Departmental Notes
Subject Code for Creative Writing: CWRI
Subject Code for English Language and Literature: ENGL
Subject Code for Writing: WRIT
World Wide Web Address: http://www.queensu.ca/english/
Head of Department: Sam McKegney
Program Manager: Meghan Brien
Departmental Office: Watson Hall, Room 411
Departmental Telephone: 613-533-2153
Chair of Undergraduate Studies: Scott-Morgan Straker
Undergraduate Program Assistant: Britt Howard
Undergraduate Office Telephone: (613) 533-6000 ext. 74446
Undergraduate Office E-Mail Address: englishdept@queensu.ca
Chair of Graduate Studies: Margaret Pappano
Graduate Program Assistant: Lovorka Fabek-Fischer
Overview
The Department of English Literature and Creative Writing offers a comprehensive undergraduate program that exposes students to English literatures from a large range of communities, historical periods, and geographical regions. All three English Plans (Major, Joint Honours, Minor) balance the study of canonical writers, literary forms, and traditions with the study of previously marginalized or unknown writing. The program fosters cross-cultural and historical literacies by encouraging students to engage with literatures from diverse histories and traditions through a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches.
Departmental Policies
Academic Integrity
The Department of English Literature and Creative Writing promotes an ethos of academic integrity, based on the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with the University, Faculty, and Department policies on academic integrity. The Department of English Literature and Creative Writing Statement on Academic Integrity is attached to all undergraduate syllabi and may be found online at http://www.queensu.ca/english/integrity. The Statement includes definitions and advice for recognizing and avoiding plagiarism.
Effective Writing
The effective communication of ideas in writing is fundamental to the discipline of literary study. Training in analytical essay-writing is offered in introductory courses and consolidated at all levels of the program. In upper years, greater emphasis is placed on research methodologies, as well as the importance of fully and accurately citing sources. Further coaching and training are available through the Student Academic Success Services, and a suite of WRIT courses offered by Arts and Science Online.
English Courses as Electives
Any 100-level ENGL or CWRI course can lead to an English Plan, and most 200-level ENGL courses are open to all students in second year or above. Upper-year students with no prior ENGL courses but who require an elective course in English (e.g. for Medical School), may enrol in any 100- or 200-level ENGL course.
Advice to Students
Course Selection
Although a minimum grade of C– in any first-year ENGL course is sufficient for admission to any English Plan, students are encouraged to take six ENGL units in their first year, including at least one writing-intensive course (ENGL 111— ENGL 162, CWRI 100, or WRIT 125).
In their second year, Majors and Joint Honours are required, and Minors are strongly recommended, to take ENGL 200 “History of Literature in English” (Core Course 1.B. in all English Plans); students in a Major or Joint Honours Plan also take a required seminar (ENGL 290, Core course 1.C.), which develops students’ writing abilities and introduces them to the basic research tools of literary studies. ENGL 200 and ENGL 290 are prerequisites for coursework at the 300-level and above, so Majors and Joint Honours should be sure to complete them in second year.
In their second year, in addition to ENGL 200 and ENGL 290, Majors normally take between 9.00 and 12.00 additional units at the 200 level that will count toward their Plan, and Joint Honours normally take between 3.00 and 6.00 additional units at the 200 level. All Creative Writing courses, and a select number of courses from other departments and programs, can also be counted toward an English Plan.
Students entering ENGL Plans should ensure that they understand the requirements they must meet, so that they can plan to take the right number of courses at the right level. Students should consult the English Department's web site or the Major Map for more information, and are always welcome to contact the Undergraduate Chair and/or the Undergraduate Program Assistant for advice.
Having gained the historical and critical foundations provided, respectively, by ENGL 200 and ENGL 290, Majors and Joint Honours proceed in third year to 300-level small lecture courses. These in-depth, full-year historical survey courses are organized into three categories: (ENGL 305 — ENGL 339), which covers literature from before 1800; (ENGL 340 — ENGL 357), which covers the nineteenth century (roughly, 1780-1920); and ENGL 360 — ENGL 389), which covers literature after 1900. Majors must take 6.00 units in each of these groups (Core courses 1.D., 1.E., 1.F.), while Joint Honours must take 6.00 units from the first group and 6.0 units from either the second or third (Core courses 1.D., 1.E.). Majors should take at least two of these full-year courses in their third year, while Joint Honours should take at least one.
The fourth-year experience for Majors consists of advanced 400-level seminars. Majors take 15.00 units at the 400 level, of which, at least 3.00 units of these must be from ENGL 405 — ENGL 459 (core course 1.G.), and at least 3.00 units must be from ENGL 460 — ENGL 499 (core course 1.H.). Joint Honours take any 6.00 units at the 400-level. Students in the third year of their Major plan may choose to take between 3.00 and 6.00 units at the 400 level, depending on how many 300-level courses they are also enrolled in; Joint Honours will normally fulfill their upper-level seminar requirements in fourth year.
Special Studies Opportunities
Study Abroad
A number of our students take the opportunity of studying abroad for a term or an entire year, benefitting from bilateral exchanges to universities in a wide array of countries. For more on these study abroad opportunities, see the section on International Programs and Study Abroad Options in this Calendar.
Queen’s students who study abroad frequently do so in their third year. English Majors and Joint Honours normally take a set of core courses in their third year (Core courses 1.D., 1.E., and 1.F. for Majors; 1.D. and 1.E. for Joint Honours), but there is no reason why going on exchange in third year should prevent English Majors and Joint Honours from completing their Plans on time; it merely requires careful planning and consultation. Students who will be away from Queen’s for the entire third year should enrol in at least 12.00 units of courses at their exchange institution that can be counted toward the 300-level Core course requirements. Half-year courses in similar chronological periods can be combined to satisfy a year-long 300-level requirement; this option is frequently used by students who are away only for one term during their third year. All students intending to study abroad in their third or fourth year are strongly advised to consult with the Undergraduate Chair and/or the Undergraduate Program Assistant of English before finalizing their course selections at other universities.
Faculty
For more information, please visit: https://www.queensu.ca/english/people
- Chris Bongie
- Sally Brooke Cameron
- Ronjaunee Chatterjee
- Heather Evans
- Petra Fachinger
- Angela Facundo
- Christopher Fanning
- Elizabeth Hanson
- Heather Macfarlane
- Robert G. May
- Gabrielle McIntire
- Sam McKegney
- Kristin Moriah
- Robert Morrison
- Laura Murray
- Juliane Okot Bitek
- Margaret Pappano
- John Pierce
- Leslie Ritchie
- Armand Garnet Ruffo
- Yaël Schlick
- Carolyn Smart
- Scott-Morgan Straker
- Marta Straznicky
- Asha Varadharajan
- Molly Wallace
- Ruth Wehlau
- Glenn Willmott
- Lori Vos
Courses
Creative Writing (CWRI)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Perform close readings of various literary forms.
- Provide thoughtful and constructive criticism on peers’ drafts.
- Employ techniques and strategies used in creative writing.
- Employ discipline-specific terminology to effectively discuss creative writing.
NOTE Only offered online; consult Arts and Science Online.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Identify the key generic features of creative non-fiction based on a reading of texts by a diverse array of authors.
- Explain the characteristics of creative non-fiction in an array of fields (e.g., travel writing, biography, the personal essay, etc.).
- Demonstrate critical reading skills through discussion of course texts.
- Produce well-organized and original works of creative non-fiction to a publishable standard.
- Critique and edit their own work as well as that of others.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
English Language and Literature (ENGL)
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Also offered at Bader College, UK (Learning Hours may vary).
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Describe the theoretical basis of the academic study of literature, including what it involves, what methods it uses, and why it is done in the first place.
- Identify and analyze the main characteristics of three major forms of literary writing (poetry, prose fiction, and drama) and related genres (e.g., sonnet, short story, tragedy, comedy, etc.).
- Employ close reading techniques to analyze the ways in which various forms of literature state, imply, or complicate meaning, and produce effects upon readers.
- Plan, write, and revise analytical essays that include argumentative claims, the use of convincing supporting evidence, and the effective analysis of evidence.
- Apply appropriate literary terminology in analyzing works of literature.
- Demonstrate effective writing skills, including clear and grammatical sentences, unified and coherent paragraphs, and a tone and vocabulary that are appropriate to the writer's goals.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Describe diverse ways that literature has been experienced and defined as an art.
- Identify and describe different forms, media and genres of literary writing.
- Explain the relevance of the social contexts of writers or audiences to literary expression.
- Collaborate in analysis via discussion.
- Analyze and write about literature using appropriate forms of argument, disciplinary terminology, and interpretive methods.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Assess the significance of literary texts to their cultural moment.
- Evaluate the continued influence that transformative texts have in the present.
- Evaluate the process of literary canon-formation, identifying which social groups control this process and which are excluded.
- Evaluate the function of literature both as an expression of social power and as a way to resist power.
- Use textual evidence effectively to support interpretations.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Analyze texts of different forms and genres using discipline-specific terminology.
- Demonstrate familiarity with the work of BIPOC writers.
- Evaluate themes of race, trauma, resistance, and cultural celebration in literary texts.
- Use textual evidence effectively to support interpretations.
- Demonstrate close reading and critical thinking skills.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Describe key features of the horror, sci fi, and fantasy genres, and explain how those features develop over time.
- Identify the storytelling techniques writers use to elicit particular responses from audiences (fear, wonder, etc.).
- Assess the relationship between escapist genres and contemporary controversies or crises.
- Evaluate the significance of the term genre fiction, and explain the stereotypes, value judgements, and identity politics that the term evokes.
- Analyze literary texts using discipline-specific terminology.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Identify and describe important themes from assigned texts.
- Assess the role played by representations of humanity or monstrosity in contemporary social debates.
- Analyze literary texts using discipline-specific terminology.
- Formulate, develop and construct persuasive arguments based on evidence from the texts.
- Convey arguments in clear, coherent, and grammatical prose.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Identify literary genres as a way of classifying and inferring or resisting the kind of claims they make to truth or power.
- Analyze texts from an array of forms, including poetry, prose fiction, political discourse, social media, conversation, laws and constitutions, protest, etc.
- Compose well-structured, thesis-driven essays.
- Use discipline-specific terminology, especially terminology related to meaning and power.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the work of BIPOC writers, especially contemporary Indigenous Canadian writers.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Explain what poetry is, and what distinguishes it from other cultural forms.
- Identify the formal elements of a text and explain why they are significant.
- Demonstrate the interconnection between form and meaning.
- Identify the similarities and differences between literary and popular forms of poetry.
- Explain the role poetry plays as an expression of identity and aspiration, with special attention paid to marginalized voices (e.g. BIPOC writers).
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Analyze texts from an array of forms, including poetry, prose fiction, political discourse, social media, conversation, laws and constitutions, protest, etc.
- Identify basic assumptions about human relationships to the planet that underlie authors’ (and their own) understanding of environmental concerns (e.g. nature/culture binary, ideologies of progress, etc.
- Compare/contrast different representations of human/environment relationships across cultures and over time.
- Challenge prevailing ideas about “the planet” and explore alternatives.
- Communicate their understanding of environmental challenges using analytical and reflective modes.
- Communicate their experience of the tangible world.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Use discipline-specific terminology in the analysis of portrayals of race, gender, and sexuality in literary texts of various genres.
- Demonstrate a historical and critical understanding of literary portrayals of race, gender, and sexuality.
- Assess the role literature plays in constructing and expressing identities.
- Deploy a methodological approach to close reading and critical thinking.
- Develop interpretations in thesis-driven essays supported by appropriate textual evidence.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Compare the ways in which various literary genres portray different aspects of identity, love, and desire.
- Explain how different representations of love, gender, and sexuality are imagined to affect social life and social change.
- Identify literary genres as a way of classifying texts.
- Compose well-structured, thesis-driven essays and learn to revise with critical feedback.
- Analyze literary texts using discipline-specific terminology.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Analyze the relationship between literary art and mental health.
- Explain how representations of mental health shift across genres and periods.
- Assess the role of narrative in enabling people to confront loss.
- Demonstrate familiarity with the work of BIPOC writers, especially contemporary Indigenous Canadian Writers.
- Analyze texts using discipline-specific terminology, and presenting ideas in clear and effective prose.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Identify and describe the various hallmarks or elements of fiction.
- Identify, analyze, and employ the language of literary analysis and close reading when discussing short fiction and novels (e.g., metaphor, irony, pathos, parody, rhetoric, ideology, etc.).
- Demonstrate a sound knowledge of grammar, punctuation, diction, and syntax.
- Compose original arguments that evaluate, analyze, and synthesize primary texts, and that do so within a structural framework that includes a thesis statement, strong topic sentences, textual evidence, a compelling conclusion, and other characteristics of analytical literary essays.
- Demonstrate familiarity with a range or literary works by diverse authors from around the globe.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Identify and describe a selection of critical approaches to, or pathways through, fiction.
- Identify, analyze, and employ the language of literary analysis and close reading when discussing short fiction and novels (e.g., metaphor, irony, pathos, parody, rhetoric, ideology, etc.).
- Demonstrate a sound knowledge of grammar, punctuation, diction, and syntax.
- Compose original arguments that evaluate, analyze, and synthesize primary texts, and that do so within a structural framework that includes a thesis statement, strong topic sentences, textual evidence, a compelling conclusion, and other characteristics of analytical literary essays.
- Demonstrate familiarity with works by diverse authors from around the globe.
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Also offered at Bader College, UK (Learning Hours may vary).
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of significant works by Shakespeare.
- Situate Shakespeare's plays within the historical, social, and cultural contexts of early modern England.
- Evaluate the contribution made by Shakespeare’s plays to contemporary debates about gender roles, racial difference, and communities such as the family, the household, or the nation.
- Engage in close, critical readings of individual speeches and scenes in the plays that consider the relationship between form and meaning.
- Write persuasive, evidence-based arguments that demonstrate literary analysis and incorporate some secondary research.
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE Also offered at Bader College, UK (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Only offered online, consult Arts and Science Online.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Analyze the dominant narratives of the Canadian nation to critically act upon their legacy and impact.
- Examine alternate and often marginalized perspectives on the formation of the Canadian nation.
- Explain the role of race and migration in the constitution of the national imaginary.
- Deploy cross-disciplinary concepts and vocabulary to redefine belonging and citizenship.
- Engage with the past to alter and imagine the nation's future and your place in it as a global citizen.
NOTE Also offered at Bader College, UK (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Also offered at Bader College, UK (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Medieval texts will be read in modern translation.
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Also offered at Bader College, UK (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE Also offered at Bader College, UK (Learning Hours may vary).
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE ENGL 296 is offered in the Fall term, and is linked to ENGL 297, which is offered in the Winter; although students are encouraged to enrol in both 296 and 297, these are separate courses that can be taken on their own.
NOTE ENGL 297 is offered in the Winter term, and is linked to ENGL 296, which is offered in the Winter; although students are encouraged to enroll in both 296 and 297, these are separate courses that can be taken on their own.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Explain the intellectual and ideological underpinnings of Modernism as an international and multidisciplinary movement.
- Make insightful connections between Modernist works of both literary and visual art.
- Assess the role played by Modernism in contemporary political struggles, including those surrounding war, fascism, and racism.
- Work collaboratively to offer cogent analyses of Modernist works.
- Present interpretations is persuasive, well-written assignments supported by appropriate research.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE Requests for such a program must be received one month before the start of the first term in which the student intends to undertake the program.
NOTE Also offered at Bader College, UK.
NOTE Requests for such a program must be received one month before the start of the first term in which the student intends to undertake the program.
NOTE Requests for such a program must be received one month before the start of the first term in which the student intends to undertake the program.
NOTE Requests for such a program must be received one month before the start of the first term in which the student intends to undertake the program.