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 that provide students with the opportunity to study narrative, culture, language and discourse in interdisciplinary ways by taking courses that are cross-listed with other programs, such as:

• Atlantic Canada Studies
• Linguistics
• Irish Studies
• Women and Gender Studies 
• Languages and Cultures 

This feature allows students to expand their area of academic study through interdisciplinary approaches and in accordance with their own developing interests. 

The Department also offers minors in the following areas:

• Dramatic Literature
• English Language
• Culture, Race and Resistance
• British Studies (in collaboration with the History department)
• 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:

Course List

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

1

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:

Course List

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

1

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:

Course List

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	3
ENGL 4493	Doing Discourse Analysis	3

Minor in English

A discipline-based Minor in English 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). 

Thematic Minors 

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 the Minor consist of 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 to consider literature from a maker’s perspective. Our creative writing minors come from academic programs across the university. Students in the program share a common appreciation for the vitality of the written and spoken word.

Students who declare a Minor in Creative Writing must take:

Course List

Code	Title	Credit Hours
At least twelve (12) credit hours in Creative Writing in at least two of the four genres offered (fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction).		12
Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level.		3
An additional nine (9) credit hours in English courses.		9
Total Credit Hours		24

Each year, the Department offers a number of workshop-style 3-credit hours creative-writing courses in different combinations and different genres. Courses that are offered in rotation could be the following:

Course List

Code	Title	Credit Hours
ENGL 3375	Writing Fiction I	3
ENGL 3383	Writing Prose Non-Fiction	3
ENGL 3792	Writing Poetry Primer	3
ENGL 3793	Writing for Embodied Performance	3
ENGL 4473	Advanced Writing Fiction Workshop	3
ENGL 4477	Advanced Writing Poetry Workshop	3
ENGL 4480	Advanced Writing for Performance	3

For each year's offerings, please get in touch with the Chairperson of the Department. 

Minor in Culture, Race and Resistance 

A minor in Culture, Race and Resistance 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.

The requirements for the 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.  

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, although not every year. Please get in touch with the Chairperson of the Department for a current list of courses that can fulfill the minor credit requirement:

Course List

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		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

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.

The requirements for the 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.  

The following courses are regularly offered, although not every year. Please get in touch with the Chairperson of the Department for a current list of courses that can fulfill the minor credit requirement:

Course List

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		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		3
ENGL 3793	Writing for Embodied Performance	3
Special topic courses at 2000, 3000, and 4000 level

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.     

The requirements for the 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.  

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.

Course List

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	3
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

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. For current offerings, please contact the Chairperson of the Department.