200-level / Introductory Courses

Prerequisites: Open only to English Majors and Minors, or by special written permission of instructor.

Description: So why does anyone write literature? Even more importantly for us, why and how does anyone read it? Many people, some of whom you will know, will argue that studying literature, above all English literature, is irrelevant and useless today. Yet during the recent pandemic, many others found literary works of all kinds essential, not just as a form of escape into another world from a reduced reality but also as creative and imaginative stimuli that kept us active and engaged humans.

This course considers these questions by looking at the development of major non-dramatic works in English from the Anglo-Saxon period to the mid-18^th century. It introduces students to the early history of English literature, while reflecting upon the meaning of tradition, literary history, the idea of a “canon”, and especially the concept of “Englishness.” We will trace the development through time of specific literary forms and genres, including lyric, elegy, epic, satire, sonnet, romance, and pastoral. At the same time, we will explore the relation of literature to religion, politics, and culture broadly, to see why in different periods people read and write literature, and to follow the changing ideas of the writer and his/her role in society.

Foundational to further study of literature in the department of English, ENGL 202 prepares students for more advanced and specialized study in the department. Discussions in conferences and written assignments will help students develop skills of interpretation and communication.

Texts (texts are available at McGill Bookstore):

• Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol 1. 9^th Edition.
• Edmund Spenser’s Poetry. Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Anne Lake Prescott and Andrew D. Hadfield. (Included with the Anthology if purchased at the Bookstore)
• The Canadian Writer’s Handbook. 6^th Edition. Ed. William E. Messenger et al. Toronto: Oxford, 2015. (RECOMMENDED)

Evaluation: 20% mid-term; 40% 5-6 page term paper; 30% formal final exam;10% conference participation.

Format: Lecture and conferences.

Description: This is a survey of British literature from the late 18th century to the present. We will consider the main periods and literary directions—Romantic, Victorian, modern, postmodern and postcolonial—while simultaneously asking questions about the principles of periodization. As this timeframe covers a rich range of texts and authors from various backgrounds, we will discuss both established authors as well as writers who, until a few decades ago, were seldom considered to be part of the canon: women, writers of color, outsiders (Mary Wollstonecraft, Olaudah Equiano, Hanif Kureishi, Angela Carter, Linton Kwesi Johnson). In the case of the well-established writers (William Blake, Charles Dickens, Joseph Conrad, T.S. Eliot) we will draw on texts that showcase the plight of the working classes, distant imaginary or real landscapes, gender and sexuality, and less explored themes. We will study the characteristics of various literary genres, identify the cultural concerns specific to each period, and read the themes and formal elements of poetry, fiction and essays against the social and political background of each era. Finally, the class will assess how authors view literary tradition as well as perceived breaks with tradition to understand how the literary canon comes to be formed and how it changes from one historical moment to another.

Required Texts:

• The Norton Anthology of Literature, Major Authors, Volume 2, 10th edition
• Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
• Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway
• Sam Selvon: The Lonely Londoners
• Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day

Electronic coursepack

Format: Lectures and conferences.

Description: A representative sampling of Shakespeare’s plays will provide an introduction to the scope and variety of his drama as it relates to his cultural context and to most of the main genres of his writing. Shakespeare began creating plays around 1589, and the plays addressed in this course represent the development of his art from somewhat after its beginnings, up to its final phase, around 1612. They will be dealt with in chronological order, as in the following list of the course readings. The course will thus provide a strong foundation for appreciating and understanding Shakespeare’s drama.

Texts will be available in paperback for purchase at the Word bookstore, 469 Milton Street, 514-845-5640.

Since this course will have conferences, one particular day of classes (TBA) will be cancelled after the first week or two of term, throughout the rest of the term, and conferences will instead be provided at various times on that particular day instead. You will choose the conference time that suits your other commitments.

Texts:

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• As You Like It
• Twelfth Night
• Hamlet
• King Lear
• The Winter’s Tale
• The Tempest

Evaluation: Term paper, 45%; take-home final exam, 35%; course attendance and participation, 20%.

Format: Lectures and weekly conferences.

Description: A survey of American literature from its beginnings to the Civil War (1860). While we may begin with early writing—Native Americans, explorers, Puritans, or 18th-century figures such as Benjamin Franklin, for example—the main emphasis will be on literature from the first half of the 19th century: authors such as Irving, Douglass, and Stowe, with a special focus on the major writers of the “American Renaissance”--Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, Poe, Hawthorne, Whitman, and Dickinson. Particular attention will be paid to representative American themes, forms, and literary techniques. No attempt will be made to cover all major writers or writings.

Texts:

• Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography and Other Writings
• The Norton Anthology of American Literature: 9^th edition, Vol. B (1820-1865).

Evaluation (tentative): 20% mid-term exam; 25% essay; 15% conference participation; 40% final exam.
(All evaluation—on exams as well as essays—tests abilities in literary-critical writing and analysis; none involves short-answer or multiple-choice exams graded by computer.)

Format: Lectures and required discussion sections.

Description: This course will provide students with a broad survey of American fiction from the mid-twentieth century to the turn of the twenty-first. Through the close study of a diverse group of American writers, we will work to identify the evolving aesthetics of several distinct literary periods: from social realism and late modernism at mid-century, to the postmodern play of the 1960s and 1970s, to the varieties of contemporary experience at century’s end. We will encounter outlaws, scoundrels, detectives, veterans, fugitive slaves, and municipal elevator inspectors. Moreover, we will consider the literary history of the twentieth century alongside cultural and historical phenomena such as World War II, the atom bomb, suburbia, the civil rights movement, and the rise of TV. The reading list includes works by Petry, Nabokov, O’Connor, Vonnegut, Silko, Robinson, Morrison, DeLillo, Whitehead, and Egan.

Texts:

• Ann Petry, selected short stories
• Vladimir Nabokov, TBA Lolita or Pale Fire
• Flannery O’Connor, selected short stories
• Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
• Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
• Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
• Don DeLillo, White Noise
• Toni Morrison, Beloved
• Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist
• Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Final Text TBD by Student Vote

Evaluation: Lecture and Conference Participation (10%); Midterm (20%); Two Essays (45%); Final Exam (25%).

Format: Lecture and conferences.

Note: For English Majors, this course qualifies for the required three credits from a course in Canadian literature.

Description: A survey of English Canadian poetry and prose from the Second World War to the present. We will read a range of poetry and short fiction by many of Canada’s most accomplished writers in order to explore ideas about the nature of Canada and the literary representation of race, identity, politics, and indigenous experience in Canada. In addition to looking at the work of major authors from 1945 to the present, the lectures will also cover such topics as Canadian literary nationalism, realism, postmodernism, and different forms of experimentation. We will also look at the idea of the north as a central metaphor in Canadian writing and will discuss the economic and cultural forces accounting for the construction of a national literature. Students will be introduced to a number of concepts related to literary analysis. Please note that in addition to weekly lectures there will be one conference meeting each week.

Texts: Lecker, Robert, ed. Open Country: Canadian Literature in English. Toronto: Nelson, 2007.

Evaluation: Two in-class essay exams, a final take-home exam, participation, contributions to discussion boards.

Format: Lecture and conference.

Description: Theatre studies is a tree with deep roots and many branches: not only does the history of world theatre stretch millennia long, but theatre studies encompasses both textual analysis and investigation of all the aspects of a staged production: lighting, sound, movement, vocalizations and uses of language, set design, and stage-audience interactions. Given the complexity and breadth of the field, this course provides a critical introduction to theatre studies, focusing on play texts, drama theory, and theatre history. We will cover both western and non-western theatrical events, examining a range of works from Ancient Greek tragedy through contemporary Canadian and postcolonial performance, and including the Department of English mainstage show. Through the plays, we will examine what “theatre” is and does in different periods and places. We will learn how theatre is constituted by the material and social conditions of performance, codified in dramatic genres, and conceptualised in dramatic theory.

Texts:

• Play texts and production videos where available will be provided through MyCourses; these may sinclude Oedipus Rex; Bharata Muni’s Natya Shastra; extracts of Kālidāsa’s works; Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Loa to Divine Narcissus; Zeami’s Astumori; Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will; Anton Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard; Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman; Suzan-Lori Parks’s The America Play; Carol Churchill’s Cloud Nine; Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview; David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly.
• An online assortment of contextualizing information and secondary readings comprising excerpts of Bruce McConachie et al, Theatre Histories: An Introduction; E.J. Westlake, World Theatre: The Basics; The “Theatre &” Series from Palgrave Macmillan Press; and short journal articles where appropriate.

Evaluation: Forum posts, 20%; short essays, 20%; midterm exam, 30%; final exam, 30%.

Format: Lecture, discussion, and group work.

Description: Learn about some of the most popular types of theatrical performance of the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries; explore the different artistic roles of theatre production; experience live (and/or streamed) performance. By surveying a range of contemporary theatre forms that draw crowds across difference and connect with new audiences in Canada and the United States, the Art of Theatre aims to increase students’ understanding, appreciation, and critical perceptions of theatre. Units of study in Winter 2022 may include the following topics:

• musical theatre (e.g., Hamilton, Children of God, Wicked, Come from Away);
• immersive and site-specific theatre such as Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More (a mash-up of a Hitchcock film and Macbeth staged in a multi-floor fictional hotel)
• award-winning drama such as Twentysomething by Megs Calleja, Honour Beat by Tara Beagan, Sea Sick by Alanna Mitchell, A Brimful of Ashes by Ravi Jain, and Sweat by Lynn Nottage
• solo performance (e.g., Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, Taylor Mac’s 24-Hour History of Popular Music, John Leguizamo’s Latin History for Dummies, Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me,)
• new adaptations of classic plays (e.g., The Donkey Show, a queer disco adaptation of Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Gospel at Colonus – Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus set in a black, Pentecostal church; American Moor, an adaptation of Othello,)

Guest artists will take us behind the scenes to illuminate their roles in the creative process of play and production development: direction, acting, design, and production! Career opportunities for drama and theatre major and minors will also be presented.

Texts: A curated coursepack of readings and plays, largely made available electronically through the McGill library.

Evaluation: Participation; short paper; group project; final exam.

Format: Lectures, conference sections, performance attendance where / if possible, visiting artists.

Limited enrolment.

Open to declared Drama and Theatre Majors and Minors. Admission is by permission of the instructor.

Prerequisites: This class is restricted to declared Majors in Drama and Theatre who have completed or are completing ENGL 230 and ENGL 355. A waiting list will be kept for minors in Drama and Theatre. Admission is by permission of the instructor only: myrna.wyatt.selkirk [at] mcgill.ca

Description: The focus in this course is on the actor as communicator. Spontaneity and freedom from self-consciousness will be just two of the goals of the work. Students will test and explore ways to become more engaged, more open and more focused. Emphasis will be placed on exploration of the actor's resources - voice, body, imagination, emotion, intellect and the senses.

Texts: TBA

Evaluation: A combination of class participation (various exercises and presentations totaling approximately 60% of the evaluation) and various types of written assignments (approximately 40% of the evaluation).

Format: Improvisation; games; movement exercises; text interpretation; background research; scene work; warm-ups; discussion; class presentations.

Description: This course, a required course for Cultural Studies majors and minors, will introduce various critical efforts to theorize the aesthetics, semiotics, and politics of popular culture over the past century. Beginning with a few crucial theoretical touchstones (Barthes, Foucault, Barthes), we will survey such movements as the Frankfurt School, the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, critical race studies, postmodernism, queer theory, and affect theory, as they each formulate critical frameworks to explain how popular culture works. Along the way, we will consider the following questions: What does the “popular” in “popular culture” mean? Does the distinction between “high” and “low” culture have a political dimension? Furthermore, when we do cultural studies, whose culture should be investigated? What is the role of the critic? Finally, how can we grasp the meanings of popular culture: by examining the texts themselves, or by studying the audiences’ interpretations and uses of these texts?

Texts:

• Stuart Hall, Representation
• Roland Barthes, Mythologies
• Judith Butler, Gender Trouble
• Edward Said, Orientalism
• Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark

Evaluation: TBA

Format: Lecture, weekly TA-led conferences.

Expected Preparation: This course is intended for students in the Cultural Studies and World Cinemas programs. It is to be taken in the fall term of U1 or in the first fall term after the student’s selection of the Cultural Studies or World Cinemas program.

Course Description: This course is designed to prepare students in the Cultural Studies and World Cinemas programs for future film courses at McGill. The course will introduce the student to central concepts in film form and aesthetics, as well as key theories of film production and reception. The main goal of the course is to familiarize the student with analytical tools to investigate and explain how a film generates its multiple effects—in short, to articulate how a film works.

Films (list is subject to change):

• Man with the Movie Camera (U.S.S.R., Dziga Vertov, 1929)
• Exotica (Canada, Atom Egoyan, 1994)
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Germany, Robert Wiene, 1920)
• Do the Right Thing (U.S.A., Spike Lee, 1989)
• Breathless (France, Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
• The Conversation (U.S.A., Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (U.S.A., John Ford, 1962)
• The Hole (Taiwan, Tsai Ming-Liang, 1998)
• The Thin Blue Line (U.S.A., Errol Morris, 1988)
• Meshes of the Afternoon (U.S.A., Maya Deren, 1945)
• Scorpio Rising (U.S.A., Kenneth Anger, 1964)
• Dog Man Star: Prelude (1961), Mothlight (1963), The Wold Shadow (1972), Rage Net (1988), Black Ice (1994) (all U.S.A., Stan Brakhage)
• Vertigo (U.S.A., Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

Texts:

• David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction
• Course pack and essays posted on class myCourses page

Evaluation: Periodic quizzes, two short papers, conference participation, maybe a final exam.

Format: Lectures, weekly TA-led discussions, weekly screenings.

Description: Designed as one of the two core courses for World Cinemas Minors, this course introduces key historical moments, cinematic movements, formal styles, as well as historiographical and theoretical debates in the history of world cinema. The course maps out diverging trajectories and merging paths of exemplary filmmakers and filmmaking collectives in various nations and geo-political regions against the backdrop of the changing technological media environments. While we distinguish chronology from history, the course follows the transformation of cinema from its emergent era to the present. Students will read both historical and contemporary texts to gain a broad sense of the seminal debates in film studies, reception and criticism.  This course aims to foster a critical understanding of cinema as an international, distributed and polycentric phenomenon. Note: This course also counts toward the Historical Dimension requirement for the Cultural Studies programs. 

Films: TBA

Evaluation: TBA

Format: Lecture + weekly screening.

Description: This course provides a critical introduction to one of the most dynamic fields of literary studies – postcolonial and world literature – by engaging with the rich corpus of literary and filmic texts from South Asia. At the same time, it provides a critical introduction to modern South Asia by drawing on a range of novels, poems, short stories, travelogues, and films produced in that region during the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The course examines how these texts conceive of, and represent, the lives and life-worlds of the South Asian region while situating them in relation to the critical and theoretical preoccupations of postcolonial and world literature studies. The course interrogates the (often contested) meanings of the term postcolonial and asks how it relates to categories such as anti-colonial and colonial besides familiarizing students with some of the key issues and contemporary debates in the field. In so doing, the course prepares students for further study in postcolonial and world literature.

Note 1: Attendance to TA conferences and film screenings is mandatory. No exceptions.

Note 2: This is one of the required courses for the South Asian Studies minor (Stream 1: Culture and Civilization).

Texts:

Novels:

• Mulk Raj Anand – Untouchable (1935)
• Anita Desai – In Custody (1984)
• Salman Rushdie – Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990)
• Mohammed Hanif – The Case of Exploding Mangoes (2008)

Travelogues:

• Vikram Seth – From Heaven Lake (1983)

Short Stories:

• Selections from Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain, Sadaat Hasan Manto, Manik Banerjee

Poetry:

• Selections from Rabindranath Tagore; Arun Kolatkar

Films:

• Shatranj ke Khiladi [The Chess Players] (Dir: Satyajit Ray, 1977)
• Peepli, Live! (Dir: Anusha Rizvi, 2010)

This is an indicative list and course texts will be finalized later.

Evaluation: TBA

Format: Lectures and TA conferences.

Description: This course is designed to introduce students to Disability as an historical and social concept in literary history. We will begin by considering the history of the concept of disability, especially as it pertains to the medical and social models that developed in the 20th Century. Before heading into literary history we will also read and discuss David T. Mitchell and Susan L. Snyder’s broadly influential ideas on narrative prosthesis and the materiality of metaphor. We will then turn our attention to disability in a variety of literary contexts, beginning with Grimm’s fairy tales. The criticism and selections of literary works we read after this will be drawn from a wide range of periods, from the Classical era to the medieval and early modern periods, the 18C, Romanticism and the 19C, through the modernist period and into the present day. In the final third of the course we will turn our attention to Disability Studies’s many points of intersection with Feminist, Queer, Critical Race, and Postcolonial Studies.

Texts:

• The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Disability. eds. Clare Barker and Stuart Murray. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2018.
• Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Anchor Canada, 2003.

The above texts are available at The Word bookstore on Milton.

Evaluation: Midterm essay 7-8 pages (30%); final essay 8-10 pages (30%); final exam (30%); class participation (10%).

Format: Lecture and class discussion.