Courses

Situating literary research methods in the context of those of other disciplines, this course is designed to introduce new graduate students in English department to conceptual and methodological frameworks which characterize literary scholarship; how to perform literature reviews; specialized research and writing resources; critical methods for interrogating those resources; and relevant, emerging issues in scholarly communication.

This course studies satire from its the origins to the present but along a distinct through-line of the sub-genre called the grotesque. Melding repellent physicality with politically commentary, the grotesque invokes rude histories and contemporary dangers, producing abject responses to monstrous combinations of political horror and laughter.

Cross-listed in English, Humanities, and Translation Studies, this seminar introduces students to the conditions of emergence and development of the discipline of Comparative Literature from its beginnings in nineteenth-century Europe to its most recent global iteration of World Literature. Students will experience how expanded understandings of cultural translation and textuality have radically altered and expanded the Eurocentric character of the discipline. Questions for investigation include: How have the aesthetics and politics of Comparative Literature changed over the past two hundred years? What factors have influenced those changes? How is World Literature related to Comparative Literature? How do both relate to colonial, post-colonial, diasporic, cultural and translation studies and digital humanities?

This course examines the relationship between land, labour, and poetry from the classical origins of the georgic mode to the present day. Special focus is given to the relationship between georgic, transatlantic slavery, and settler colonialism in the long eighteenth century and beyond.

This course engages selected texts by Walter Benjamin and those of some fellow intellectuals of import for literary and cultural criticism and theory. Particular attention is paid to Benjamin’s thinking on history, language, criticism or critique, translation, and media.

Offers a comparison and contrast between British and American imperialist cultures in the long nineteenth century, from the American Revolution to the First World War. We begin with a historical overview and introduction to theories of imperialism, and proceed with such topics as territorial expansion, exceptionalism, theories of race, imperial women, slavery, and science fiction.

Examines Victorian representations of sexual pleasure and anxiety in a range of theoretical, historical, scientific, and literary texts.

This course explores Victorian literature and culture through readings drawn from a range of genres.

This course considers the literary response to geo-political and domestic dramas of the Cold War, and the attempt to rethink the purpose of culture in the 1950s and beyond. Emphasis will be placed upon emerging conceptions of race, ethnicity, and sexuality.

Examines the literary, musical, and visual cultures of modernism to create better understanding of the forms, meanings, and significance of interdisciplinary art practices.

In this course we will read and discuss contemporary literature and theory by and about Muslim/Middle Eastern women, with an emphasis on current world issues.

Along with matters of craft, this workshop course considers questions that confront poets: how to make poetry relevant in today’s society, what forms of attention does poetry allow, what relationship to poetic tradition is most effective, what is an effective relationship towards formal tradition and innovation, etc. All students will write both poetry and academic papers (critical and/or theoretical engagements with elements of contemporary poetry and poetics). Students taking the course as part of the GDiP in Creative Writing will be evaluated primarily on their poetry; other students will be evaluated on the basis of their academic work.

What exactly is realism in fiction? How is it challenged by other ways of telling? Where is the border between factual and fictional narrative? How do we engage creatively with a world in crisis? Readings will be drawn from a range of contemporary fiction and criticism, spanning regions and genres. Students will write fiction and a short critical paper.

This course explores contemporary theories of cultural, collective, archival and literary memory through transhistoric texts and transgeneric materials that have proven central to current configurations of memory studies.

This course focuses on texts and theories of contemporary English literature. The content and method change from year to year, depending on the instructor.

This writing workshop analyses the components of the dissertation proposal, discusses appropriate writing strategies, and provides a faculty-member-facilitated, peer-review setting for students to develop their dissertation topics and draft their proposals according to Faculty of Graduate Studies’ guidelines.