topic

Title: Early Modern Women Writers and Genre
Professor: Victoria Burke
Introduction: In this course we will examine some recently discovered works in manuscript, as well as several somewhat better-known print texts, in order to interrogate how women used particular genres and subject positions to legitimate their writing. Considering works from the late sixteenth century through
the seventeenth century, we will consider autobiography, letters, and poetry, and explore their intersections with other genres such as romance and devotional writing. Elizabeth Isham’s life-writing surfaced a few years ago in two very different manuscript formats: a narrative account of her life in codex form, and a single sheet folded to form 36 square sections, into which she wrote cryptic details
for each year of her life. Isham’s self-presentation as a pious woman will be contrasted with the printed autobiographical accounts written by and about Mary Carleton, sensationally arrested for bigamy and later executed for theft. We will also consider extracts from the manuscript diary of Ann Clifford, who recorded her battles with the king to gain her inheritance, and the printed autobiography of Margaret Cavendish, which alternates between modesty and self-promotion. The letters of Dorothy Osborne, Bess of Hardwick, and those exchanged between Mary Hatton and Randolph Helsby, among others, will offer an opportunity to consider the rhetorical strategies and literary models the writers use. This course will
next examine secular and religious poetry of various types: the accomplished verse psalm translations of the celebrated Mary Sidney; the varied lyrics and Decalogue poetry of Anne Southwell; the dream vision of Rachel Speght’s quest for knowledge; the emblems, royalist poetry, and scientific commentary of Hester Pulter; and the elegies of Lucy Hutchinson.

Method:
Lecture, Seminar Presentation, and Discussion

Grading:
Participation (15%), Seminar Presentation including Written Report (25%), Term Paper (30%), Final TakeHome Exam (30%)

Texts:
(This list may change depending on whether the editions are published in time) :
Isham, Elizabeth. Book of Remembrance. Ed. and introd. Elizabeth Clarke, Erica Longfellow, and Alice Eardley (Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014)
Carleton, May. The Carleton Bigamy Trial. Ed. and introd. Megan Matchinske (Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014)
Pulter, Hester. Complete Works. Ed. and introd. Alice Eardley (Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014)

Course reader
Online editions of selected texts
Course Area: Eighteenth Century Term: Winter 2015 Timetable

3 credits – Special Topic
Title: Science Fact and Science Fiction 1640-1799
Professor: Sara Landreth
Introduction: This course explores Enlightenment intersections between science and fiction: how did natural philosophical debates influence imaginative writing (and vice-versa)? Inspired by discoveries in physics, astronomy, medicine and botany, Restoration and eighteenth-century authors wrote early examples of what we now call science fiction. For many Enlightenment writers, the boundaries between science fiction and science fact were not clear-cut. In his “factual” History of the Royal Society (1667), for example, Thomas Sprat describes an experiment that tested whether exposure to powdered unicorn horn caused spiders to become “enchanted”. The texts on our syllabus both celebrate and debate marvellous machines, human-plant hybrids and advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. We will address the problematics of empiricism and the difficulty of recording experience in writing. Our readings exemplify a wide range of genres, including the moon voyage, plague narrative, philosophical poetry, the Gothic, utopian and dystopian tales and ballooning narratives. 

Method:
Lecture and seminar

Grading:
Participation 30%; Presentation 35%; Final essay 35%

Texts:
Francis Godwin, Man in the Moone (Broadview)
Margaret Cavendish, Paper Bodies: A Margaret Cavendish Reader (Broadview)
Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year (Oxford)
William Beckford, Vathek (Oxford)
Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Huntly: Memoirs of a Sleep-walker (Hackett)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Norton)
Michael Murphy, A Description of the Blazing World (Freenhand)
- Texts are available at Benjamin Books
*Course Reader (at Laurier Office Mart)
Course Area: American Literature Term: Winter 2015 Timetable

3 credits – Special Topic

Title: Literature of California
Professor: Thomas Allen
Introduction: Once thought to be an island, California has always been distinct from the rest of the United States, even as it has also served as a repository of fantasy and a laboratory for social experimentation. Geographically and culturally diverse, with a population roughly equal to that of Canada and home to communities of immigrants from every part of the world, California is almost a country unto itself. This course will explore a small part of the rich literary heritage of this state, beginning with narratives of nineteenth-century intercultural contact and conflict
and continuing through major genres and movements such as the social novel, hard-boiled detective fiction, the beats, science fiction, and the literature of multiculturalism. We will pay some attention to films that are especially relevant to this literature, though obviously the topic of California in film could provide enough subject matter for several other courses.

Method:
Class Discussion

Grading:
Reading quizzes (205), Presentation (20%), 4-6 page paper (20%), Research paper (40%)

Texts:
Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968, FSG classics, 978-0374531386)
Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona (1884; Signet Classics, 978-0451528421)
Frank Norris, McTeague (1899; Oxford World’s Classics, 978-0199554898)
Dashiell Hammet, The Maltese Falcon (1929; Vintage, 978-0679722649)
Nathaniel West, The Day of the Locust (1939; in Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust, New Directions, 978-0811218221)
John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row (1937 and 1945; Penguin 978-0140048919)
Chester Himes, If He Hollers Let Him Go (1947; De Capo, 978-1560254454)
The Portable Beat Reader, ed. Ann Charters (Penguin, 978-0142437537)
Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums (1958; Penguin, 978-0140042528)
Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968; Del Rey, 978-0345404473)
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (1975; Vintage, 978-0679721888)
Gary Soto, New and Selected Poems (1995; Chronicle Books, 978-0811807586)
Films: The Big Sleep, dir. Howard Hawkes (1946)
Sunset Boulevard, dir. Billy Wilder (1950)
Chinatown, dir. Roman Polanski (1974)
Course Area: Canadian Literature Term: Winter 2015 Timetable

3 credits – Special Topic

Title: The Second Feminist Wave: Canadian Fiction of the 1960s and 1970s
Professor: David Staines
Introduction: Nellie McClung, L.M. Montgomery, and later Mazo de la Roche ushered in the first feminist wave in Canadian Fiction in the 1900s. In the 1960s a more robust and explicit feminist wave appeared in the fiction. Some of the important works will be studied in detail, focusing especially on their authors’ relationships with the first feminist wave and their knowing acknowledgement of a patriarchal system in their country’s fiction. Particular attention will be paid to the cultural and political events of the time and the feminist books that stand behind
these authors’ writings. Whether they are protofeminist or feminist works, these books will form the nucleus of our study of this topic.

Method:
Some lectures, mainly discussion.

Grading:
Attendance and participation: 20%; small term assignment: 30%; major term paper 50%.

Texts:
Margaret Atwood. The Edible Woman (NCL)
------------- . Surfacing (NCL)
------------- . Lady Oracle (McClelland & Stewart)
Marian Engel. No Clouds of Glory
--------- . Bear (NCL)
Margaret Laurence. The Prophet’s Camel Bell (NCL)
-------------- . The Stone Angel (NCL)
-------------- . A Jest of God (NCL)
Alice Munro. Dance of the Happy Shades (Vintage)
--------- . Lives of Girls and Women (Penguin)
Adele Wiseman. The Sacrifice (NCL)
Seminar Courses
Course Area: Renaissance Term: Fall 2014 Timetable

3 credits – Seminar

Title: Thomas Middleton, Jacobean Dramatist
Professor: Jennifer Panek
Introduction: “The Tudor Tarantino” was what the BBC recently called Shakespeare’s younger contemporary Thomas Middleton (c. 1580-1627) – an epithet that speaks to the violence, outrageous sexuality, black humour, and biting social commentary that characterize much of Middleton’s work. Beginning with his early satire of urbanization and consumerism, Michaelmas Term (c. 1604), this course examines eight of his finest plays, written alone or in collaboration. Among them will be
his scandalous theatrical depiction of a real-life female transvestite (The Roaring Girl, 1611); one of the best exemplars of the popular “city comedy” genre, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (1613), in which a prosperous Londoner enjoys being cuckolded for financial gain; and the bloody, sexually disturbing worlds of Middleton’s two tragic masterpieces, The Changeling (1621) and Women Beware Women (c. 1621). If Shakespeare was, in Ben Jonson’s famous words, “Not for an age, but for all time,” Middleton was very much a playwright producing entertainment for his own
time and place: London circa 1603 to 1625. For that reason, the study of his plays may offer even more insight into the fantasies and anxieties of ordinary early modern Londoners than those of his more famous contemporary.

Method:
Seminar and discussion

Grading:
Seminar presentation and leading discussion, 20%; term paper, 30%; final exam, 30%; class participation, 20%.

Texts:
The Roaring Girl (Norton Critical Edition)
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (Mew Mermaids)
The Changeling (Revels Student Edition)
Women Beware Women (Revels Student Edition)
The Revenger’s Tragedy (Revels Student Edition)
A course reader containing Mankind (the one play on the syllabus not by Middleton),
Michaelmas Term, A Mad World, My Masters, and The Maiden’s Tragedy
Course Area: Romantics Term: Fall 2014 Timetable

3 credits – Seminar

Title: The Orient in English Literature
Professor: Ian Dennis
Introduction: Starting with the first English rendering of the Arabian Nights (1704-14), this course will trace the developing idea of the “Orient” in a sequence of influential works of fiction, poetry and travel-writing. These will be supplemented with selected readings from critics such as Raymond Schwab and Edward Said. Did such literary texts express the self-satisfaction and dominance of European Enlightenment civilization, or were they challenges to that civilization? How does this literature relate to the Romantic celebration of the marginal, the authentic and the different, or to Romantic Nationalism? To what extent did images of the Orient express a sense of emptiness, even anguish, in the face of a model who sometimes seemed all plenitude and unimaginable gratification?

Method:
Seminar

Grading:
Seminar Work (50%), Final Essay (50%)

Texts: (all Broadview editions)
Anon. ed. Robert Mack. Arabian Nights Entertainments. (Oxford 2009)
William Beckford. Vathek. (Oxford 2013)
Lord Byron. The Major Works. (Oxford 2008)
Samuel Johnson. The History of Rasselas. (Oxford 2009)
Alexander Kinglake. Eōthen. (Northwestern University Press 1997)
Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Oxford 2008)
Syndney Owenson, Lady Morgan. The Missionary. (Broadview 2002)
Walter Scott. The Talisman. (Oxford 2009)
Wilfred Thesiger. Arabian Sands. (Penguin 2007)
Course Area: Modern British Literature Term: Fall 2014 Timetable

3 credits – Seminar

Title: A History of Ideas in Modern British Literature
Professor: Donald J. Childs
Introduction: Focusing upon the work of various modernist writers (T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, Virginia Woolf, Hilda Doolittle, D.H. Lawrence, W.H. Auden, Samuel Beckett, and a number of others), this course will study such literature’s engagement with ideas grouped under the following eleven headings (each the focus of a weekly seminar): anti-romanticism and anti-Victorianism, the death of god, creative evolution and time and consciousness, anthropology and myth, the occult, psychoanalysis, the woman question, World War One, fascism and Marxism,
existentialism, language and reality. ENG 3320 is recommended as good preparation for this course, but is not a prerequisite.

Method:
Seminar and Discussion: one class per week involves lecture and discussion; the other, seminar presentations by students.

Grading:
Students are required to write a term paper of 2,000 words (worth 50% of the final mark), and two papers of 1,000 words based on seminar presentations (each worth 25% of the final mark). There will be no final exam.

Texts:
Course Reader (distributed by professor).
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. Norton 2012. Vols D, E & F.
Supplementary materials in philosophy, anthropology, history, occultism, and so on, will be placed on reserve at Morisset Library.
Course Area: Modern British Literature Term: Winter 2015 Timetable

3 credits – Seminar

Title: The Character in Search of an Author: Ethical Realism and the Modern Novel
Professor: Dominic Manganiello
Introduction: The tendency of post-Nietzschean aesthetics to disregard the ethical dimension of literature has led to famous pronouncements about “the death of the author.” Taking his cue from Roland Barthes, David Shields, for instance, has recently proposed replacing the figure of “God the novelist” who creates a cohesive fictive world with that of the bricoleur who randlomly puts together fragments
of a “self-portrait in a convex mirror.” In their diverse ways, other prominent theorists have shied away from this strain of radical self-reflexivity in favour of affirming (with Wittgenstein) that “ethics and aesthetics are one and the same.” Notably, Mikhail Bakhtin distinguished between what he called “ethical solipsism (an immaculately pure relationship to oneself) [and] ethical-aesthetical
kindness toward the other” in an effort to combine the two categories in the end. From this critical perspective the “returning author,” in Seán Burke’s phrase, launches a collaborative aesthetic activity with his characters that seeks to balance the legitimate claims of authorship and authority with those of individual freedom and ethical responsibility. Prompted by their creative interaction, both author and hero in turn also make a “pact of generosity” with the reader that involves a free
gift of self in a shared narrative. The seminar will accordingly explore the theoretical implications of positing a relationship between self, story, character, and ethics. Of particular interest will be representations of personal identity that grow out of a fundamentally narrative apprehension of life, such as those involving “technologies of the self” (Foucault) and “confessional self-accounting”
(Bakhtin). To focus our discussions we will examine some of the key works by a significant group of modern writers that have contributed to the resurgence of ethical realism as a dominant mode in twentieth-century fiction.

Method:
Seminar and Discussion

Grading:
Seminar Paper (25%); Seminar Work (25%); Research Paper (50%)

Texts:
Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment. (Penguin)
Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray. (Oxford)
James Joyce. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. (Penguin)
Graham Greene. The Power and the Glory. (Penguin)
Evelyn Waugh. Brideshead Revisited. (Penguin)
William Golding. Pincher Martin. (Faber)
C.S. Lewis. Till We Have Faces. (Harcourt Books)
Flannery O’Connor. Wise Blood. (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
Muriel Spark. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. (Penguin)
Course Area: American Literature Term: Fall 2014 Timetable

3 credits – Seminar
Title: Contemporary American Fiction and Psychoanalysis
Professor: David Jarraway
Introduction: With the publication of William James’s Principles of Psychology in 1860, the brother of eminent American novelist Henry James thus established a critical approach to reading narrative fiction that has captured the imagination of readers of American novels ever since. To test precisely how viable this approach might be, the emphasis of this course will be on the “contemporary” as opposed to
the “classic” or “modern” novel (which students ideally will have had some exposure to from the “Introduction to American Literature” course as helpful background). Undertaking to explore, therefore, several basic principles of “narratology” derived mainly from psychoanalysis for better comprehension and appreciation of the contemporary American novelist’s craft will constitute the major objective of this seminar. This objective, moreover, will also be twinned with one closely
implicated in it as we shall see: namely, a further “multicultural” approach for speculating about a more recent canon of novel writing in America right up to the present day.

Method:
Problem-posting dialogue and discussion-in-group, rather than conventional lecture-format

Grading:
One project “Abstract” (10%), from which a standard “Conference Paper” (40%); then, a final “Take-Home Examination” (40%) complemented by a participation grade (10%).

Texts:
* P. Brooks, Psychoanalysis and Storytelling (included with Syllabus)
C. Crain, Necessary Errors (Penguin)
* A. Elliott & S. Frosh, eds., Pyschoanalysis in Contexts (Routledge)
E.J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying (Vintage)
T. Morrison, Home (Penguin)
J.C. Oates, My Sister, My Love (HarperLuxe)
-------------, The Accursed (Ecco)
P. Roth, The Prague Orgy (Vintage)
N. Baker, The Anthologist (Simon & Schuster)
J. Updike, Rabbit Run (Fawcett)
* Texts marked with an asterisk are works of “literary theory.” All the above texts available from the University of Ottawa Bookstore (located in the Unicentre).
SPECIAL NOTE: Students should have read and in hand Updike’s Rabbit Run for the first meeting of Term.
Course Area: Canadian Literature Term: Winter 2015 Timetable

3 credits – Seminar

Title: Contemporary English-Canadian Drama
Professor: Cynthia Sugars
Introduction: In this course we will study a range of contemporary Canadian drama, from the cultural-nationalist period in the late 1960s which saw the rise of regional theatres across the country, to the present day. Our discussions will consider the ways Canadian playwrights have attempted to stage, and often interrogate, understandings of the Canadian nation. We will focus especially on the ways
these writers engage with Canadian cultural icons and historical events, noting the various levels of celebration, parody, or ambivalence entailed in these representations. Our discussion of the plays will take place in combination with two theatrical productions by Ottawa’s Great Canadian Theatre Company or the National Arts Centre; part of the course requirements will be to attend these
productions and write reviews of the performances.

Method:
Lecture, seminar, discussion, and in-class activities

Grading:
Attendance and participation 10%; two theatre reviews 25%; presentation 10%; term paper 25%; final exam 30%

Texts:
David French, Leaving Home (Anansi)
John Gray/Eric Peterson, Billy Bishop Goes to War (Talonbooks)
David Fennario, Balconville (Talongbooks)
Tomson Highway, The Rez Sisters (Fifth House)
Theatre Passe Muraille, The Farm Show (Coach House)
Michael Healey, The Drawer Boy (Playwrights Canada)
Maria Campbell and Linda Griffiths, The Book of Jessica (Playwrights Canada)
Lorena Gale, Je me souviens (Talonbooks)
Frank Barry, Wreckhouse (Killick Press)
John Mighton, Possible Worlds (Playwrights Canada)
George Rideout, An Anglophone is Coming to Dinner (Playwrights Canada)
Drew Hayden Taylor, AlterNatives (Talonbooks)
Karen Hines, Drama: Pilot Episode (Coach House)
Nicolas Billon, Fault Lines (Coach House)
NB: Please note that this text list is subject to change.
Course Area: Creative Writing (Poetry) Term: Fall 2014 Timetable

3 credits – Seminar
Title: Advanced Workshop in Poetry
Professor: Phil Hall
Introduction: This creative writing workshop focuses on the writing of poetry and includes a survey of literary magazines and other avenues for publication of finished work. The professor’s written approval is required for registration in this course. Students may apply to register by submitting up to ten pages of their fiction to Creative Writing, Department of English, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5. Students will be selected solely on the basis of aptitude as indicated by
work submitted. Portfolios will be accepted and considered for admission until the course is full. Phil Hall won the 2011 Governor General's Award for Poetry in English, and the 2012 Trillium Award, for his book Killdeer. His most recent books are The Small Nouns Crying Faith (2013), and Notes from Gethsemani (2014).

Our Co-op Program

Students at the University of Ottawa also have the opportunity to take part in one of the best English literature Co-op programs in the country.  Balancing academic study with paid work-placements, Co-op students spend a total of four semesters working with employers in private and public sectors, in roles that include writing, editing, research, analysis, and marketing. 

The placement rate of English students consistently runs at nearly 100%, with students taking up positions throughout Ontario, and as far afield as Vancouver, Calgary – even Paris, Amsterdam, and Malaga. Because of our location in the national capital, our Co-op program offers unmatched opportunities for students interested in public service careers. Recent employers of English co-op students include Bombardier, Foreign Affairs, Alcatel, Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the City of Ottawa, and many more. 

For more information about applying and the program’s success, please visit:

http://www.coop.uottawa.ca/en/en-prospective-students/en-program-spec.asp?ID=6

The skills strengthened during the undertaking of a degree in English can then help in the process of choosing occupations that best fit your education and aptitudes, and it can also be used to communicate your employability.

Why Co-Op?

Co-operative education is an excellent pathway to careers that may be of interest to you. It also provides you with an excellent way to:

• Determine which business or industry areas best fit your skills and strengths;
• Gain valuable work experience beforegraduating;
• Fund your university education;
• Develop networks and learn how to be promoted and succeed in the workplace.

Applying for the English Co-op Program

When applying for regular admission to the University, you can also apply for direct admission to any Co-op program. If you have already registered at the University of Ottawa, you can apply for placement by September 30 of your second year of study. For more information about applying and eligibility requirements, please visit http://www.coop.uottawa.ca/en/en-prospective-students/en-program-spec.asp?ID=6 or apply in UoZone through the Applications menu, then click on Co-op Navigator. You can also contact the Co-op office by phone at (613) 562-5741 or by e-mail at coop@uOttawa.ca.

Studying for Your Future

Here are some examples of career opportunities and industries that greatly value the professional communication, research and analysis skills learned in an English program: