English
The Department of English Language and Literature offers a wide variety of courses leading up to both major and minor concentrations in English, as well as an honours degree. The core of the program reflects a traditional approach to English studies, including literary-historical and genre courses. What makes the department distinctive, however, are a number of courses cross-listed with other disciplines or programs, such as:
- Atlantic Canada Studies
- Linguistics
- Irish Studies.
This feature allows students to expand their area of academic study in ways that reflect interdisciplinary approaches and their own developing interests. The Department also offers enhanced minors in:
- Dramatic Literature,
- English Language,
- Culture, Race and Resistance,
- British Studies (in collaboration with the History department),
- and Creative Writing.
The Bachelor of Arts (BA) is a well-established, foundational degree and requires the requirements listed below alongside general graduation requirements.
Major in English
Students wishing to major in English must satisfy the general requirements set out by the Faculty of Arts, and complete forty-two (42) credit hours in English including three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level.
The Major Program (42 credit hours) consists of:
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Select three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level | 3 | |
| ENGL 2307 | Literary Traditions in English | 6 |
| Select six (6) credit hours in ENGL at the 2000 level 1 | 6 | |
| Select eighteen (18) credit hours in ENGL at the 3000 level | 18 | |
| Select nine (9) credit hours in ENGL at the 4000 level | 9 | |
| Total Credit Hours | 42 | |
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Practical Criticism (ENGL 2205) is recommended.
Concentration in English
A minimum of twenty-four (24) credit hours in English is required to obtain a concentration in English in partial fulfillment of the B.A. General degree (i.e., one with Double Arts Concentrations and a minimum of ninety (90) credit hours). Students must have a minimum of twelve (12) credit hours in English at the 3000 level or higher.
Further details are available from the Chairperson.
Honours in English
Students wishing to major in English with Honours must satisfy the general requirements set out by the Faculty of Arts, and complete sixty (60) credit hours in English including three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level.
The Honours program (60 credit hours) consists of:
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Select three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level | 3 | |
| ENGL 2307 | Literary Traditions in English | 6 |
| Select six (6) credit hours at the 2000 level 1 | 6 | |
| Select thirty (30) credit hours at the 3000 level | 30 | |
| Select six (6) credit hours of the Honours Seminar | 6 | |
| Select nine (9) credit hours at the 4000 level | 9 | |
| Total Credit Hours | 60 | |
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Practical Criticism (ENGL 2205) is recommended.
Note: Within the total sixty (60) credit hours, at least three (3) credit hours must be selected from the following English Language courses:
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| ENGL 2308 | Development of English Prose Style | 3 |
| ENGL 2311 | Modern English Language | 3 |
| ENGL 3402 | History of the English Language | 6 |
| ENGL 4493 | Doing Discourse Analysis | 3 |
Minor in English
A discipline-based Minor consists of at least twenty-four (24) credit hours in English with a maximum of three (3) credit hours at the 1000 level and a minimum grade point average of 2.0. This Minor is open to students in any program in the University (other than students currently enrolled in the English Major/Honours program).
All SMU students, including those in the English Major/Honours program, can choose to take one or more of the four thematic Minors offered through the Department of English Language and Literature:
Creative Writing Minor
Race, Culture and Resistance Minor
Dramatic Literature Minor
English Language Minor
The requirements for each Minor consist of: at least twenty-four (24) credit hours in English with a maximum of three (3) credit hours at the 1000 level and a minimum grade point average of 2.0.
Further details and annual lists of courses for each Minor are available from the Chairperson.
Students can also choose to take the British Studies Minor, offered jointly by the Department of English Language and Literature and the Department of History. Further details about this Minor are available from the Chairperson of English, or History.
Minor in Creative Writing
A minor in Creative Writing gives students a chance to make art — poems, stories, works for performance —out of words, and also to consider literature from a maker’s perspective. Our creative writing minors come from all over the university: some major in English; some major in other disciplines, entirely. What brings our students together is an experience of the vitality of both written and spoken word. Our core courses are seminars in poetry-, fiction-, drama-, and nonfiction-writing in which students have a chance to hone their craft(s) in company. We also offer a selection of lecture-style courses where students study literature from their vantage as scholar/makers, and respond to what they're reading in both creative and critical forms.
Students who declare a Minor in Creative Writing must take:
- at least twelve (12) credit hours in Creative Writing in at least two of the four genres offered (fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction)
- twelve (12) credit hours more in English courses beyond three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level.
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in English at the 1000 level
Strongly recommended courses: The Study of Poetry (ENGL 2393); The Study of Narrative (ENGL 2392)
The following courses are regularly offered; they can be considered to fulfill the minor credit requirement:
I. Seminar-style workshops
Admission to these courses is based on submission of a writing sample; please contact the creative-writing coordinators for details: alexander.macleod@smu.ca; luke.hathaway@smu.ca.
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| ENGL 3375 | Writing Fiction I | 3 |
| ENGL 3376 | Writing Fiction II | 3 |
| ENGL 3792 | Writing Poetry | 3 |
| ENGL 3793 | Writing for Performance | 3 |
| ENGL 3383 | Writing Prose-Non Fiction | 3 |
| ENGL 4475 | Writing Fiction-Advanced | 6 |
| ENGL 4477 | Writing Poetry-Advanced | 3 |
II. Lecture-based courses
General enrollment; no writing sample required.
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| ENGL/ACST 3307 | The Poetics of the Archive | 3 |
| ENGL/ANCS 3310 | Ancient Literature | 3 |
Minor in Culture, Race and Resistance
A minor in “Culture, Race and Resistance in Literature” brings together a diverse range of courses that examine issues of race, nationalism, globalization, social justice, activism, and cultural resistance. It enables students to specialize in the study of literature from transnational, translocal and interdisciplinary perspectives. The courses investigate postcolonial, anti-colonial, black and Indigenous writing alongside theories of cultural, feminist and literary analysis. The theories and literature examined cover a range of periods and cultures, and include topics such as:
- African women’s writing,
- South Asian literature,
- Mi’kmaq literature,
- black Atlantic and black British literature,
- Irish literature, and
- critiques of race and popular culture.
The minor offers an exciting opportunity for students to explore how literature reflects and galvanizes resistant cultural movements in ways that remold our contemporary world.
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level.
Strongly recommended courses: Literary Theory I (ENGL 3302), and/or Literary Theory II (ENGL 3303), Cultural Studies (ENGL 3343).
The following courses are regularly offered; they can be considered to fulfill the minor credit requirement:
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| ENGL 2261 | Postcolonial Literature: Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia | 3 |
| ENGL 2262 | Postcolonial Literature: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand | 3 |
| ENGL 2461 | Mi’kmaq Storytelling and Literature | 3 |
| ENGL/IRST 2537 | Ireland in Revolution, 1890-1922 | 3 |
| ENGL 3302 | Literary Theory I | 3 |
| ENGL 3303 | Literary Theory II | 3 |
| ENGL 3343 | Cultural Studies | 3 |
| ENGL 3361 | World Literature in English: Selected Focus | 3 |
| ENGL/IRST 3453 | Irish Drama in the 20th Century | 3 |
| ENGL 3462 | Post 1945 Black Brit Writing | 3 |
| ENGL 3470 | Contemporary Novel | 3 |
| ENGL 3521 | North American Indigenous Literature: United States | 3 |
| ENGL 3522 | North American Indigenous Literature: Canada | 3 |
| ENGL/ACST 3791 | Literatures of the Black Atlantic | 3 |
| ENGL 4464 | Postcolonial Literature: Special Topics | 3 |
| ENGL 4465 | Indigenous Literature Seminar | 3 |
| ENGL 4466 | Representations of Indigenous Womanhood | 3 |
| Special topic courses at 2000, 3000, and 4000 level 1 | ||
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See Handbook, produced annually.
Minor in Dramatic Literature
A minor in Dramatic Literature provides students with an opportunity to specialize in drama as a literary form read within a context of staging and theatre history and from a perspective of performance theory. A dedicated minor brings together courses covering drama from a wide array of historical, thematic, international, national, and regional backgrounds, beginning with the antique drama of Greece and Rome and extending to contemporary drama and performance. Students explore dramatic literature from a range of theoretical and cultural approaches that shaped the study of drama and theatre in their vibrant and diverse responses to society, politics, ideology, and history. Literature offers students a unique and exciting opportunity to study one of the oldest genres of literary and cultural expression and to understand it as an agent of cultural and social critique and change across its long history.
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level.
The following courses already exist and are regularly offered, and they can be considered to fulfill the minor credit requirement:
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| ENGL 2341 | Introduction to Drama I (Ancient Greece to 1700) | 3 |
| ENGL 2342 | Introduction to Drama II (1700 to Contemporary) | 3 |
| ENGL 3382 | Writing Plays | 6 |
| ENGL 3408 | Drama and Society - Restoration to 18th Century | 3 |
| ENGL 3409 | Drama and Society in the 19th Century | 3 |
| ENGL 3435 | 20th Century European Drama | 3 |
| ENGL 3437 | Canadian Drama | 3 |
| ENGL 3444 | Shakespeare I (comedies and romances) | 3 |
| ENGL 3445 | Shakespeare II (history plays and problems plays) | 3 |
| ENGL 3446 | Shakespeare III (tragedies) | 3 |
| ENGL 3447 | Shakespeare's Contemporaries | 3 |
| ENGL 3451 | British Drama since 1956 | 3 |
| ENGL 3453 | Irish Drama in the 20th Century | 3 |
| ENGL 3793 | Writing for Performance | 3 |
| Special topic courses at 2000, 3000, and 4000 level 1 | ||
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(See Handbook, produced annually). This includes the study-abroad course Selected Topics in Atlantic Canada Studies II (ENGL 3826) (Criticism and Performance) and Special Author,Special Subject (ENGL 4801) (Theatre and Text).
Minor in English Language
A minor in English language allows students to study the English language as a subject, explicitly focusing on its grammar, its history and varieties, its uses and users. In taking the minor students will not only acquire extensive knowledge of English, but also learn how to describe a particular language and its varieties, and how to linguistically characterize instances of discourse in English – from everyday talk and texts to literary genres. Such explicit knowledge of English is complementary to studies of English Literature, Linguistics, Modern Languages or indeed any field where explicit knowledge of the grammar, dialects, history, and discourse patterns of English might be useful.
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000 level.
Courses listed below can be taken for credit towards a Minor in English Language. On the recommendation of the program coordinator/chair of English, students may substitute a linguistics course and/or an English literature course in an area of particular interest and relevance for their program of study.
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| ENGL 2308 | Development of English Prose Style | 3 |
| ENGL 2311 | Modern English Language | 3 |
| ENGL 2312 | Varieties of English | 3 |
| ENGL 2326 | Language and Gender | 3 |
| ENGL 3402 | History of the English Language | 6 |
| ENGL 3404 | The Canterbury Tales | 3 |
| ENGL 3405 | Chaucer: Troilus & Criseyde | 3 |
| ENGL 3600 | Linguistics and Literature | 3 |
| ENGL 4427 | Language, Gender, and Power | 3 |
| ENGL 4493 | Doing Discourse Analysis | 3 |
| ENGL 4494 | Approaches to Discourse Analysis | 3 |
| Special topic courses at 2000, 3000 and 4000 level courses 1 | ||
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See Handbook produced annually.
In addition to the programs cited above, information on a Minor in British Studies may be found in the British Studies section of this Academic Calendar.