First-Year Course Offerings
ENGL 115
University Writing and Research
(multiple sections)
An introduction to critical thinking and reading, academic writing, and research skills, consistent with the conditions and expectations students encounter as readers and writers at university.
ENGL 125
Literature and Culture
(multiple sections)
An introduction to the concept of literary genres that explores the relationship between literature and its historical and cultural contexts. This course emphasizes reading, research, and writing. See English 125 Sample Course Outline
ENGL 135
Literature and Criticism
(multiple sections)
An introduction to different ways of approaching and analyzing literary works to develop an awareness of the relation between literature and criticism. This course emphasizes reading, research, and writing. See English 135 Sample Course Outline
Go here for specific sections of first-year courses.
Also, see our special Cluster Courses with Media Studies.
Standard Department Handbook -
A Canadian Writer's Reference, 5th edition.Note: For all of its first-year courses the English department uses the writing handbook, A Canadian Writer's Reference, 5th edition (Diana Hacker, Bedford St. Martin's, 2012; ISBN- 9781457609046). An earlier edition, or a comparable handbook, may be an acceptable substitute — check with your professor.
To be updated soon:Course descriptions for some sections of
ENGL 115, 125, & 135.Fall 2011
Spring 2012
Fall 2011
ENGL 115
ENGL 115-F11N10(M 1-4:00) (Katharina Rout)
The Challenge of Writing about Human History
Course Description:
This course will make you more effective, competent writers by developing your writings skills hand in hand with your critical reading and thinking skills.
We will use Jared Diamond’s best-selling, award-winning, and controversial Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and the rich debate it triggered in several academic disciplines to study the relevance of audience and purpose, the structure of arguments, the conventions of grammar and punctuation, and the requirements of academic research.
Reading List:
Hacker, Diana. A Canadian Writer’s Reference. 5th ed. (including Hacker’s Exercises, 5th ed.)
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. With an Afterword about the Modern World
Evaluation:
Take-home assignment 10%
In-class essay 20%
Library assignment 5%
Participation, quiz, drafts for workshops, group work, in-class writing 15%
Research paper 25%
Final examination 25%
ENGL 115-F11N15(M/W 1-2:30), F11N26(T/R 2:30-4), F11N30 (T/R 11:30-1) (Ross MacKay)
Media and Culture
The premise of this course is that the improvement of writing skills is closely connected to the development of critical reading and thinking skills. We will look very carefully at pressing issues of our present world, including climate change, food production, propaganda, the public relations industry, war and terrorism, and mass media. The core readings will be posted on Moodle, which will also include links and video. Much of the course will be conducted in workshop fashion, with plenty of opportunity for class and group discussions.
Texts:
Diana Hacker, A Canadian Writer’s Reference, 4th ed. (with supplements), Bedford.
All other reading material available through Moodle.
ENGL 115-F11N17(M/W 4:00-5:30) & 115-F11N17(T/R 2:30-4:00) &
115-F11N17(M/W 8:30-10:00) (Jeannie Martin)As a child, did you ever ward off verbal cruelty chanting sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me!? As an adult, have you learned that words can indeed hurt? Words matter, for language provides the lens through which we make sense of the world around us. As our textbook Word and World points out, “We poison the seas in the name of ‘growth.’ We pay slave wages in the name of ‘fiscal responsibility.’ We scorch the sky in the name of ‘progress.’ We stock plutonium, anthrax, and bubonic plague in the name of ‘security.’” But language also has the power of positive shaping, and we develop our ability to succeed in life in the name of “good communication.” This course focuses on some of the most urgent events affecting us today and the language used to manage them: while helping improve our reading, writing, and thinking skills, it will also help us understand the world and our place within it.
ENGL 115-F11N22 (W 8:30-11:30)(Dawn Thompson)
Language, Truth, Reality
The primary goal of this course is to help you to develop the critical reading, thinking, and writing skills appropriate for university writing. This means that we will be focussing on the essay as a form, and on developing effective writing skills, including using correct grammar, sentence structure and punctuation, developing and arranging ideas, acquiring basic research skills, assessing subject, purpose and audience, and tailoring writing style to the specific rhetorical situation. Thus, through the critical study of selected essays and the practice of writing skills and strategies, this course is designed to help you become more competent writers in any setting: academic, professional or otherwise.
Most of us go through our days, weeks, months, lives, not really paying attention to how much language shapes our truths and realities. Our readings for this course consist of a mix of essays on advertising, tv, metaphors, orality and literacy, world views, and language itself. Paying attention to words themselves, rather than treating them as transparent, is one way into critical reading, which is a major objective of this course, and of a university education. This course is also partially reserved for students in the Arts One First Nations Program, so a good number of the readings will reflect the specific interests of that program. This offers an amazing opportunity to see to what extent language shapes our realities in very different ways.
Required Texts:
Diana Hacker, A Canadian Writer’s Reference (4th ed. with exercise booklet)
English 115: Language, Truth, Reality Reading Package
ENGL 115-F11N23 (T/R 8:30-10:00)(Anna Akinson)
Democracy, Ecology, Sustainability
Language is a powerful tool and, as anyone who has been teased on a playground knows, it can be a devastating weapon. Learning how it works and how it may be ethically used allows us to participate fully in an increasingly complex world of words. This course is designed to hone your ability to read, think, and write in ways that are clear, persuasive, and fundamentally ethical.
The study of critical writing teaches us how to organize our knowledge, express our thoughts and beliefs, and ask the questions we need answered. Perhaps the most important questions of our time are linked directly to the themes of Ecology, Democracy, and Sustainability. The importance of dealing with these issues clearly and ethically will be highlighted in this course. As we learn about the skills involved in academic writing, we will be examining readings that take on these themes both as they exist separately and as they interact.
ENGL 125
ENGL 125-F11N03 (T 13:00-16:00) & F11N13 (T R 8:30-10:00)
(Daniel Burgoyne)Monstrous Science
Scientific literature makes for monstrous science. In this course, we’ll read novels published in the nineteenth century, just as the novel was becoming a popular genre and science was becoming a household idea. From Frankenstein to Mr Hyde, from friendly cannibals to warring Martians, we’ll explore the emergence of early science fiction, trying to understand how science impacts literature and why it produces so many monsters. What do the monsters represent? Why do they want to destroy us? The aim of this course is to explore connections between these novels and their historical and cultural contexts. This course emphasizes reading, research, and writing.
Texts:
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Broadview)
H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (Broadview)
James De Mille’s A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder (Carleton)
Robert Louis Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Broadview)
Diana Hacker A Canadian Writer’s Reference, 4th edition (Bedford)
ENGL 125-F11N06 (T/R 10-11:30), F11N07 (F 9:00-12:00)
(Liza Potvin)This course will focus on stories of growing up, the literary genre called Bildungsroman. We will look at how growing up is addressed by different cultures, and compare the ways in which stories are told, looking at texts like Marlene Nourbese Philips' Harriet's Daughter, Gaetan Soucy's The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches, and various figures from fairy tales, folk stories, mythology, and popular culture as they appear in poems, stories, and novels.
ENGL 125-F11N09 (M/W 11:30-1:00) (Ross MacKay)
Breakfast in America, and so on . . .
“I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing sacred about myself or about any human being, that we were all machines, doomed to collide and collide and collide. For want of anything better to do, we became fans of collisions. Sometimes I wrote well about collisions, which meant I was a writing machine in good repair. Sometimes I wrote badly, which meant I was a writing machine in bad repair.” Breakfast of Champions.
Literature is created in a social, cultural, and intellectual context, and therefore we need to consider the importance of those contexts in an effort to gain a fuller understanding of the literature under consideration. This section of English 125 provides an introduction to the concept of literary genres by exploring the relation between literature and the various contexts of its production and reception. In addition to some poems and two short stories, we will study in depth Kurt Vonnegut's, Breakfast of Champions in an effort to understand the ways that a novelist can activate, expose, and satirize his culture, while attempting to hod true to certain ideals of its formation.
ENGL 125-F11N10 (M/W 2:30-4:00) (Anna Atkinson)
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Language reflects reality, but it does much more than this. It also creates the reality we live in by shaping our beliefs and understanding through the way we use words—and then naturalizing these beliefs through common expressions. If we remain uncritical about the way language affects our lived reality, we turn our power over to those who control our language, or to simple thoughtlessness about the consequences of our speech-acts.
This course looks at the creation of literature as one use of this reflective power of language, because a literary work reflects its culture. In fact, the culture in which a work is written can—and often does—have as much impact on the end result as the author. And the work, once written, can have an equally significant impact on culture.
In this course, we will examine literature, and its impact on culture, through the lens of genre, since genres often respond directly to cultural circumstances, and reflect different aspects of culture. Through this examination, we will develop skills that will allow us to read literature critically, and to apply our understanding to the world around us. We will develop the thoughtfulness of critics, and regain and/or refine the power we hold over the way we respond both to literature and to the culture that surrounds us.
ENGL 135
ENGL 135-F11N01 (R 1-4:00)
Keith HarrisonA Taste of Shakespeare: Texts, Performances, Criticism, Transformations, and Theory
Description:
Out of the abundance of four hundred years of artistic and critical response to the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, we will focus on how three famous plays have been variously read, staged, filmed, and thought about. Along with in-depth discussion of the selected books, we will watch several productions—mostly on screen but also on stage, since the fall project by VIU theatre is Romeo and Juliet. To gain a fuller understanding of Shakespeare’s remarkable presence in today’s world, we will explore through some lively essays a range of interpretive approaches. Why does he continue to be a global figure to be reckoned with—and one who is so widely enjoyed?
Reading List (in order):
Hamlet (Norton Critical Edition)
The Tempest (Norton Critical Edition)
Romeo and Juliet (Signet)
Diane Hacker’s Canadian Writers’ Reference 5eNote: Buy the specific Shakespeare editions listed above because many of the essays in criticism they contain will be integral to our consideration of Shakespeare’s ongoing significance.
ENGL 135-F11N02 (T/R 10:00-11:30 ), F11N03 T(/ R 11:30-1)
(Katharina Rout)How to Read World Literature
Course Description:
As globalization invites us to read more literature from around the world, we learn that literature plays a different role in different cultures. People read differently elsewhere—or may not read but instead listen to the stories of their culture. What happens to stories when they get written down? And what happens when literature gets translated? How much of our reading is shaped by issues of cultural dominance or economic and political power? And how can we best read, enjoy, and perhaps evaluate texts from other cultures?
In this course, we will read across time and across geographical, cultural, and linguistic boundaries to explore such questions. David Damrosch’s 2008 study How to Read World Literature (How to Study Literature) offers many literary examples and will guide our discussion of the theoretical issues. Two novels about experiences of indigenous people—Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach, from British Columbia, and Galsan Tschinag’s The Gray Earth, from Mongolia—will tell us about the survival of oral traditions and about the impact of translation and cross-cultural exchange. Should we be startled to find that they have much in common?
As the translator of The Gray Earth, I will share with you my insights into the work of Tschinag and into the nature of literary translation.
Please note that a significant part of the course will be focused on developing your writing and research skills.
Reading List (to be complemented by class handouts):
David Damrosch, How to Read World Literature (How to Study Literature)
Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach
Galsan Tschinag, The Gray Earth
Diana Hacker, A Canadian Writer’s Reference, 5th edition (with Hacker’s Exercises, 5th ed.)Evaluation:
Library assignment 5%
Take-home paper 15%
Research paper 30%
In-class writing assignments and participation 10%
In-class essay 15%
Final Exam 25%
Spring 2012
ENGL 115
ENGL 115-S12N01 (R 13:00-16:00) (Daniel Burgoyne)
Signs under construction: This course is a study of reading and writing in the university context. This section focuses on the relation between seeing (vision, sight) and meaning (what words do, what we want to communicate). We will look at examples of visual meaning (signs, icons) and study examples of graphic texts such as illuminated texts and comic strips.
ENGL 125
ENGL 125-S12N08 (T/R 8:30-10 (Liza Potvin)
This course will focus on stories of growing up, the literary genre called Bildungsroman. We will look at how growing up is addressed by different cultures, and compare the ways in which stories are told, looking at texts like Marlene Nourbese Philips' Harriet's Daughter, Gaetan Soucy's The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches, and various figures from fairy tales, folk stories, mythology, and popular culture as they appear in poems, stories, and novels.
ENGL 135
ENGL 135-S1201 (T/R 1:00-2:30)
Keith HarrisonA Taste of Shakespeare: Texts, Performances, Criticism, Transformations, and Theory
Description:
Out of the abundance of four hundred years of artistic and critical response to the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, we will focus on how three famous plays have been variously read, staged, filmed, thought about, and, in one case, re-written as a novel. Along with in-depth discussion of the selected books, we will watch several film productions. To gain a fuller understanding of Shakespeare’s remarkable presence in today’s world, we will explore through some lively essays a range of interpretive approaches. Why does he continue to be a global figure to be reckoned with—and one who is so widely enjoyed?
Reading List (in order):
Hamlet (Norton Critical Edition)
John Updike – Gertrude and Claudius (a novel)
The Tempest (Norton Critical Edition)
Macbeth (Norton Critical Edition)
Diane Hacker’s Canadian Writers’ Reference 5eNote: Buy the specific Shakespeare editions listed above because many of the essays in criticism they contain will be integral to our consideration of Shakespeare’s ongoing significance.
Special Cluster Courses with Media Studies:FALL 2011:
Popular Culture & University Writing & Research:
INTR 100 (F11N01) and (S12N01)
There is a Fall and a Spring section of this course: INTR 100 F11N01 & S12N01. Both descriptions are the same.
INTR 100: Popular Culture & University Writing
What is popular culture? If you grew up trading Pokémon cards, watching The Simpsons, reading Twilight, or skateboarding, the answer to this question might seem obvious. You could point at a skate park or a television or bring us posters peeled off your bedroom walls. How do you feel about pop culture? Is it trash or something more? How does it connect to other aspects of your life—like your relationships or your job? Does it really affect how you see the world or yourself? You already know that people constantly write about pop culture—you’ve read magazines and blogs or discussion forums—but do you know that researchers at universities also study and write about pop culture? This course will provide an integrated introduction to the study of pop culture and university writing and research.
Important Note Regarding Our New First-Year Program (Implemented September 2009) :
September 2009 marked the implementation of our new First-Year Program. English 111, 112, and 116 have been discontinued, and English 115 has a new title and description. Two new courses –- English 125 and English 135 -- have been added. (Descriptions of both the discontinued and the new courses can be found in the Calendar).
For the Degree English Requirement, you may take any two of English 115, 125, or 135, in any order.
If you have already taken English 111, 112, or 116, and you still require a second 3-credit English course, you may take either English 115, English 125, or English 135 to fullfil the Degree English Requirement. However, be sure to check with your Program to confirm the required combination of English courses.
English Majors and MinorsThe first-year requirements for English Majors and Minors likewise changes to:
Any two of English 115, 125, or 135, in any order.
See the complete description of requirements for Majors and Minors.
Fall 2011 Timetable
Spring 2012 Timetable
