Our course listings are always being updated to reflect the most accurate descriptions. Please email the course instructor if you have any questions.
Click HERE for our Fall 2023 Course Offerings and HERE for Winter 2024. You can also scroll to the bottom of this page for our yearlong D-level courses for 2023-24.
Explore our different course requirements and discover specific routes through each program by clicking on the Programs & Courses menu. For specific advice regarding course selection and program requirements, please contact our Undergraduate Coordinator: eng-ugc.utsc@utoronto.ca.
SUMMER 2024 COURSES
ENGA02H3 Critical Writing about Literature
Instructor:
This is a writing-focused, workshop-based course that provides training in critical writing about literature at the university level. Throughout the term, students will examine and develop fundamental writing skills (close reading, critical analysis, organization, argumentation, and research). Specifically, this course aims to equip students with the practical tools and confidence to consult different academic writing styles, develop thesis-driven analyses, and produce short thesis-driven papers. The course will also provide overview of library research methods, MLA-style citation guidelines, and strategies for improving the craft of writing itself (grammar and style). While this course focuses on critical writing about fiction, it will also help students develop a set of transferrable skills that may be applied to various academic and professional settings.
English A02 is not a language course. All students entering the course are expected to have a basic grasp of the conventions of academic writing.
Instructor:
An introduction to the short story as a literary form. This course examines the origins and recent development of the short story, its special appeal for writers and readers, and the particular effects it is able to produce.
Instructor: Laura Jane Wey
An historical exploration of comedy as a major form of dramatic expression. Comedy, like its more august counterpart tragedy, has been subjected to centuries of theoretical deliberation about its form and function. In this course, we will read representative works of dramatic comedy and consider how different ages have developed their own unique forms of comedy.
ENGC43H3 Nineteenth-Century Literature and Contemporary Culture
Instructor:
An investigation of how nineteenth-century literature is translated into our contemporary world through art forms like music, architecture, film, television, graphic novels, or online and social media. What is it that makes us keep returning to the past, and how does each adaptation re-make the original into something new and relevant?
ENGD60H3 Topics in American Prose
Instructor:
This seminar course will usually provide advanced intensive study of a selected American prose-writer each term, following the development of the author's work over the course of his or her entire career. It may also focus on a small group of thematically or historically related prose-writers.
Instructor: Andrew Dubois
This course introduces the fundamentals of studying English at the university level, and builds the skills needed to successfully navigate English degree programs as well as a liberal arts education more broadly. Students will learn how to read texts closely and think critically; they will practice presenting their ideas in a clear, supported way; they will be exposed to a variety of texts in different forms and genres; and they will gain a working familiarity with in-discipline terminology and methodologies. Moreover, the course is an opportunity to explore the power exercised by literature on all levels of society, from the individual and personal to the political and global.
ENGB02H3: Effective Writing in the Sciences
Instructor:
This course will provide science students with practical strategies, detailed instructions, and cumulative assignments to help them hone their ability to write clear, coherent, well-reasoned prose for academic and professional purposes. Topics will include scientific journal article formats and standards, peer-review, and rhetorical analysis (of both scientific and lay-science documents).
Instructor: Andrew Dubois
An introduction to the understanding of poetry in English. By close reading of a wide range of poems from a variety of traditions, students will learn how poets use the resources of patterned language to communicate with readers in uniquely rich and powerful ways.
FALL 2024 COURSES
FALL 2024 A-LEVEL COURSES
A-level courses are meant to offer a wide-ranging introduction to the fundamentals of studying English. They are good starting places because they are intended to prepare you for any of the major or minor programs we offer, but you can also begin with B-level courses that fit your interests or schedule.
Note that you do not have to take our A levels in numerical order -- for instance, you can take ENGA02H3 before, after, or at the same time as ENGA01H3.
Instructor: Sonja Nikkila
Click here for a brief video introduction to this course!
This course introduces the fundamentals of studying English at the university level, and builds the skills needed to successfully navigate English degree programs as well as a liberal arts education more broadly. Students will learn how to read texts closely and think critically; they will practice presenting their ideas in a clear, supported way; they will be exposed to a variety of texts in different forms and genres; and they will gain a working familiarity with in-discipline terminology and methodologies. Moreover, the course is an opportunity to explore the power exercised by literature on all levels of society, from the individual and personal to the political and global.
ENGA01H3 covers a wide range of texts, from Charles Dickens's Bleak House to Lin Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, from canonical sonnets to Indigenous and racialized challenges to the form. We will look at nontraditional forms like webcomics, podcasts, and a text adventure video game, all while asking "What IS literature?" and "Who is it FOR?" and "What place is there for ME in literature?"
This course will be delivered online, with lectures having synchronous ("in person") and asynchronous (at your own speed) components. You will have some synchronous tutorial meetings, which give you the opportunity to discuss your ideas in a smaller group (led by a PhD student in English) and become comfortable asking questions and trying out new ways of thinking.
ENGA01H3 is a required course for our English Specialist, English Major, and English Minor. You can explore our degree requirements and routes through the program HERE.
ENGA02H3 Critical Writing About Literature
Instructors: TBA
Click here for a brief video introduction to this course!
Intensive training in critical writing about literature. Students learn essay-writing skills (explication; organization and argumentation; research techniques; bibliographies and MLA-style citation) necessary for the study of English at the university level through group workshops, multiple short papers, and a major research-based paper. This is not a grammar course; students are expected to enter with solid English literacy skills.
Conducted in sections of 25 students.
ENGA02H3 is a required course for our English Specialist, English Major, and English Minor. You can explore our degree requirements and routes through the program HERE.
ENGA03H3 Introduction to Creative Writing
Instructor: Andrew Westoll
An introduction to the fundamentals of creative writing, both as practice and as a profession. Students will engage in reading, analyzing, and creating writing in multiple genres, including fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and drama. This course will will include tutorial meetings, led by a graduate student in English, which give you the opportunity to discuss craft, analyze published work, do freewrites, and workshop your work with a smaller group.
Priority will be given to students who have declared, or are considering, a Major or Minor program in Creative Writing
ENGA03H3 is a required course for our Creative Writing Major and Creative Writing Minor. You can explore our degree requirements and routes through the program HERE.
ENGA10H3 Literature and Film for Our Time: Visions and Revisions
Instructor: Garry Leonard
Click here for a brief video introduction to this course!
An exploration of how literature and film reflect the artistic and cultural concerns that shaped the twentieth century.
Either ENGA10H3 (or ENGA11H3, which will be offered in Winter 2024) is required for our Literature and Film Minor. You can explore our degree requirements and routes through the program HERE.
FALL 2023 B-LEVEL COURSES
B-level courses are intended to offer an introduction to particular areas of study in English, typically based on region, time period, genre, or theme. None of the B-level offerings have pre-requisites, and all are pitched at an introductory level. You should feel free to take B-level classes at any stage of your degree.
Instructor:
This course introduces students to a diverse selection of recent writing by Indigenous authors in Canada/Turtle Island, including novels, poetry, drama, essays, oratory and autobiography. Discussion of literature is grounded in Indigenous literary criticism, which addresses such issues as appropriation of voice, language, land, spirituality, orality, colonialism, gender, hybridity, authenticity, resistance, sovereignty, and anti-racism.
ENGB02H3: Effective Writing in the Sciences
Instructor:
This course will provide science students with practical strategies, detailed instructions, and cumulative assignments to help them hone their ability to write clear, coherent, well-reasoned prose for academic and professional purposes. Topics will include scientific journal article formats and standards, peer-review, and rhetorical analysis (of both scientific and lay-science documents).
ENGB17H3: Contemporary Literature from the Caribbean
Instructor:
A study of fiction, drama, and poetry from the West Indies. The course will examine the relation of standard English to the spoken language; the problem of narrating a history of slavery and colonialism; the issues of race, gender, and nation; and the task of making West Indian literary forms.
Instructor:
A study of Dante’s Inferno and its influence on later art and literature. Inferno describes a journey through the nine circles of hell, where figures from history, myth, and literature undergo elaborate punishments. Dante’s poem has inspired writers and artists since its composition, from Jorge Luis Borges to Gloria Naylor to Neil Gaiman. In this course, we will read Inferno together with a selection of 19th, 20th, and 21st century works based on Dante. Throughout, we will explore how Dante’s poem informs and inspires poetic creativity, social commentary, and political critique. No prior knowledge of Dante or Inferno is necessary; we will encounter the text together.
ENGB27H3 Charting Literary History I
Instructor: Kara Gaston
An introduction to the historical and cultural developments that have shaped the study of literature in English before 1700. Focusing on the medieval, early modern, and Restoration periods, this course will examine the notions of literary history and the literary “canon” and explore how contemporary critical approaches impact our readings of literature in English in specific historical and cultural settings.
Pre-1900 course
ENGB27H3 is a required course for our English Specialist, English Major. You can explore our degree requirements and routes through the program HERE.
ENGB30H3 Classical Myth and Literature
Instructor: Laura Jane Wey
The goal of this course is to familiarize students with Greek and Latin mythology. Readings will include classical materials as well as important literary texts in English that retell classical myths.
Pre-1900 Course.
ENGB32H3 Shakespeare in Context I
Instructor: Heidi Craig
An introduction to the poetry and plays of William Shakespeare, this course situates his works in the literary, social and political contexts of early modern England. The main emphasis will be on close readings of Shakespeare's sonnets and plays, to be supplemented by classical, medieval, and renaissance prose and poetry upon which Shakespeare drew.
Pre-1900 course.
ENGB35H3 Children's Literature
Instructor: Ryan Stafford
An introduction to children's literature. This course will locate children's literature within the history of social attitudes to children and in terms of such topics as authorial creativity, race, class, gender, and nationhood.
Pre-1900 course.
ENGB60H3 Creative Writing: Poetry I
Instructor: Daniel Tysdal
An introduction to the writing of poetry. This course will provide an introduction to the writing of poetry through workshop sessions. Admission by portfolio.
Prerequisite: You need to have completed ENGA03 and successfully applied to the Major or Minor program in Creative Writing (click for program details). If you are a non-first year student and would like to apply for B-level Creative Writing courses, please submit a portfolio in the following manner: Email 5-10 pages of poetry to creative-writing@utsc.utoronto.ca. Please include your student number, and note if you are applying for the F or S term.
ENGB61H3 Creative Writing: Fiction I
Instructor: TBA
A focused introduction to the writing of fiction. This course will enable students to explore the writing of short fiction through reading, discussion, and workshop sessions.
Prerequisite: You need to have completed ENGA03H3 and successfully applied to the Major or Minor program in Creative Writing (click for program details). If you are a non-first year student and would like to apply for B-level Creative Writing courses, please submit a portfolio in the following manner: Email 5-10 pages of fiction or other prose writing to creative-writing@utsc.utoronto.ca.. Please include your student number.
ENGB63H3 Creative Writing: Creative Nonfiction I
Instructor: Andrew Westoll
A focused introduction to the writing of creative non-fiction. This course will enable students to explore the writing of creative non-fiction through reading, discussion, and workshop sessions.
Prerequisite: You need to have completed ENGA03 and successfully applied to the Major or Minor program in Creative Writing (click for program details). If you are a non-first year student and would like to apply for B-level Creative Writing courses, please submit a portfolio in the following manner: Email 5-10 pages of fiction or other prose writing to creative-writing@utsc.utoronto.ca. Please include your student number.
Instructor: TBA
In this course, students will learn to write critically about movies. We will watch movies and read film criticism, learning to write about film for various audiences and purposes. Forms of writing covered will include movie reviews, blogs, analytical essays, and research-based essays. This is a writing-intensive course that will include revision and peer review. Students will learn how to write academic essays about movies, while also learning about the goals and tools for writing about film for other audiences and venues
FLMB75H3 Cinema and Modernity I
Instructor: Garry Leonard
An investigation of film genres such as melodrama, film noir, and the western from 1895 to the present alongside examples of twentieth-century prose and poetry. We will look at the creation of an ideological space and of new mythologies that helped organize the experience of modern life.
ENGB78H3 The Digital Text: From Digitized Literature to Born-Digital Works
Instructor: Heidi Craig
This course explores the creative, interpretive, social, and political effects of our interactions and experiments with digital forms of literature: novels, short stories, plays, and poems, but also video games, online fan fiction, social media posts, and other texts typically excluded from the category of the "literary." The course attends both to texts written before the digital turn and later digitized, as well as to "born-digital" texts. It surveys the history of shifts within the media landscape - from oral to written, from manuscript to print, from print to digital. Over the course of the semesters, we will explore a variety of questions about digital literary culture, including: How does a text's medium - oral, manuscript, print and/or digital - affect its production, transmission, and reception? How do writers harness, narrate, and depict the use of digital technologies? How does digital textuality challenge earlier conceptions of "literature"? How does digitization shape our work as readers and critics? By reading "traditional" literary forms alongside newer ones, we will investigate how the digital age impacts literature, and how literature helps us grapple with the implications of our digitized world.
FALL 2023 C-LEVEL COURSES
Note that the pre-requisite for most C-level courses is any 6.0 university credits (if you began at UTSC before 2018, you can check into our curriculum changes). Most of our C-level courses strongly recommend the completion of ENGA01 and/or ENGA02. Some classes will have additional restrictions — make sure you check the Registrar's Calendar for specific details, and remember to check our Programs & Courses section to track your route through your chosen program.
ENGC04H3 Creative Writing: Screenwriting
Instructor: Daniel Tysdal
An introduction to the craft of screenwriting undertaken through discussions, readings, and workshop sessions.
ENGC05H3 Creative Writing: Poetry, Experimentation, and Activism
Instructor: Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
This course is a creative investigation into how, through experimentation, we can change poetry, and how, through poetry, we can change the world. Our explorations are undertaken through writing assignments, discussions, readings, and workshop sessions.
ENGC10H3 Studies in Shakespeare
Instructor: Laura Jane Wey
An in-depth study of selected plays from Shakespeare's dramatic corpus combined with an introduction to the critical debates within Shakespeare studies. Students will gain a richer understanding of Shakespeare's texts and their critical reception.
Pre-1900 course.
ENGC19H3: Transnational Literature
Instructor:
The world is increasingly interrelated - economically, digitally, and culturally. Migrants and capitalists move across borders. So do criminals and terrorists. Writers, too, travel between countries; novels and films are set in various locales. How have writers had to re-invent generic conventions to imagine the world beyond the nation and the new links among distant places?
Prerequisite: Any 6.0 credits
ENGC25H3: Victorian Poetry and Prose
Instructor:
An introduction to the poetry and nonfiction prose of the Victorian period, 1837-1901. Representative authors are studied in the context of a culture in transition, in which questions about democracy, social inequality, the rights of women, national identity, imperialism, and science and religion are prominent.
Pre-1900 course
Prerequisite: Any 6.0 credits
ENGC51H3: Contemporary Arab Women Writers
Instructor:
A study of Arab women writers from the late nineteenth century to the present. Their novels, short stories, essays, poems, and memoirs invite us to rethink western perceptions of Arab women. Issues of gender, religion, class, nationalism, and colonialism will be examined from the perspective of Arab women from both the Arab world and North America.
Prerequisite: Any 6.0 credits
ENGC79H3: Above and Beyond: Superheroes in Fiction and Film
Instructor:
This course will explore the literary history and evolution of the superhero, from its roots in the works of thinkers such as Thomas Carlyle and Friedrich Nietzsche to the wartime birth of the modern comic book superhero to the contemporary pop culture dominance of transmedia experiments like the “universes” created by Marvel and DC. We will explore the superhero in various media, from prose to comics to film and television, and we will track the superhero alongside societal and cultural changes from the late 19th century to the present.
Prerequisite: Any 6.0 credits
Instructor: Rakesh Sengupta
This course introduces students to cinema by, and about, immigrants, refugees, migrants, and exiles. Using a comparative world cinema approach, the course explores how the aesthetics and politics of the cinema of migration challenge theories of regional, transnational, diasporic, and global cinemas.
ENGC86H3 Creative Writing: Poetry II
Instructor: Daniel Tysdal
An intensive study of the writing of poetry through a selected theme, topic, or author. The course will undertake its study through discussions, readings, and workshop sessions.
ENGC88H3 Creative Writing: Creative Nonfiction II
Instructor: Erica Cardwell
An advanced study of the craft of creative non-fiction. Through in-depth discussion, close reading of exceptional texts and constructive workshop sessions, students will explore special topics in the genre such as: fact versus fiction, writing real people, the moral role of the author, the interview process, and how to get published. Students will also produce, workshop and rewrite an original piece of long-form creative non-fiction and prepare it for potential publication.
ENGC89H3: Creative Writing and Performance
Instructor:
This course connects writers of poetry and fiction, through discussion and workshop sessions, with artists from other disciplines in an interdisciplinary creative process, with the aim of having students perform their work.
Prerequisite: Any B-level course in Creative Writing; students in performance-based disciplines such as Theatre and Performance (THR) and Music and Culture (VPM) may be admitted with the permission of the instructor.
FLMC95H3 Indian Cinemas: Bollywood, Before and Beyond
Instructor: Rakesh Sengupta
This course will introduce students to various film cultures in India, with a focus on Bollywood, the world's largest producer of films. The readings will provide an overview of a diverse range of film production and consumption practices in South Asia, from popular Hindi films to 'regional' films in other languages. This is an introductory course where certain key readings and films will be selected with the aim of helping students develop their critical writing skills. These course materials will help students explore issues of aesthetics, politics and reception across diverse mainstream, regional and art cinema in the Indian subcontinent.
FALL 2023 D-LEVEL COURSES
D-level courses are smaller, more intensive explorations of a specific topic or theme. The seminar-style format means that emphasis is placed on discussion, and there is a greater expectation of independent and self-driven work. Our D-levels typically require at least 2 C-Level courses in English. Make sure to check the UTSC Calendar for any other requirements or recommended preparation information.
ENGD22H3: Special Topics in Creative Writing II
Instructor:
This multi-genre creative writing course, designed around a specific theme or topic, will encourage interdisciplinary practice, experiential adventuring, and rigorous theoretical reflection through readings, exercises, field trips, projects, etc.
Prerequisite: [0.5 credit at the B-level in Creative Writing] and [0.5 credit at the C-level in Creative Writing]
ENGD55H3: Literature, Politics, Revolution
Instructor:
This advanced seminar will focus on a selected writer or a small group of writers whose literary work engages with themes of politics, revolution and/or resistance. The course will pursue the development of a single author's work over their entire career, or the development of a small group of thematically or historically related writers, and may include film and other media. Topics will vary year to year.
Prerequisite: 2 C-level courses in English
ENGD58H3: Topics in Canadian Literature
Instructor:
Topics in the literature and culture of Canada. Topics vary from year to year and may include advanced study of ethics, haunting, madness, or myth; or a particular city or region.
Prerequisite: 2 C-level courses in English
ENGD59H3 Topics in American Poetry
Instructor: Neal Dolan
This seminar will usually provide advanced intensive study of a selected American poet each term, following the development of the author's work over the course of his or her entire career. It may also focus on a small group of thematically or historically related poets.
ENGD93H3: Theoretical Approaches to Cinema
Instructor:
Advanced study of theories and critical questions that inform current directions in cinema studies.
Prerequisite: 2 C-level courses in English
WINTER 2024 COURSES
WINTER 2024 A-LEVEL COURSES
A-level courses are meant to offer a wide-ranging introduction to the fundamentals of studying English. They are good starting places because they are intended to prepare you for any of the major or minor programs we offer, but you can also begin with B-level courses that fit your interests or schedule.
Note that you do not have to take our A levels in numerical order -- for instance, you can take ENGA02 before, after, or at the same time as ENGA01.
ENGA02H3 Critical Writing About Literature
Instructors: Erica Cardwell, Nicole Dufoe, Mitchell Johnston, Niyosha Keyzad, Jessica Elkaim, Rachel Windsor, Michael Reid
Intensive training in critical writing about literature. Students learn essay-writing skills (explication; organization and argumentation; research techniques; bibliographies and MLA-style citation) necessary for the study of English at the university level through group workshops, multiple short papers, and a major research-based paper. This is not a grammar course; students are expected to enter with solid English literacy skills.
Note: Conducted in sections of 25 students
ENGA02H3 is a required course for our English Specialist, English Major, and English Minor. You can explore our degree requirements and routes through the programs here.
ENGA03H3 Introduction to Creative Writing
Instructor: Andrew Westoll
An introduction to the fundamentals of creative writing, both as practice and as a profession. Students will engage in reading, analyzing, and creating writing in multiple genres, including fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and drama. This course will will include tutorial meetings, led by a graduate student in English, which give you the opportunity to discuss craft, analyze published work, do freewrites, and workshop your work with a smaller group.
Priority will be given to students who have declared, or are considering, a Major or Minor program in Creative Writing
ENGA03H3 is a required course for our Creative Writing Major and Creative Writing Minor. You can explore our degree requirements and routes through the program HERE.
ENGA11H3 Literature and Film for Our Time: Dawn of the Digital
Instructor: Sean Braune
Building on ENGA10H3, this course considers how literature and film responds to the artistic, cultural, and technological changes of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Either ENGA11H3 (or ENGA10H3) is required for our Literature and Film Minor. You can explore our degree requirements and routes through the program HERE.
WINTER 2024 B-LEVEL COURSES
B-level courses are intended to offer an introduction to particular areas of study in English, typically based on region, time period, genre, or theme. None of the B-level offerings have pre-requisites, and all are pitched at an introductory level. You should feel free to take B-level classes at any stage of your degree.
ENGB07H3 Canadian Literature 1900 to Present
Instructor: Kyle Kinaschuk
A continuation of ENGB06H3 introducing students to texts written from 1900 to the present. Focusing on the development of Canada as an imagined national community, this course explores the challenges of imagining an ethical national community in the context of Canada's ongoing colonial legacy: its multiculturalism; Indigenous and Quebec nationalisms; and recent diasporic and transnational reimaginings of the nation and national belonging.
Instructor: Erica Cardwell
Life-writing, whether formal biography, chatty memoir, postmodern biotext, or published personal journal, is popular with writers and readers alike. This course introduces students to life-writing as a literary genre and explores major issues such as life-writing and fiction, life-writing and history, the contract between writer and reader, and gender and life-writing.
ENGB25H3 The Canadian Short Story
Instructor: Joel Rodgers
A study of the Canadian short story. This course traces the development of the Canadian short story, examining narrative techniques, the\matic concerns, and innovations that captivate writers and readers alike.
ENGB28H3 Charting Literary History II
Instructor: Sonja Nikkila
An introduction to the historical and cultural developments that have impacted the study of literature in English from 1700 to our contemporary moment. This course will familiarize students with the eighteenth century, Romanticism, the Victorian period, Modernism, and Postmodernism, and will attend to the significance of postcolonial and world literatures in shaping the notions of literary history and the literary “canon.”
Pre-1900 course.
ENGB28H3 is a required course for our English Specialist, English Major. You can explore our degree requirements and routes through the program HERE.
ENGB30H3 Classical Myth and Literature
Instructor: Laura Jane Wey
The goal of this course is to familiarize students with Greek and Latin mythology. Readings will include classical materials as well as important literary texts in English that retell classical myths.
Pre-1900 Course
ENGB33H3 Shakespeare in Context II
Instructor: Jude Welburn
A continuation of ENGB32H3, this course introduces students to selected dramatic comedies, tragedies and romances and situates Shakespeare's works in the literary, social and political contexts of early modern England. Our readings will be supplemented by studies of Shakespeare's sources and influences, short theoretical writings, and film excerpts.
Pre-1900 course.
ENGB35H3 Children's Literature
Instructor: Ryan Stafford
An introduction to children's literature. This course will locate children's literature within the history of social attitudes to children and in terms of such topics as authorial creativity, race, class, gender, and nationhood.
Pre-1900 course.
ENGB60H3 Creative Writing: Poetry I
Instructor: Daniel Tysdal
An introduction to the writing of poetry. This course will provide an introduction to the writing of poetry through workshop sessions. Admission by portfolio.
Prerequisite: You need to have completed ENGA03 and successfully applied to the Major or Minor program in Creative Writing (click for program details). If you are a non-first year student and would like to apply for B-level Creative Writing courses, please submit a portfolio in the following manner: Email 5-10 pages of poetry to creative-writing@utsc.utoronto.ca. Please include your student number, and note if you are applying for the F or S term.
ENGB63H3 Creative Writing: Creative Nonfiction I
Instructor: Andrew Westoll
A focused introduction to the writing of creative non-fiction. This course will enable students to explore the writing of creative non-fiction through reading, discussion, and workshop sessions.
Prerequisite: You need to have completed ENGA03 and successfully applied to the Major or Minor program in Creative Writing (click for program details). If you are a non-first year student and would like to apply for B-level Creative Writing courses, please submit a portfolio in the following manner: Email 5-10 pages of fiction or other prose writing to creative-writing@utsc.utoronto.ca. Please include your student number.
Instructor: Matthew Stoddard
An introduction to the critical study of cinema, including films from a broad range of genres, countries, and eras, as well as readings representing the major critical approaches to cinema that have developed over the past century.
Instructor: Emilie Jacob, Michael Sooriyakumaran, Hugh O'Neill
In this course, students will learn to write critically about movies. We will watch movies and read film criticism, learning to write about film for various audiences and purposes. Forms of writing covered will include movie reviews, blogs, analytical essays, and research-based essays. This is a writing-intensive course that will include revision and peer review. Students will learn how to write academic essays about movies, while also learning about the goals and tools for writing about film for other audiences and venues.
Note: Conducted in sections of 25 students
ENGB72H3 Advanced Critical Writing about Literature
Instructor: Kathryn Franklin
Building on the fundamental critical writing skills students have already mastered in English A02, English B72 is designed to advance students' critical thinking and writing skills in response to a wide range of literary texts and genres. In this context, students will learn how to compose, develop, and organize sophisticated arguments; how to integrate and engage with critical sources; and how to polish their writing craft. Ultimately, students will become more confident in their writing voices and growing abilities.
ENGB77H3 Cinema and Colonialism
Instructor: Rakesh Sengupta
An introduction to cinema’s relationship to colonialism, decolonization, and postcolonialism. How has film constructed, perpetuated, and challenged colonial logic? We will explore this question by examining colonial cinema, ethnography, Hollywood genres, anti-colonial film, and postcolonial film practices.
WINTER 2024 C-LEVEL COURSES
Note that the pre-requisite for most C-level courses is any 6.0 university credits (if you began at UTSC before 2018, you can check into our curriculum changes). Most of our C-level courses strongly recommend the completion of ENGA01 and/or ENGA02. Some classes will have additional restrictions — make sure you check the Registrar's Calendar for specific details, and remember to check our Programs & Courses section to track your route through your chosen program.
Instructor: Randy Lundy
A study of major Canadian playwrights with an emphasis on the creation of a national theatre, distinctive themes that emerge, and their relation to regional and national concerns. This course explores the perspectives of Québécois, feminist, Native, queer, ethnic, and Black playwrights who have shaped Canadian theatre.
ENGC13H3 Ethnic Traditions in American Literature
Instructor: Neal Dolan
A survey of the literature of Native Peoples, Africans, Irish, Jews, Italians, Latinos, and South and East Asians in the U.S, focusing on one or two groups each term. We will look at how writers of each group register the affective costs of the transition from "old-world" communalism to "new-world" individualism.
ENGC14H3 Black Canadian Literature
Instructor: Karina Vernon
A study of the diverse and vibrant forms of literary expression that give voice to the Black experience in Canada, with changing emphasis on authors, time periods, Black geographies, politics and aesthetics. The range of genres considered may include the slave narrative, memoir, historical novel, Afrofuturism and “retrospeculative” fiction, poetry, drama, as well as the performance cultures of spoken word, dub, rap, DJing and turntablism.
ENGC15H3 Introduction to Theory and Criticism
Instructor: Sonja Nikkila
A study of selected topics in literary criticism. Schools of criticism and critical methodologies such as New Criticism, structuralism, poststructuralism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, gender and sexuality studies, New Historicism, and postcolonialism will be covered, both to give students a roughly century-wide survey of the field and to provide them with a range of models applicable to their own critical work as writers and thinkers. Recommended for students planning to pursue graduate study in English literature.
ENGC22H3 Victorian Popular Fiction
Instructor: Christine Bolus-Reichert
A study of popular fiction during the Victorian period. This course examines the nineteenth-century emergence of genres of mass-market fiction, which remain popular today, such as historical romance, mystery and detective fiction, imperial adventure, fantasy, and science fiction.
Pre-1900 course
Instructor: Laura Jane Wey
An historical exploration of comedy as a major form of dramatic expression. Comedy, like its more august counterpart tragedy, has been subjected to centuries of theoretical deliberation about its form and function. In this course, we will read representative works of dramatic comedy and consider how different ages have developed their own unique forms of comedy.
Pre-1900 course
ENGC41H3 Video Games: Exploring the Virtual Narrative
Instructor: Sonja Nikkila
How do video games connect to English literature? In what ways can they be “read” and assessed as storytelling texts? How do video game narratives reflect historical, cultural, and social concerns? Although active playing will be a required part of the course, students of all video game experience levels are welcome.
ENGC74H3 Persuasive Writing and Community-Engaged Learning
Instructor: Maria Assif
This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of rhetoric, the art of persuasive writing and speech. Students will study several concepts at the core of rhetorical studies and sample thought-provoking work currently being done on disability rhetorics, feminist rhetorics, ethnic rhetorics, and visual rhetorics. A guiding principle of this course is that studying rhetoric helps one to develop or refine one's effectiveness in speaking and writing. Toward those ends and through a 20-hour community-engaged learning opportunity in an organization of their choice students will reflect on how this community-based writing project shapes or was shaped by their understanding of some key rhetorical concept. Students should leave the course, then with a "rhetorical toolbox" from which they can draw key theories and concepts as they pursue future work in academic, civic, or professionlal contexts.
ENGC82H3 Topics in Cinema Studies
Instructor: Matthew Stoddard
A variable theme course that will feature different theoretical approaches to Cinema: feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytic, postcolonial, and semiotic. Thematic clusters include "Madness in Cinema," and "Films on Films."
The title this year is "Hitchcock's World".
Description: An introduction to analyzing the films of one of Alfred Hitchcock, one of the most renowned and influential directors of the 20th century. Focusing on a selection of the director’s most acclaimed films, the course will explore how psychology, morality, sexuality, gender, and class operate in Hitchcock’s world. Evaluation is based on quizzes and three writing assignments.
ENGC86H3 Creative Writing: Poetry II
Instructor: Randy Lundy
An intensive study of the writing of poetry through a selected theme, topic, or author. The course will undertake its study through discussions, readings, and workshop sessions. Admission by portfolio.
Pre-requisite: ENGB60, and admission to the Creative Writing Major or Minor. Click here for details on our Creative Writing programs. If you have been taking courses in the Creative Writing program prior to 2020, please contact creative-writing@utsc.utoronto.ca to check on your enrollment options.
ENGC87H3 Creative Writing: Fiction II
Instructor: Catriona Wright
An intensive study of the writing of fiction through a selected theme, topic, or author. The course will undertake its study through discussions, readings, and workshop sessions. Admission by portfolio.
Pre-requisite: ENGB61, and admission to the Creative Writing Major or Minor. Click here for details on our Creative Writing programs. If you have been taking courses in the Creative Writing program prior to 2020, please contact creative-writing@utsc.utoronto.ca to check on your enrollment options.
ENGC90H3 Topics in Classical Myth and Literature
Instructor: Laura Jane Wey
This course pursues the in-depth study of a small set of myths. We will explore how a myth or mythological figure is rendered in a range of literary texts ancient and modern, and examine each text as both an individual work of art and a strand that makes up the fabric of each given myth.
Pre-1900 course
Instructor: Sara Saljoughi
A study of select women filmmakers and the question of women's film authorship. Emphasis may be placed on the filmography of a specific director, or on film movements in which women filmmakers have made major contributions. Aspects of feminist film theory, critical theory, and world cinema will be considered, as well as the historical context of women in film more generally.
WINTER 2024 D-LEVEL COURSES
D-level courses are smaller, more intensive explorations of a specific topic or theme. The seminar-style format means that emphasis is placed on discussion, and there is a greater expectation of independent and self-driven work. Our D-levels typically require at least 2 C-Level courses in English. Make sure to check the Registrar's Calendar for any other requirements or recommended preparation information.
ENGD53H3 Studies in Popular Genres
Instructor: Christine Bolus-Reichert
Happily Ever After: The Romance Novel since Jane Austen. The least critically examined literary genre, the romance novel, is also the most popular, and its popularity has only continued to grow over the past decade, in the wake of BookTok, the pandemic, fanfic, and the worldwide success of online publishing platforms such as WattPad and Episode. In the first two thirds of the course, we will examine the history of the genre in English, and will engage with a variety of theories and methods for the study of the romance novel as we try to account for its enduring popularity, and why the genre is both loved and reviled. In the final third of the course, readings and projects will focus on recent developments in the genre, such as increasing diversity of authors and protagonists, new media, and the changing nature of the happy ending.
ENGD54H3 Comparative Approaches to Literature and Culture
Instructor: Daniel Tysdal
An in-depth examination of a theme or topic though literary texts, films, and/or popular culture. This seminar course will be organized around a particular topic and will include texts from a variety of traditions. Topics might include, for example, “Disability and Narrative” or “Technology in Literature and Popular Culture.”
ENGD59H3 Topics in American Poetry
Instructor: Neal Dolan
This seminar will usually provide advanced intensive study of a selected American poet each term, following the development of the author's work over the course of his or her entire career. It may also focus on a small group of thematically or historically related poets.
ENGD94H3 Stranger Than Fiction: The Documentary Film
Instructor: Alice Maurice
The study of films from major movements in the documentary tradition, including ethnography, cinema vérité, social documentary, the video diary, and "reality television". The course will examine the tensions between reality and representation, art and politics, technology and narrative, film and audience.
ENGD95H3 Creative Writing as a Profession
Instructor: Andrew Westoll
A practical introduction to the tools, skills and knowledge-base required to publish in the digital ages and to sustain a professional creative-writing career. Topics include: the publishing landscape, pitching creative work, and employment avenues for creative writers. Will also include a workshop component (open to all genres).
YEARLONG 2023-2024 COURSES
ENGD02Y3 Teaching Academic Writing: Theories, Methods and Service Learning
ENGD26Y3 Independent Studies: Creative Writing: Poetry
ENGD27Y3 Independent Studies in Creative Writing: Prose
ENGD28Y3 Independent Studies in Creative Writing: Special Topics
The three creative writing independent study courses are taught by creative writing faculty — please see the UTSC Calendar for enrollment requirements and procedures.
ENGD98Y3 Senior Essay & Capstone Seminar
Instructor: Karina Vernon
An intensive year-long seminar that supports students in the development of a major independent scholarly project. Drawing on workshops and peer review, bi-monthly seminar meetings will introduce students to advanced research methodologies in English and will provide an important framework for students as they develop their individual senior essays. This course is strongly recommended if you're thinking about pursuing graduate studies in English.
In addition to workshops and peer review, students will have the opportunity to work individually with the instructor and with a faculty supervisor in their chosen research area.
Depending on the subject area of the senior essay, this course can be counted towards the Pre-1900 requirement. Also, please see the UTSC Calendar for enrollment requirements and procedures.