Second-year English courses at Langara offer students the opportunity to build on the foundations of literary and rhetorical analysis established in first-year courses while applying a much more specific focus in terms of content. Whether you are planning on getting a degree in English or you just want to take an interesting elective, the course offerings change each semester, so make sure you check back often!
For Creative Writing courses, click here.
All our second-year courses are fully transferable to UBC and SFU. For information about transfer credit and articulation of these courses, please visit the BC Transfer Guide.
For more information, check out the following video, or contact the individual instructors or the English Department Chair.
Download PDF of all Fall 2024 second-year English and Creative Writing courses.
Second-Year Courses for Fall 2024
ENGL 2223: English Literature to 1680
Have you ever grappled with monsters (Beowulf) or enjoyed ribald humour (Chaucer)? Join us as we also explore revenge, illusion, and the monstrous in Shakespeare's The Tempest. You will then enter the realm of seduction, devotion, and the cosmos in the Metaphysicals and Donne. Finally, immerse yourself in the ultimate battle between Heaven and Hell (Milton).
Instructor: Ciara Lawlorclawlor@langara.ca | Monday/Wednesday 12:30 - 14:20
View Course Outline | Register for ENGL 2223 (CRN: 31091)
ENGL 2224: English Literature from 1680 to 1900
This course introduces students to major works of literature and to the historical and aesthetic movements from which they came, starting with the Restoration of 1660 and ending in the late nineteenth century. Together, we’ll discover some strange solutions to social problems with Jonathan Swift, laugh at the lifestyles of the rich and famous with Alexander Pope, play matchmaker with Jane Austen, develop new relationships with nature with the Romantics, and explore the formation of identity with Charles Dickens. Note: ENGL 2223 is not a prerequisite for this course; students may take ENGL 2224 before, after, or at the same time as ENGL 2223.
Instructor: Sandra Friesen sfriesen@langara.ca | Monday/Wednesday 14:30 - 16:20
View Course Outline | Register for ENGL 2224 (CRN: 31092)
ENGL 2230: Survey of Narrative Film
Ever thought a new release reminded you of something you dimly remember? Wondered where that chess-play on the beach came from? Do you simply love film? Then this course is for you. From stop-motion animation featuring beetles through lip-synched docu-dramas, we will screen a wide spectrum of iconic films through different critical lenses, ensuring each class that you are given both context and a chance to discuss what you view. And, if you choose, you can make a short film in the style of the masters.
Instructor: Karen Budra kburda@langara.ca | Tuesday 18:30 - 21:50
View Course Outline | Register for ENGL 2230 (CRN: 31095)
ENGL 2233: Imagining Otherwise: Speculative Fiction of the Future
The course will consider how works of speculative and science fiction call on us to examine and reevaluate our perceptions and constructions of gender, sexuality, race, class, ability and disability, and our relationship with the more-than-human world, engaging with queer, Afrofuturist, indigenous, crip, and anti-capitalist perspectives. It will ask students to critically engage with issues of progress, sustainability, inequality, identity, technology, and time. Apart from a variety of essays analyzing the stories and novels in the course - including Frank Herbert's Dune, Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed, and short stories by Octavia Butler - students will also produce a creative response related to the themes and futures of the texts, showcasing their ability to “imagine otherwise” and speculate productively themselves.
Instructor: Jon Newell jnewell@langara.ca | Tuesday/Thursday 16:30 - 18:20
View Course Outline | Register for ENGL 2233 (CRN: 31096)
ENGL 2235: American Literature
“[D]iscover that the work of the New World is not ended, but only fairly begun.” ― Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas
English 2235 explores some of the best and most influential works of American literature in a variety of genres, including the captivity narrative, the fugitive slave narrative, and gothic fiction. Students will learn about major literary movements in American history, of course. But they will also read books that have been, and sometimes still are, wildly controversial—books that have nonetheless helped shape American culture. Indeed, students will come away from this course with a more informed and comprehensive understanding of American identity. Moreover, readings, workshops, and lectures will help to contextualize many of the polarizing debates currently underway south of the border around issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, regional identity, politics, the law, and the environment (to name just a few). Students who want a foundational knowledge of American literature, who want to make sense of America’s sometimes violent conflicts, or who want to understand the country’s deep contradictions, should take this course.
Instructor: Simon Rolston srolston@langara.ca | Tuesday/Thursday 10:30 - 12:20
View Course Outline | Register for ENGL 2235 (CRN: 31098)
ENGL 2226: Writing Lives 1: The Indian Residential School Survivors Memoir Project
English 2226 is the first part of the two classes that make up Writing Lives. In this class, students will study Indigenous literature with an emphasis on learning about the history of colonization and the residential school system. They will hear from guest speakers with lived experience of the IRS system and will prepare for the second semester during which students will interview Elders who attended residential schools with the goal of collaborating with them to produce completed memoirs. It is strongly preferred that students plan to register for both semesters of this transformative class. Note location: This course is being offered in conjunction with Capilano University at CapU Lonsdale, 125 Victory Way, North Vancouver
Instructor: Jill Goldberg jgoldberg@langara.ca | Monday 18:30 - 21:50
View Course Outline | Register for ENGL 2226 (CRN: 31084)
Second-Year Courses for Spring 2025
ENGL 2222: Classical Literature in Translation | Alex Grammatikos | agrammatikos@langara.ca
ENGL 2223: English Literature to 1680 | Tanya Lewis | tlewis@langara.ca
ENGL 2224: English Literature 1680-1900 | Noel Currie | ncurrie@langara.ca
ENGL 2225: Canadian Literature | Aubyn Rader | arader@langara.ca
ENGL 2235: American Literature | Sean McAlister | smcalister@langara.ca
ENGL 2237: Children's Literature | Erin Robb | erobb@langara.ca
ENGL 2530: Studies in Film Genre or Period: Biopic | Jacqueline Weal | jweal@langara.ca