Department of English Second-Year English

Mondays & Wednesdays 1230-1420 (CRN: 30430)

Instructor: Ciara Lawlor | clawlor [at] langara.ca (clawlor[at]langara[dot]ca)   

Storm the castle! Discover the very foundations of English literature in this saucy survey of the classics. Have you ever grappled with monsters (Beowulf) or enjoyed ribald humour (Chaucer)? Join us as we also explore love, enslavement, and forgiveness in Shakespeare'sThe Tempestand sonnets.You will then enter the realm of seduction, devotion, and the cosmos in the Metaphysicals and Donne.Finally, you will be immersed in the ultimate battle between Heaven and Hell (Milton).

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Mondays & Wednesdays 1030-1220 (CRN: 30431)

Instructor: Joanna Clarke | jclarke [at] langara.ca (jclarke[at]langara[dot]ca)   

In Canadian literature, you will find rebellious and idiosyncratic voices alongside the myth-builders. In this survey course, we’ll read a range of historical and contemporary literature on topics such as the human relationship to the land and the environment; the lives of Indigenous, settler, and immigrant peoples; and the ways in which identities are negotiated at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and more. Ranging from the 19th to the 21st centuries, the works will include poetry, short stories, novels, and non-fiction.

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Tuesdays & Thursdays 1030-1220 (CRN: 30433)

Instructor: Simon Rolston | srolston [at] langara.ca (srolston[at]langara[dot]ca)   

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, gothic fiction, naturalism, and modernism. Students will learn about major literary movements in American history. But they will also read books that have been, and sometimes continued to be, deeply controversial—books that have nonetheless helped shape U.S. culture.
Along with an understanding of American literary history, students will come away with a more informed and comprehensive awareness of American identity, which is currently being hotly, and sometimes violently, debated. For those 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, including how such a divided nation could elect both Barack Obama and Donald Trump within the same decade, this course is for you.

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Tuesdays & Thursdays 1630-1820 (CRN: 30435)

Instructor: Jonathan Newell | jnewell [at] langara.ca (jnewell[at]langara[dot]ca)    

Enduringly popular as a manifestation of fear and desire, love and death, the vampire has long captivated readers by incarnating the repressed, taboo, and transgressive, reflecting a host of social, economic, and political anxieties and fantasies. This course will consider various works of vampire fiction, with a particular emphasis on how the vampire metaphorizes forms of sexual, gendered, racial, and class difference. We will discuss the evolving and ambivalent meaning of the vampire, the way vampires have been transformed and repurposed over time, and the persistent relevance of vampire stories to understanding our cultural moment.

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