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 jump to 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 2023 COURSES
Instructor: Andrew Dubois & Ryan Stafford
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 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: Niyosha Keyzad & Ryan Stafford
Intensive training in critical writing atbout 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.
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.
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.
ENGB32H3 Shakespeare in Context I
Instructor: Alessandro Simaro
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.
Instructor: Srijita Banerjee
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: Andrew Dubois
A study of poetry written roughly between the World Wars. Poets from several nations may be considered. Topics to be treated include Modernist difficulty, formal experimentation, and the politics of verse. Literary traditions from which Modernist poets drew will be discussed, as will the influence of Modernism on postmodern writing.
Instructor: Iona Lister
A study of the Gothic tradition in literature since 1760. Drawing on texts such as Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, and Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, this course will consider how the notion of the "Gothic" has developed across historical periods and how Gothic texts represent the supernatural, the uncanny, and the nightmares of the unconscious mind.
Pre-1900 course
ENGD53H3 Studies in Popular Genres
Instructor: Andrew Dubois
We are diving deep into the amazing and long career of Anita Loos (1889-1981), one of the earliest (and most highly paid) screenwriters and script doctors for the movies; a best-selling novelist; a Broadway dramatist; a charming and witty memoirist; a writer of professional howto books; and a fashion icon. We’re going to read a lot of fun and breezy writing; watch a bunch of sometimes silly and sentimental, sometimes cynical and transgressive, pretty wonderful movies; and check out some relevant criticism and related creative work. We will also be looking at playbills, letters, manuscripts, and hats from my extensive Anita Loos collection. The overall outcome will be a greater familiarity with a range of popular genres and, hopefully, a newly acquired affection for one of the all-time stalwarts of Hollywood, the stage, and the popular page.
ENGD93H3 Theoretical Approaches to Cinema
Instructor: Erin Nunoda
This course examines relationships between queer looking and theorizations of cinema, focusing in particular on how an attentiveness to queer intimacies potentially transforms canonical portraits of cinematic identification, realism, and desiring circuits. In doing so, it not only addresses recent interventions into the field of queer film theory, but it also invites reflection on queer potentials latent in foundational arguments surrounding psychoanalytic subject formation, the cinematic apparatus, medium specificity, and aesthetic reading. Although this course will provide an overview of key touchstones in queer film history, it is less an overview of contributions by gender and sexual minority artists to cinema, and more of an exploration of how queer frameworks may illuminate interpretations of central cinematic operations (related to form, temporality, and spectatorship). In doing so, it illustrates how queerness is not a supplement to film theory – relevant only in discussions of representation – and how cinema is not a supplement to queerness, merely being the form through which existing ideas of identity are executed. Instead, this class emphasizes how queerness is inseparable from the basic mechanisms of the cinematic medium as well as how films and film theory can present new views on queer eroticism, community, and relationality. Here, queerness is present in the solicitation to look at images through an outside purview, in the urge to complicate divisions between public and private, in the pull to re-envision artificiality, in the capacity to meld identification and desire, in the need to reject a binary of affection and critique. The ultimate goal of this class is to elaborate manifold ways in which queerness can be used to alter our understanding of cinema, but also how cinema can be used to alter our understanding of queerness.
FALL 2023 COURSES
FALL 2023 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.
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: Neal Dolan
An introduction to the understanding of poetry in Enlighs. By close reading of a wide range of poems from a variety of traditions, students will learn how poets use the resources of pattered language to communicate with readers in uniquely rich and powerful ways.
ENGB06H3 Canadian Literature to 1900
Instructor: Karina Vernon
A study of Canadian literature from pre-contact to 1900. This course explores the literatures of the "contact zone", from Indigenous oral and orature, to European journals of exploration and discovery, to the works of pioneer settlers, to the writing of the post-Confederation period.
Pre-1900 course
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.
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.
Instructor: Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
A study of extended narratives in the comic book form. This course combines formal analysis of narrative artwork with an interrogation of social, political, and cultural issues in this popular literary form. Works to be studied may include graphic novels, comic book series, and comic book short story or poetry collections.
ENGB60H3 Creative Writing: Poetry I
Instructor: Randy Lundy
A focused introduction to the writing of poetry. This course will enable students to explore the writing of poetry through reading, discussion, and workshop sessions.
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.
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
ENGB75H3 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.
ENGC01H3 Indigenous Literature of Turtle Island
Instructor: Randy Lundy
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.
ENGC03H3 Topics in Canadian Fiction
Instructor: Marlene Goldman
An analysis of Canadian fiction with regard to the problems of representation. Topics considered may include how Canadian fiction writers have responded to and documented the local; social rupture and historical trauma; and the problematics of representation for marginalized societies, groups, and identities.
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.
ENGC06H3 Creative Writing: Writing for Comics
Instructor: Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
An introduction to the writing of comics undertaken through 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
ENGC23H3 Fantasy and the Fantastic in Literature and the Other Arts
Instructor: Christine Bolus-Reichert
A study of fantasy and the fantastic from 1800 to the present. Students will consider various theories of the fantastic in order to chart the complex genealogy of modern fantasy across a wide array of literary genres (fairy tales, poems, short stories, romances, and novels) and visual arts (painting, architecture, comics, and film).
Instructor: Laura Jane Wey
An exploration of major dramatic tragedies in the classic and English tradition. European philosophers and literary critics since Aristotle have sought to understand and define the genre of tragedy, one of the oldest literary forms in existence. In this course, we will read representative works of dramatic tragedy and investigate how tragedy as a genre has evolved over the centuries.
Pre-1900 course
ENGC59H3 Literature and the Environment
Instructor: Christine Bolus-Reichert
This course introduces students to ecocriticism (the study of the relationship between literature and environment). The course is loosely structured around several topics: the environmental imagination in literature and film, ecological literary theory, the history of the environmental movement and climate activism, literary representations of natural and unnatural disasters, and climate fiction.
Instructor: Sara Saljoughi
A study of Non-Western film. This course analyzes a selection of African, Asian, and Middle Eastern films both on their own terms and against the backdrop of issues of colonialism and globalization.
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.
ENGC95H3 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.
Instructor: TBA
Medieval authors answer the question “what happens after we die?” in great detail. This course explores medieval representations of heaven, hell, and the afterlife. Texts under discussion will include: Dante’s Inferno, with its creative punishments; the Book of Muhammad’s Ladder, an adaptation of Islamic tradition for Christian readers; the otherworldly visions of female mystics such as Julian of Norwich; and Pearl, the story of a father who meets his daughter in heaven and immediately starts bickering with her. Throughout we will consider the political, spiritual, and creative significance of writing about the afterlife.
ENGD62H3 Topics in Postcolonial Literature and Film
Instructor: Sara Saljoughi
An exploration of multicultural perspectives on issues of power, perception, and identity as revealed in representations of imperialism and colonialism from the early twentieth century to the present.
ENGD71H3 Studies in Arab North-American Literature
Instructor: Maria Assif
A study of Arab North-American writers from the twentieth century to the present. Surveying one hundred years of Arab North-American literature, this course will examine issues of gender, identity, assimilation, and diaspora in poetry, novels, short stories, autobiographies and nonfiction.
ENGD89H3 Topics in the Victorian Period
Instructor: Sonja Nikkila
Topics vary from year to year and might include Victorian children's literature; city and country in Victorian literature; science and nature in Victorian writing; aestheticism and decadence; or steampunk.
Pre-1900 course
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 and TBA
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 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.
ENGA11H3 Literature and Film for Our Time: Dawn of the Digital
Instructor: TBA
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: TBA
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: TBA
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: TBA
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: TBA
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: 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.
ENGB72H3 Advanced Critical Writing about Literature
Instructor: TBA
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."
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: TBA
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.