Undergraduate Program Description

First year courses

Provide the beginning skills for our upper year courses. Students entering first-year can take Foundations of Literary Study (required of English majors) as well as any other first year courses offered.

Literature courses

Are designed to introduce students to an international range of engaging texts, including novels, poetry, drama and short fiction from different historical periods. Students also learn to critically read strategies of persuasion and representation in a variety of media that could include advertising, correspondence, political speeches and film.

English 1115: Foundations of Literary Study

An introduction to literary study, focusing on texts from the major genres (drama, poetry, prose) within their historical and cultural contexts. Emphasis will be given to the development of skills in critical analysis, research, writing, and documentation.

NOTE: ENGL 1115 is a required course for all English majors.

English/MDST 1116: Native & Newcomer Literatures in Canada: Contact Zones

An introduction to First Nations and settler literature in Canada, focusing on the ways in which the writing of these groups helps to define, negotiate, and critique the relationships between all Canadian treaty people. Texts from a variety of genres, such as fiction, travel and exploration narrative, life writing, poetry, songs, drama and film, will be studied in their historical, political, and cultural contexts.

English/MDST 1117: Introduction to Popular Culture

An introduction to the critical study of popular culture, considering definitions of “the popular” and how popular movements, genres, and subcultures emerge and develop. Popular culture theories and their applications will be covered; a variety of cultural texts will be analyzed.

English/MDST 1118: Introduction to Film Studies

An introduction to the practices of reading, analyzing, and writing critically about film. Elements including mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound will be examined. Film form and style in a variety of genres, such as the documentary, experimental film, narrative cinema, and animation, will be covered. Attention will be paid to the role of cinema, and cinema studies, as cultural institutions.

Writing courses

Offer the opportunity to hone writing and research skills academically or professionally in a variety of modes and forms, providing students with valuable tools for their future studies in whatever discipline they pursue.

English 1014: Introduction to Creative Writing

An introduction to the craft of creative writing. Genres studied may include: drama, poetry, prose fiction, creative nonfiction.

English 1015: Introduction to Academic Writing

An introduction to university-level standards of composition, revision, editing, research, and documentation. A review of English grammar (word and sentence level) and rhetorical forms (paragraph level and beyond), and a study of the methods and conventions of academic argumentation and research, with an emphasis on finding and evaluating sources, formulating research questions, developing arguments, and composing various types of analyses including academic essays.

English 1016: Introduction to Professional Writing

An introduction to professional-level standards of composition, revision, editing, research and documentation. A review of English grammar (word and sentence level), rhetorical forms (paragraph level and beyond), and a study of writing in a variety of professional contexts with an emphasis on assessing rhetorical situations and crafting messages to inform and persuade diverse audiences in a variety of forms and formats.

Second Year Courses

Second year courses are half-credit or 0.5FCE courses

Courses being offered this year include:

FALL 2024:

ENGL 2012 FA Creative Writing: Prose Fiction

ENGL 2014 FA Professional Writing

ENGL 2115 FDE Shakespeare

ENGL 2250 FA/FAO History of English Literature I

ENGL/INDI 2510 FA/FAO Global Literatures in English

ENGL/WOME 2810FA: Gender, Sexuality & the Body

ENGL 2817 FAO Creative Writing: Creative Nonfiction

ENGL 2913 FAO Intro Lit and Cultural Theories

ENGL 2916 FA/FAO Popular Texts and Forms

WINTER 2025:

ENGL 2012 WAO: Creative Writing: Prose Fiction

ENGL 2013 WA Creative Writing: Poetry

ENGL 2251 WA/WAO History of English Literature II

ENGL/INDI 2717WA/WAO Indigenous Lit in Canada

ENGL/WOME 2810 WA/WAO Gender, Sexuality & the Body in Literature

ENGL/MDST 2950 WA/WDE Science Fiction

Third year courses

Tend to be more focused. Topics include: Medieval and Tudor Drama, Chaucer, Shakespeare, 16th, 17th C and 18th C Literatures, Contesting America: Modernism, British Romanticism, Canadian Literature to the Centennial, 21st Century Indigenous Storytelling, Creative Writing, Children's Literature, Immigrant Literatures, Young Adult Literature, Global South Asia, Cultural Studies, Women's Writing and Special Topics.

Courses being offered this year include:

ENGL 3011 FDE Reviewing and Editing

ENGL 3410 FA/FAO British Romanticism

ENGL/INDI 3751 FA Indigenous Child and Young Adult

ENGL/WOME 3810 FA/FAO Global Women's Writing

ENGL 3850 FA/FAO Queer Texts

ENGL 3935 FA/FAO Global Africa

ENGL 3951 FA/FDE Immigrant Literatures

Fourth year courses

Provide additional specialization for Honours students. These classes are much smaller and much more intimate. To view course syllabi for current fourth year seminars, please contact our Administrative Assistant engl@lakeheadu.ca.

Courses being offered this year include:

ENGL 4014 FA Victorian Life Writing

ENGL 4014 FAO/FB William Blake & Visual Poetics

ENGL/MDST 4114 FA Honours Seminar Film Studies

ENGL/MDST 4114 FDE Postcolonial & Diasporic Cinema