Courses

Course: CRWR 315: Topics in Writing Poetry | Advanced Poetry Workshop
Term: Fall 2025
Session: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Chris Hutchinson

Students will develop their craft through writing, sharing and discussing their original poems. In addition, this course will provide a brief introduction to a selection of emerging English-language poets who have published their first books in recent years. While we can’t track every shift in contemporary poetry, this course will explore key questions: What styles, themes and concerns define poetry today? How does our work engage with or challenge these trends? Through close reading, discussion and creative experimentation, we’ll refine our poetic voices and develop at least two polished poems that reflect our artistic growth.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in CRWR 295.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 381: Topics in Post-Colonial Literature | The Pakistani Novel
Term: Fall 2025
Session: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Sara Grewal

This course considers the wide range of writing from Pakistani novelists in the late 20th and 21st centuries, including works by Bapsi Sidhwa, Mohsin Hamid, Kamila Shamsie, Sorayya Khan, Muhammad Hanif and Fatima Bhutto. In considering these works, which range from poignant memoirs to political satire to social drama, students will gain a familiarity with the historical, social, economic and political circumstances that influence the shape of Pakistani society. We will also discuss the historical trajectory that brought the novel to prominence as an English-language literary genre in Pakistan. Finally, we will ask to what extent these writers’ works can and/or should be circumscribed by the label “Pakistani”; how do each of these authors simultaneously address both national audiences and international audiences as well as both local and global concerns?

Prerequisites: Minimum grades of C- in ENGL 102 and in three credits of university ENGL, not including ENGL 108, ENGL 111, ENGL 199 or ENGL 211.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 382: Topics in Literary Studies | Digital Literary History
Term: Fall 2025
Session: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Kathryn Holland

How does our immersion in digital media inform our study of literature? How does the use of technology in this historical moment relate to pre-digital forms of literary production and analysis? Students in this course will learn about digital approaches to literary history, examining how they inform the development and mobilization of knowledge about texts within their complex environments. Exploring primary literary sources alongside digital scholarship about them, we will consider the text encoding of 18th-century manuscripts (Women Writers Online), digitization of Victorian little magazines and visualizations of their contributors’ networks (Yellow Nineties 2.0) and multimodal close reading of modernist poetry (Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde), among other practices and methods. Theoretical sources will include texts by Walter Benjamin, Donna Haraway and Marshall McLuhan. Students will use digital technology to develop and share their own research projects for this course, though no previous experience with our platforms or tools will be required.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in three credits of 200- or 300-level ENGL, not including ENGL 205, ENGL 207, ENGL 211 or ENGL 297.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 389: Topics in Children's Literature | Monsters and the Monstrous
Term: Fall 2024
Session: AS01
Instructor: Dr. William Thompson

This course examines monsters and the monstrous in children’s and young adults' fantasy and science fiction from Alice’s Adventures to Harry Potter and from John Christopher to Suzanne Collins. Using a range of texts, the course will examine the monsters of children’s and young adults' literature in relation to shifting definitions of the monstrous and cultural constructions of the child.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in three credits of 200- or 300-level ENGL, not including ENGL 205, ENGL 207, ENGL 211 or ENGL 297.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 401: Studies in Genres | Defining Hard Science Fiction
Term: Fall 2025
Session: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Michael Brisbois

This course will examine the fraught definitions of the (possible) sub-genre of hard science fiction. A cursory glance at the notion of “hard” science fiction (and perhaps of science fiction as a whole) will demonstrate a clear pattern: a crisis of definition. Coined in 1957, the concept of “hard” SF has a long history of indeterminant meaning. In 1983, David Clayton debated its very existence in the theory collection Hard Science Fiction. Four years later, Fredric Jameson argued the concept places us in an “ideological double bind” and argued for the demarcation of more awareness of what might “increasingly impinge” on science fiction (“Shifting Contexts of Science Fiction Theory”). In the 1990s, psychological and experiential models were proposed, but Gary Westfahl encountered recurring taxonomic problems in his book Cosmic Engineers. In 2016, Tom Shippey lamented, “Why are there continuing debates within the field about ‘hard science fiction’…?” (Hard Reading: Learning from Science Fiction). For Shippey, the debate rests on the problem of objective truth, but we should consider a different problem in the function of descriptive and imaginative writing as a related issue.

Our course will pair scholarly attempts to define “hard” SF alongside recent works of science fiction lauded for their (supposed?) attention to science. Potential authors/directors include Connie Willis, Ted Chiang, Peter Watts, Martha Wells, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Christopher Nolan, Sue Burke, Andy Weir, Charlie Jane Anders, Kim Stanely Robinson, Cixin Liu, Catherine Asaro, Duncan Jones and Alex Garland. Students will find the course to be useful in considering how we define any literary genre.

Prerequisites: Minimum grade of C- in 12 credits of 200- or 300-level ENGL courses.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 481: Post-Colonial Theory and Practice | East European Literature in Translation
Term: Fall 2025
Session: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Svitlana Krys

In this seminar, we will approach and discuss a representative body of translated literature from Eastern Europe (with an emphasis on the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union) through the critical lens of post-colonial theory. Eastern Europe was a site of several major geopolitical shifts in the past and continues to be so in the current century, and its literature presents an example of the complex interplay between ideology, history and memory that authors use(d) to comment on political, historical and cultural issues in their respective countries. The course will start with the 19th century by examining narratives of national identity as they were formed in the respective regions then move to the 20th century, following the dissolution of the Russian Empire and the establishment and collapse of the Soviet Union. We will end with attempts in the 21st century to grapple with the complex legacy of the preceding epochs [that are seen in Russia's present (neo)imperialist war against Ukraine]. Overall, the course aims to show how the literature of Eastern Europe became a field of contested post-colonial narratives as the region strives to define itself and shed its totalitarian legacy of the Russo-Soviet past.

Prerequisites: Minimum grade of C- in 12 credits of 200- or 300-level ENGL courses.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 489: Literary Themes, Traditions and Phenomena | Geopoetics
Term: Fall 2025
Session: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Sergiy Yakovenko

The seminar will explore the phenomenological approach to space, understood as a relationship between the experience of a geographical place and its expression in poetry and prose fiction. For Scottish poet and essayist Kenneth White, who coined the term “geopoetics,” geographical space is the primary source of human imagination determining a poetic “dwelling” in the world. Rooted in Gaston Bachelard’s poetics of space, White’s geopoetics allows for further exploration of the intellectual and emotional experience of space as ambiance, geography, history, culture and anthropology. We will apply this approach to revisit a wide range of literary works from Homer through the Chinese “middle period” and premodern Japan to English Romantic poetry (William Wordsworth) and European modernism (Joseph Conrad, Bruno Schulz and Albert Camus) to twentieth-century Canadian literature (Howard O’Hagan, Sheila Watson, Margaret Atwood and Yasuko Thanh). The importance of memory and imagination allows us to interpret these works using concepts of autobiographical writing, genius loci, “spots of time,” etc. and enrich our reading of other compositions that are open to the outside world.

Prerequisites: Minimum grade of C- in 12 credits of 200- or 300-level ENGL courses.

Permission Required: No

Course: CRWR 314: Topics in Writing Fiction | Funny Story: Writing the RomCom Novel
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Jackie Baker

In this advanced fiction writing course, students will learn the expectations of the romantic comedy novel genre and will conceptualize, plot and outline their own original romcom novels, writing and submitting for workshop their first chapters. Substantive peer editing and workshopping will be weighted equally with creative content in this course.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in CRWR 295.

Permission Required: No

Course: CRWR 317: Topics in Creative Writing | A Genre-Bending Free-for-All
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Chris Hutchinson

This creative writing course is designed for writers of all kinds seeking to refine their craft, push artistic boundaries and engage in rigorous critical discussion. Radically open to all genres—including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and hybrid forms—the course emphasizes both technical mastery and creative risk-taking and provides a unique opportunity to work with a diverse group of writers in an open and fluid creative space. Through intensive workshops and close reading of contemporary and foundational texts, students will develop a deeper understanding of their own aesthetic sensibilities. Special attention will be given to revision as a dynamic, generative process. By the end of the semester, students will produce a portfolio of polished work, accompanied by a critical reflection on their creative practice.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in CRWR 295.

Permission Required: No

Course: CRWR 404: Advanced Seminar in Creative Writing | Writing Poems in Series
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Lisa Martin

This intensive seminar in creative writing will focus on writing poems in series. For student writers, beginning to think beyond writing individual poems to writing a number of poems that are connected to one another thematically, narratively and/or formally can be an important step in the development of poetic practice. In this advanced seminar, we will explore a range of ways to approach writing poetry in series or sequence, and each student will draft, workshop, revise and polish a portfolio of original work. This seminar will be run as a writing workshop. Students will be required to carefully read and constructively edit the work of their peers, drawing on their growing understanding of poetic craft.

Prerequisites: Minimum grade of C- in 9 credits of 300-level CRWR and consent of the department. Interested students must write to the instructor (lisa.martin@macewan.ca) by October 30, 2025, seeking permission to take the course and including a list of CRWR courses they have already taken. Eligible students will be notified and issued a permission number. Please note that after October 30, 2025, applications will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Permission Required: Yes

Course: ENGL 342: Topics in the Literature of the Long 18th Century | Augustan Women’s Writing
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Dave Buchanan

This course looks at writing by women in Great Britain during the Augustan Age from the late 17th to the late 18th centuries, across a range of genres (poetry, novel, short fiction, non-fiction) and styles (satire, pastoral, romance, comedy, polemic). Featured authors include Aphra Behn, Mary Astell, Eliza Haywood, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Jane Collier, Frances Burney, Phyllis Wheatley and Mary Wollstonecraft.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in three credits of 200- or 300-level ENGL, not including ENGL 205, ENGL 207, ENGL 211 or ENGL 297.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 350: Topics in Romantic Literature | British Romantic Poetry
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Mark Smith

Conventionally book-ended by the French Revolution in 1789 and the beginnings of modern democratic reform in 1832, the Romantic period in Britain was a time of intense social and political upheaval. This course acquaints students with the diverse poetry of the period in relation to its complex and volatile literary, intellectual and historical contexts.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in three credits of 200- or 300-level ENGL, not including ENGL 205, ENGL 207, ENGL 211 or ENGL 297.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 364: Topics in 20th and 21st Century Literature | Carceral Lyric
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Sara Grewal

In his 1832 essay “What is Poetry?”—now widely considered the most influential text for lyric studies—John Stuart Mill famously described the lyric poem as “the lament of a prisoner in a solitary cell.” The sonnet, as well, with its confining and exacting prescription of 14 lines of iambic pentameter, has been widely compared to a cell. And indeed, the context of incarceration has prompted some of the most famous poems of the 20th century, not the least of which comes to us from the gritty voice and compelling beats of Tupac Shakur. What compels writers to turn to poetry to voice their experiences of incarceration? How has poetry itself been conceived of as both so threatening as to warrant incarceration (in the case of several poets who have been jailed for their poetry) or so confining as to mimic incarceration? How do the contexts of Jim Crow segregation alongside worldwide (de)colonization in the 20th century inform our models for theorizing and reading poetry? In this course, we will consider poems written from prison alongside theories of the lyric as a “contained” form in order to investigate the carceral underpinnings of this genre. Primary texts will include selections from Bradley Peters’s Sonnets from a Cell; Reginald Dwayne Betts’s Felon: Poems; Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Zindan-nāmā (“Prison Tale”); Ho Chi Minh's Prison Diary; and Tupac Shakur’s All Eyez On Me.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in three credits of 200- or 300-level ENGL, not including ENGL 205, ENGL 207, ENGL 211 or ENGL 297.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 383: Topics in World Literature | The Vampire Myth
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Svitlana Krys

Ever since the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1897, the vampire has penetrated the popular culture of Europe and North America and has become a staple of TV series and films. Few people realize, however, that Dracula has his roots in Slavic folklore and that the vampire originally had nothing in common with bats, the fifteenth-century Wallachian prince Vlad Ţepeş or the drinking of blood. This course explores the origins of the vampire myth in Slavic demonology and traces the changes it has undergone as it moved from Slavic lands through several European cultures onto the modern screen. Folkloric, literary and cinematic texts are analyzed, and the evolution of the vampire myth is examined in the context of both national cultures and historical periods. Readings will include Slavic folkloric stories about vampires, historical tracts that addressed the 18-century vampire epidemics in the Balkans and literary works of both Slavic and British gothic authors such as John Polidori, Mykola Hohol, Oleksa Storozhenko, Alexey Tolstoy, Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker and others.

Prerequisites: Minimum grades of C- in ENGL 102 and in three credits of university ENGL, not including ENGL 108, ENGL 111, ENGL 199 or ENGL 211.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 387: Studies in Film Adaptation | Men of Steel
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Mike Perschon

While the last decade's deluge of superhero movies might lead one to believe cinematic capes and tights were successful only after the advent of digital wizardry, superheroes have appeared on the silver screen for over 80 years, with Superman being one of the first to thrill moviegoers in 1941. From the Oscar nominated cartoons of Max Fleischer to James Gunn's most recent take on the Man of Steel, Superman has appeared on both the big screen and the TV screen steadily, affording us an opportunity to not only study how film adapts other forms of narrative, but the history of comics, film and television. Furthermore, later Superman adaptations take us beyond the transposition of narrative from one medium to another; we get to see how a narrative changes when it's made into another genre. The TV series Lois and Clark is a romantic comedy; Smallville is a teen drama; and Man of Steel is an alien invasion movie. How does a narrative change when we change the narrative focus? Using Linda Hutcheon's foundational A Theory of Adaptation as our core textbook, readings from 80 years of Superman comics and a strong sampling of Superman onscreen, we'll see how a character changes over time and media. From leaping tall buildings to flying faster than the speed of light, we'll explore how Superman has remained relevant to audiences across generations.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in ENGL 288 or BCSC 205.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 388: Topics in Film Studies | Metacinema
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Joshua Toth

This course will consider the assumptions behind and uses of self-referential narrative strategies in 20th- and 21st-century film. While considering the historical and theoretical context in which metafictional forms developed, students will study films that implicitly or explicitly announce their fictionality or process of creation. Such films ostentatiously employ cinematic clichés or ridiculous plotting devices: characters suddenly speak to the camera; boom microphones “accidently” fall into frame; elaborate tracking shots expose clearly artificial sets; directors interrupt and reset scenes; etc. While looking at films such Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Woody Allen’s Zelig (1983), Sofia Coppola’s Maria Antoinette (2006), David Lynch’s Inland Empire (2006), Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya (2017), Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You (2018) and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon and Time … In Hollywood (2019), students will trace metacinema’s roots (in existentialism, absurdism and fabulism), identify its most salient characteristics and define its politics (or lack thereof).

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in ENGL 288 or BCSC 205.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 391: Topics in Literary Theory | Theories of the Subject
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. David Hollingshead

This course introduces students to the most influential theories of subjectivity that have shaped the fields of literary and cultural studies over the last hundred years. Drawing from Marxist, psychoanalytic, Foucauldian, poststructuralist, postcolonial, queer, feminist and Black studies frameworks, we will examine how the category of the subject has transformed in response to the historical conditions of its theorization. At the heart of these shifts is a generative paradox whose variations we will unpack over the course of the semester: the subject is both that which acts, observes, and creates and that which is acted upon, observed and created. Which forms of existence are granted subjectivity, how those subjectivities are recognized and reproduced, and through what forms of knowledge production new subjectivities are made legible will be the guiding questions of the course.

Prerequisites: A minimum grades of C- in 6 credits of 200- or 300-level university courses.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 402: Studies in Authors | Tolkien: Beyond The Lord of the Rings
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Romuald Lakowski

This course involves studying some of Tolkien’s other works apart from The Lord of the Rings. The main focus will be on Tolkien’s Legendarium culminating in the postumously published Silmarillion (1977), especially on the “Three Great Tales” contained in the “Silmarillion Tradition” (1916-1973): The Children of Hurin, The Fall of Gondolin and Beren and Luthien. These stories are primarily concerned with Tolkien’s elves and their relationships with select mortals: Tuor, Turin and Beren. The first half of the course will involve looking at some of Tolkien’s short stories: Roverandom, Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wootton Major and Leaf by Niggle as well as at least a couple of Tolkien’s major critical essays on Beowulf and fairy stories. We will also consider The Hobbit and its relationship to the “Silmarillion Tradition” using John Rateliff’s edition of the drafts of The History of the Hobbit. The second half of the course will focus on the Legendarium especially the “Three Great Tales” as outlined above. Throughout the seminar, we will cover a chapter or two of the published Silmarillion each week in conjunction with the weekly readings/presentations. Among the themes that could be investigated are Tolkien’s tragic love stories (especially between elves and mortals) and Tolkien’s dragons and other monsters. Students are encouraged to read the published Silmarillion beforehand. Reading List: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion; J.R.R. Tolkien, Tales from the Perilous Realm (includes The Essay on Fairy Tales); J.R.R. Tolkien, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics; J.R.R. Tolkien, The Children of Hurin; J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fall of Gondolin; J.R.R. Tolkien, Beren and Luthien; J.R.R Tolkien, The Hobbit in conjunction with John Rateliff, Ed., The History of the Hobbit (in library)

Prerequisites: Minimum grades of C- in 12 credits of 200- or 300-level ENGL courses.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 489: Literary Themes, Traditions and Phenomena | King Arthur in Literature and Film
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Pam Farvolden

This course traces the origins and development of the legend of King Arthur, its place in medieval English literature and culture, and its enduring popularity across time. The course begins with a brief look at the British origins of the Arthurian tradition, its chronicle treatment in Geoffrey of Monmouth and its medieval culmination in Malory’s monumental Morte d’Arthur. We will then turn to the transformations and uses of the legend in the 19th century, which saw a rekindling and explosion of interest in Arthurian material, and, finally, examine 20th- and 21st-century treatments of the tradition in both literature and film. Students can expect to read, view and analyze a variety of works in addition to Geoffrey and Malory, possibly including (and not necessarily limited to) works by Tennyson, T. H. White, Mary Stewart, Marian Zimmer Bradley, John Boorman, and—of course—Monty Python. As students examine these and other representative Arthurian works, they will not only learn about the underpinnings, background and attraction of this most potent of tales but also gain insight into the ways legend itself can grow, change, shape and be shaped by forces of literature, history and culture.

Prerequisites: Minimum grades of C- in 12 credits of 200- or 300-level ENGL courses.

Permission Required: No

Course: ENGL 494: Nineteenth Century Literature | Modernity and Mania in the Victorian Sensation Novel
Term: Winter 2026
Section: AS01
Instructor: Dr. Daniel Martin

This seminar introduces students to an advanced study of Victorian popular fiction of the 1860s, focusing exclusively on the genre of the sensation novel. Students will read novels by Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Wilkie Collins, two of the most celebrated sensation novelists of the decade. Seminar discussions will emphasize the influence of the gothic, mystery and romance genres; Braddon’s and Collins’s respective representations of the speed and pace of modern life in the 1860s; the sensation novel’s narration of scandalous and shocking representations of identity, gender, sexuality, class, race, disability, criminality and deviance; the emergence of the detective as a representative character type of modernity; and the forensic circulation of bodies and evidence in an age of accelerating modernization and mania. Students will also study the sensation novel’s debt to economic changes in Victorian print media and contemporary criticism of its shift in emphasis from character development to narrative incidents and formulaic plot devices.

Prerequisites: Minimum grades of C- in 12 credits of 200- or 300-level ENGL courses.

Permission Required: No