The course examines representative selections of the poetry and prose of the high and late Renaissance period in England, covering a century from about 1580-1680, an era characterized by an impressive range of literary output that has never been rivaled in the western world.

Students study of seven representative plays (not covered in ENGL 551) of William Shakespeare and a selection of his sonnets. The Shakespearean works are read within the historically specific cultural context in which they were produced. The course pays particular attention to the way in which Shakespeare blurs generic, thematic, and ideological boundaries in his poetic and dramatic works — exploring his fusion of the tragic and the comic, the sacred and the profane, the noble and the plebeian, the fantastic and the historic, and the orthodox and the transgressive.

This course takes up the study of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Parliament of Fowls, and Legend of Good Women. Care is taken to develop a good reading knowledge of Chaucerian Middle English. The literary, social, economic, political, and spiritual principles in Chaucer’s texts, and the aesthetic techniques employed to shape them, will be situated within the historical and cultural contexts of Ricardian, or late fourteenth-century, England. Chaucer wrote for a populace that had confronted decimating plagues as well as social, economic, and religious upheaval.

A seminar in the reading and writing of literary nonfiction and in the development of a critical appreciation of its various forms. The course focuses on life writing in terms of its literary forms, as the authors’ responses to their culture, and as texts within which identity is shaped and altered by the intentional acts of their writers. Chosen texts demonstrate the art of life writing, as well as other paradigms for its interpretation and its literary and cultural influence.

A study of The Canterbury Tales and selected minor works, which may include The Book of the Duchess, The Parliament of Fowls, and Troilus and Criseyde. The course involves reading Chaucer’s texts in their historical and cultural contexts. The student will also develop a good reading knowledge of Chaucerian Middle English.

A survey of children’s literature from the sixteenth century to the present, examining representative texts and changing attitudes towards children and their books.

A study of the poetry created by the authors grouped under the term “Romantic.” Students will consider both the poetry and critical theories of these influential authors.

An intensive study of selected works by William Shakespeare situated in their Elizabethan and Jacobean contexts. Works studied may include selected sonnets, the comedies The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It, the problem play Measure for Measure, the tragedies King Lear and Macbeth, and the romance Cymbeline.

An intensive study of selected works by William Shakespeare situated in their Elizabethan and Jacobean contexts. Works studied may include: Venus and Adonis, the history play Richard III, the comedy The Merchant of Venice, the tragedies Titus Andronicus, Hamlet, and Antony and Cleopatra, and the romances The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest.

Introduces the burgeoning field of Indigenous literary studies, with a focus on literature written by Canadian Indigenous and Métis authors, poets, and playwrights. Applying “First Peoples Principles of Learning”, students will discuss, experience, examine, and write about several genres, including oral traditions, poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction. Through literature and language, students will explore the key themes of local knowledge and place, respect, resilience, and trust.