FULL-TIME UNDERGRADUATE CALENDAR 2005-2006

English

EGA 11A/B ENC 107 ENG 101 ENG 104 ENG 112 ENG 18A/B ENG 201 ENG 203 ENG 204 ENG 212 ENG 222 ENG 224 ENG 30A/B ENG 501 ENG 503 ENG 504 ENG 505 ENG 506 ENG 507 ENG 50A/B ENG 510 ENG 511 ENG 520 ENG 602 ENG 604 ENG 610 ENG 620 ENG 621 ENG 630 ENG 631 ENG 632 ENG 633 ENG 700 ENG 701 ENG 703 ENG 70A/B ENG 801 ENG 803 ENG 80A/B ENG 906 ENG 920 ENG 921 ENG 930 ENG 931 ENG 940 ENG 941 LNG 100 LNG 101 LNG 200 LNG 300 EGA 11A/B Forms of Literature This course is an introduction to the study of English literature and composition through the literary genres of short fiction, poetry, drama and long fiction. It also teaches strategies for active reading, writing, and thinking about literary texts, as a foundation for further study in English literature. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENC 107 Writing Strategies This course aims to develop writing competence and to enhance analytic reading skills to the standard expected of students at Ryerson. The course focuses on clear and effective expression, developing the ability to write unified, orderly and coherent texts, and forceful and controlled prose. Where necessary, teaching of grammar will reinforce these skills. The course will deal with strategies of argument, effective writing under time pressure, and construction of research essays. No transfer credits are granted. (PR) Lab: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 101 Laughter and Tears: Comic and Tragic Modes Why are some stories sad, others tragic? Are our emotional responses contingent on story-lines, on characters, on choice of words? This course helps develop analytic tools for understanding responses to fundamental forms, through readings of early and contemporary drama, poetry, prose fiction and literary criticism. We begin with the bawdy sexual politics of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, and move to new forms, from the heroism of Frankenstein to the ironies of Alice Munro. (LL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 104 What’s The Story? This course features the best short stories by internationally acclaimed Canadian writers: crime, mystery, family conflict, first love and its bittersweet ending, speculations on the future, the search for origins and affirmations of personal and cultural identity are the themes which run through the works. Both those who enjoy reading stories and aspiring writers will benefit from this course. Students will have the opportunity to write creatively and Canadian writers will be invited to discuss their craft with the class. (LL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 112 Zap, Pow, Bang: Pop Lit Lit. Horror stories, pop songs, love poetry, comics-this course introduces students to various types of writing that were popular at different times and in different cultures. Students will learn central concepts and terminology in the study of popular writing and culture, and they will analyze the impact that cultural and political issues have had not only on what works became popular but also on the very notion of “the popular” itself. (LL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 18A/B The Nature of Narrative This course investigates the ways media technologies interact and collide. Students will study a range of traditional and experimental narratives (poems, short stories, plays and novels, digital hypertexts, films, comics, architecture and painting) from around the world to address broader topics such as adaptation across media, translation across cultures and languages, and the relationships between technology and narrative forms. (PR) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 201 The Hero’s Journey: Myth and Archetype Clichés like “it’s just the same old story” show us there are patterns in life which keep reappearing in popular tales, comic books, detective stories and western romances, like Billy the Kid and the James Bond films. How do we recognize them? What do they tell us about values? About desires? We begin with Homer’s Odyssey and move to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Students will be encouraged to view the various film versions of the texts. (LL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 203 Literature of Native Peoples Who or what is an "Indian"? What challenges do "Indians" face in modern nations? How do their experiences compare across the world? Working with contemporary First Nations' literatures from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and/or the United States, students will address these and other important socio-political questions, examine wider literary and theoretical issues, and consider crucial questions regarding cultural identity raised in First Nations' literatures. (LL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 204 The Literature of Immigration Mainstream Canadian literature has always been a literature of immigration, but as Canada embarked on her second century, she began to redefine herself. Focusing on the last two decades, this course will explore the techniques immigrants and their heirs have used to make Canada their home, what their observations tell Canadians about themselves, and how their participation has changed the things we are. (LL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 212 Cultures in Crisis How does culture allow us to know who we are? Over time culture has not merely reflected the nature of reality, but also has participated in defining and creating it. The purpose of this course is to examine selected texts from a variety of cultural, social, economic, and historical perspectives and contexts, and to explore how these texts have shaped our shifting notions of reality and our place within it. (LL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 222 Fairy Tales and Fantasies Starting with the powerful images of folk tale, fairy tale, and legend, and following them through fantasies and animal tales, this course explores their evolution from oral stories for adults to literary versions for children. It will also examine the intellectual and historical influences of the periods. The material to be studied includes modern versions of the tales in print and visual media. Authors include the Grimm Brothers, Andersen, Wilde, Carroll, Milne, and Beatrix Potter. (Formerly first half of ENG 024) (PR) Antirequisites: ENG 24A/B, ENG 24. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 224 Children's Fiction This course will focus on novels written for older children. By studying such authors as Alcott, Montgomery, Burnett, Stevenson, Twain, Little, and Rowling, the course will explore the cultural values implicit in the texts, and their social and historical backgrounds. The course will also examine the relationship between children's texts and the construction of the child's idea of the self and society. Film versions will also be explored in relationship to the novels. (Formerly second half of ENG 024) (PR) Antirequisites: ENG 24A/B, ENG 24. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 30A/B The Modern in Literature This course examines a representative selection of British, American and Canadian literature of the twentieth century in an attempt to define the modern situation, and the innovations authors in our time have made which have enabled them to articulate the contemporary experience. The course will also look at the intellectual and cultural cross-currents which parallel and influence the literature of the age. This course is equivalent to ENG 504 and ENG 604. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 501 Canadian Literature The Twentieth Century. This course focuses on Canadian writing of the last fifty years represented by writers such as MacLennan, Birney, Carrier, Atwood, Cohen, Findley, and Munro. It aims to give students an opportunity to discuss some of the concerns of their own culture. (UL) Antirequisite: ENG 180. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 503 Science Fiction The mythology of our civilization is the story of things to come. The prophetic visions of writers such as Asimov, Brunner, Clarke, Gibson, Heinlein, Herbert, Hogan, LeGuin, Lem and Niven offer endless playgrounds for the imagination. Their second gift is a widening vista or real alternatives: our future may be what they let us choose to make it. If you want to play an informed part in that choice, this course will provide the menu. (formerly ENG 301). (UL) Antirequisite: ENG 301. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 504 The Modern in Literature 1900-1945 The era between 1900 and 1945 experienced such a radical sense of its own difference from the past that it is still referred to as the Modern Age. It was an age of new thought, new fashion, and a new sense of the self. In literature, it was an age of experimentation. This course explores the literature and the cultural influences of the period. Such writers as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce will be studied. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 505 Creative Writing This upper level course offers students the opportunity both to study models of good writing and to develop their own creative abilities. Class discussions and workshop groups are designed to enhance the student’s understanding of the creative process, to stimulate the imagination, and to develop the individual abilities of each student. Areas of discussion include style; prosody; conflict, character, dialogue; and revision. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 506 Cultural Encounters All societies reflect a history of encounters between cultures: whether between colonizing/colonized cultures, or between minority groups and dominant cultures. This course considers the following questions: What is “culture”? How do marginalized perspectives alter the understanding of mainstream society’s beliefs? By the end of the course, students will have a historically grounded understanding of the strategies that writers use to portray cultural encounters and to challenge dominant beliefs. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 507 Science and the Literary Imagination This course deals with the impact of innovation in scientific theory on the themes and forms of literature. It considers in what ways contemporaneous literary texts reflected the implications for human identity and significance of these great shifts in understanding. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 50A/B The Culture of the Modern The twentieth century has been characterized by an intense, fundamental sense of its own difference from the past. Its culture has been marked by self-conscious innovation in fashion, art, architecture and a problematic sense of the self. This course explores what it means to be “modern” and “post-modern”, how this literature differs in theme, technique and structure from earlier work, and what intellectual and historical influences shaped the culture of the period. (PR) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 510 Gothic Horror Invented over 200 years ago, the gothic has become one of the most popular genres in literature and film. This course will explore the gothic presence in popular culture during this time. Students will analyze ways in which the genre challenges not only other cultural conventions, but also claims in the realms of art, science, and medicine. Topics to be addressed include the relation of the gothic to gender, sexuality, class, orientalism, imperialism, and criminality. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 511 The Art of Writing Life This course examines a variety of life-writing genres including the diary, letter autobiography, memoir, and biography. By sampling a range of texts (both print and electronic) throughout history, students will explore diverse ways in which writers express their private and public stories about life and self. Students will gain an understanding of life-writing theory which can be used to rethink the relationships between gender and genre; fact and fiction; and art and artlessness. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 520 The Language of Persuasion This course explores how language functions in personal and professional life. As George Orwell has observed, no writing is truly free of political bias, or “the desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after”. Students will read and analyse material from such areas as: business, law, journalism, politics, advertising, in order to understand how language achieves its most powerful effects. (PR) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 602 Women’s Writing Twentieth century women writers redefine traditional literary forms and produce revolutionary new ones. Scrutinies of sexuality, refusals to submit to oppressive authority, and reassessments of women’s roles in marriage and child rearing are some of the controversial subjects presented. As well as critiquing social arrangements, modern and contemporary women writers celebrate life and the differences in race, culture and sexual choice. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 604 The Contemporary in Literature: Post 1945 Imaginative writing of the post-war period reflects the complexity of contemporary life. In themes as old as folk tales and as current as new visions of space, writers express the dreams and terrors of post-nuclear life. It is an era in which values and beliefs have been challenged and conventional distinctions-illusion and reality, fact and fiction, the sacred and the profane-have been called into question by writers as diverse as Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 610 The Language of Love, Sex and Gender Love, sex, and gender are fluid and complex. Looking at stories, novels, films, and other types of texts, students will analyse the impact of literature, popular culture, and aesthetics on the formation of new notions of gender, sexuality, and desire. Emphasis will be placed on a consideration of the cultural and sociopolitical influences that contributed to these changes and on the possibility of affections, sexualities, and genders that may not yet have names. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 620 English Caribbean Literatures and Cultures This course introduces students to the literary and artistic innovations as well as major socio-political and cultural issues in the Anglophone Caribbean since the beginning of the twentieth century through a study of representative works of fiction, cinema, and selected writings of Caribbean intellectuals. Course readings will be drawn from a list that includes works by Zee Edgell, Derek Walcott, V.C. Naipaul, Kamau Brathwaite, Nalo Hopkinson, Austin Clarke, Dionne Brand, Andre Alexis, and Earl Lovelace. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 621 Reading/Writing Women I What does writing as a woman mean? What subjects do women address in their writing? How do women writers challenge traditional feminine roles? How do gender, race, class, ethnicity and sexual orientation affect the form and content of women's writing? Students will explore these questions by examining those works which develop the themes of creativity, coming of age, and sexuality. The course also explores the representation of women in fiction and popular media. (Formerly first half of ENG 060) (PR) Antirequisites: ENG 60A/B, ENG 60. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 630 Asian Literatures and Cultures This course introduces students to a variety of Asian literatures and cultures. Literature written by people of Asian descent in Asia, Canada, and elsewhere has seen a notable increase in popularity and influence over the past few decades and has made us, as Canadians, more aware of the diversity of Asian languages and cultures. The design of this course offers students the opportunity to explore a range of Asian literatures through different approaches and themes. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 631 Reading/Writing Women II What is the influence of gender, feminism, and postmodernism on traditional literary forms? Contemporary women writers reshape and re-signify traditional literary genres such as the quest, romance, fairy tale, fantasy, and science fiction in order to redefine female identity and to produce innovative and provocative literary works. The course also explores the representation of women in fiction and popular media. (Formerly second half of ENG 060) (PR) Antirequisites: ENG 60A/B, ENG 60. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 632 19th Century Literature and Culture The 19th century continues to have a major influence on today's world. The course addresses this influence by exploring how writers used novels, stories, plays, and poetry to shape and respond to social and cultural developments in their own time such as industrialism, changes in class definition, "the woman question," consumerism, and art for art's sake. How did social issues affect authors' styles and techniques, and how did the literature affect society's views and values? (Formerly first half of ENG 061) (PR) Antirequisites: ENG 61A/B, ENG 61. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 633 Great Authors of the 19th Century What makes an author "great"? This course offers the opportunity to study 19th century authors (such as Austen, Dickens, Eliot, Tennyson, or Wilde) in depth, exploring how later works developed from ideas, techniques, and problems presented but perhaps unresolved in earlier work. How were these writers themselves affected by changing social conditions and ideologies, while their works were also exerting a considerable influence on their readers and the way they interpreted the world around them? (Formerly second half of ENG 061) (PR) Antirequisites: ENG 61A/B, ENG 61. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 700 Great Journalism A fourth year seminar on selected twentieth century journalists who have not only reported on but been actively involved in and sometimes affected the world around them. Their work is marked by stylistic experimentation as they explore the boundaries of conventional journalism and search for prose forms capable of expressing the complexity of contemporary life. (PR) Lect: 6 hrs. back to top ENG 701 CanCon: Inventing the Nation What constitutes "Canadianness"? This course critically examines the factors that affect the formation of and articulation of a national culture. Working with a wide range of early and contemporary literature, drama, film, and with references to art, music, television, and other instances of high and popular culture, students will inquire into the cultural, social, historical, and technological forces that both hinder and liberate our cultural imagination and shape our identities. (Formerly first half of ENG 071) (PR) Antirequisites: ENG 71A/B, ENG 71. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 703 Popular Literature of Sensation Students will learn to recognize and identify different conventions defining genres of popular literature such as romance and sensation; gothic and horror; and melodrama. The course will explore the relationship between texts and audiences, and how readers assign meaning to and make use of what they read. Students will study the origins of today's popular genres in books and other media and the sociocultural values embodied in such works. (Formerly first half of ENG 072) (PR) Antirequisites: ENG 72A/B, ENG 72. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 70A/B The Roots of Modernity This course examines the origins of human obsessiveness: sexual fixations, political passions, environmental concerns and the cult of death, all within a search for personal freedom and meaning. In its experimentation, radicalism, and valuing of the quantitative and the technological, the long eighteenth century shows a deep kinship with our own time. Students will be encouraged to examine current visual art, film and video to see how these ideas are represented today. (PR) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 801 Canada on the World Stage A century ago, when asked whether there was a "Canadian" literature, many writers living in Canada proclaimed no. In recent years, however, Canadian literature has proven it can compete on a world stage. This course explores early and contemporary Canadian literature as world literature. Students can expect to read some of the best (and for contrast, worst) texts our nation has produced in order to critically examine their production and reception here and abroad. (Formerly second half of ENG 071) (PR) Antirequisites: ENG 71A/B, ENG 71. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 803 Popular Literature of Exploration Students will learn to recognize and identify different conventions defining genres of popular literature such as science and speculative fiction; adventure and detective fiction; and graphic literature and other experimental genres. The course explores the relationship between texts and audiences, and how readers assign meaning to and make use of what they read. Students will study the origins of today's popular genres in books and other media and the sociocultural values embodied in such works. (Formerly second half of ENG 072) (PR) Antirequisites: ENG 72A/B, ENG 72. Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 80A/B Reading Television Using a “cultural studies” approach to analyse television, this course will explore such central questions as: What genre conventions are associated with different television products? How do different individuals and communities use and value television products? To what extent do television products promote resistance or preserve the status quo? Students will do a major case study analysing what and how a television product “means”. Students will be encouraged to tailor their case studies to their own individual interests or to ongoing projects. (PR) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 906 Hawthorne and History The course will study Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, The Blithedale Romance, The Marble Faun and selected short stories to explore his perspective on such major subjects, ideas and movements of his time as women’s rights, Utopian communes, Mesmerism (Hypnotism), Transcendentalism, and Fourierism. The author’s use of symbolism and allegory to convey his viewpoint will be examined as well. (UL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 920 Science & Technology in Popular Culture This course investigates the intersection of scientific and technological innovation with developments in literature and culture. We focus on pivotal moments in the history of science and technology: evolution, the mapping of the galaxy and the human genome, the development of physics and the internet. We explore how constructions of identity and human interaction shift in relation to significant developments in science and technology, and how these shifts are reflected in literature and culture. (PR) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 921 Narrative in a Digital Age This course explores how contemporary writers and artists have attempted to come to terms with the so‑called post-print era - a historical moment characterized by the strategies of fragmentation and recombination that digital hyperspaces make possible. By analysing digital texts and the work of cultural theorists on the nature and impact of this new medium, students will address the implications of the rise of computing and the internet for the future of literary and other cultural practices. (PR) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 930 High and Low Culture Why do we assign critical and aesthetic value to some works of art and not to others? Why are some considered "classics", others "trash"? This course focuses on age-old distinctions between "high" and “low" art. By examining a variety of texts such as fiction, poetry, drama, music, television, and visual arts, students will explore how the divide between "elite" and "popular" culture was erected and why it needs to be questioned. (PR) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 931 Critical Theory: Literary and Cultural Contrary to the assumption that theories are designed to obscure or complicate things, theories seek to interpret and explain sociocultural structures, and illuminate the practices of everyday life we might otherwise take for granted. This course introduces the core questions of literary and cultural theory. Students will learn what thinking “theoretically” means, and will study ways of understanding the interrelationship between author, reader, text, and world. (PR) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 940 Diversity in Literature and Culture Diversity is embodied in the texts that surround us, from novels, movies, and other works that we consciously consume, to more subliminal pieces such as billboards and radio jingles. Indeed, literature and other arts with the greatest impact always have been those that challenge social and artistic norms. In this course, students will learn the ways in which literature and culture in general influence our views regarding various forms of diversity. (PR) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top ENG 941 Gender & Sex in Literature & Culture In this course, students will explore uses of language and rhetoric to communicate diverse models of gender and sexuality. Looking at verbal and visual texts, the class will gain a nuanced understanding of the ways in which changes in communication, literature, popular culture, and aesthetics foster the formation and re-formation of various notions of gender, sexuality, and desire. Emphasis will be placed on the cultural and sociopolitical influences that contributed to these changes. (PR) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top LNG 100 Language and Identity This course for English as a Second Language students covers material focusing on how our use of language reflects our social identities. The course will also help students improve their English and express themselves in a university setting. Students will analyze, discuss, and write essays on the material. (LL) Antirequisite: ENC 196. Lab: 3 hrs. back to top LNG 101 Language and Society This writing-intensive course explores how language reflects and shapes society. The course also aims to further develop students’ academic reading and writing skills by exploring methods of active reading, and strategies for structuring and supporting written arguments. (LL) Lab: 3 hrs. back to top LNG 200 Language and Public Life This course for English as a Second Language students covers material focusing on how language is framed by institutional and cultural perspectives. The course will also help students improve their English and express themselves in a university setting. Besides discussion and analysis of the material, students will write a research paper. (LL) Antirequisite: ENC 197. Lab: 3 hrs. back to top LNG 300 Language: Spoken and Written As the third course in the series of Lower Level Liberal courses for students whose mother tongue is not English, this course introduces students to contemporary Western thinking about oral and written language and the social use of language. Students will explore several issues including the nature of language, first and second language learning, and style of speech. The course is designed to improve students’ ability to communicate their ideas in speaking and writing. (LL) Lect: 3 hrs. back to top