This course introduces students to a diverse range of literary works written in English, primarily from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including short stories, poems, plays, and novels. These works demonstrate how literature can open up new understandings about societies and histories both within and beyond our local experience. The selection of texts varies from section to section, but all sections devote one-third of class time to developing writing skills, and the course places considerable emphasis on critical reading. ENGL 1000 welcomes all students with an interest in English, and it is normally required for the English Major and Honours programs.

A study of the basic principles of clear prose writing, focusing on essay structure and organization, paragraph structure, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and word choice, as well as revising and proofreading. Students will submit numerous written assignments.

A further examination of the basic principles of prose writing, with special attention to larger patterns of organization and development used in prose exposition and argument. 

Examine Indigenous principles of prose writing. Develop an understanding of university writing, including essay structure and organization, through a course that focuses on Indigenous content, practices, research, and lived experience.

NOTE: Available only to students registered in courses administered by the Mi'kmaq-Wolastoqey Centre or by permission of the MWC.

By studying non-fiction prose models and by writing essays, students will work to improve their writing, explore techniques to craft effective essays, and develop critical and analytical skills applicable to a wide range of disciplines. Tutorials use exercises and discussions to assist this development.

Two weekly lectures examine a variety of short stories (and perhaps one or two novels) from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Weekly small tutorials teach critical and writing skills (such as grammar, punctuation, organization, and argumentation) applied to the course readings.

Survey the development of the novel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing on
representative works by five writers. Explore the social contexts, the innovations in narrative
form, and the elements of fiction, including plot, narration, characters, setting, and dialogue.
Learn the basic principles of effective writing and practice these principles through quizzes and
essays. 

NOTE: Offered online.

An introduction to acting suitable for students at all skill levels, from beginners to experienced performers. Instruction will cover the basics of voice, movement, improvisation, script analysis, and monologue and scene work, culminating in a final performance project.

NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 1173 and DRAM 1173.

A course suitable for both beginner and experienced actors, with a focus on voice, movement, and script analysis, culminating in the presentation of a scene study or one-act play. Rehearsal and performance time additional to regular class hours required.

NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 2173 and DRAM 2173.

Participants in this course form a theatre company and produce, rehearse, and perform a mainstage production for the Theatre UNB season, under the direction of the instructor. Rehearsal and performance time additional to regular class hours required. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 2175 and DRAM 2175.

Introduction to the writing of poetry and drama, with a focus on basic technique, style, and form. Combines writing exercises and lectures on the elements of writing, but also introduces the workshop method, by which students provide critiques of each other’s work and develop editorial skills. May include assigned readings.

Introduction to the writing of fiction and to screenwriting, with a focus on basic narrative technique, style, and form. Combines writing exercises and lectures on the elements of writing, but also introduces the workshop method, by which students provide critiques of each other’s work and develop editorial skills. May include assigned readings. 

This course introduces students to contemporary travel-writing narratives, both long and short, written by a diversity of notable contributors to the genre. The course examines relevant themes of travel narratives as well as structural techniques that shape the genre. The course also invites students to use this knowledge to write their own travel sketches based on experiences of travelling in Canada or abroad, combined with appropriate contextual research. The course evaluation is based on both critical essays and creative writing assignments.

Film directors have transformed Shakespeare into one of today's hottest cultural properties, rekindling a profitable relationship with the world's greatest playwright that dates back to the first days of late-nineteenth-century cinema. The screen has now overtaken both the written text and the stage as the medium in which most people discover and appreciate Shakespeare. In this course we shall study some examples of this flourishing exchange between Shakespeare and film in terms of artistic expression and social practice. Required readings will include single-volume editions of the plays; a film studies handbook; and screenings of the films (at least two versions of each play).

An exploration of poetry, fiction, drama, and/or film, written by Atlantic Canadians, that emphasizes the prevalent themes explored by Maritime and Newfoundland authors, such as the search for personal and regional identity, human relations to landscape and the natural world, and the meaning of “home place.” Authors may include Alden Nowlan, Milton Acorn, Rita Joe, David Adams Richards, John Steffler, Mary Dalton, Anne Compton, Wayne Johnston, Lisa Moore, Anne Simpson, George Elliott Clarke, Sue Goyette, Michael Crummey, El Jones, and Nolan Natasha.

A survey of English-Canadian fiction, non-fiction prose, poetry, drama, and/or film that explores major themes in contemporary Canadian literature, such as the shaping of Canadian identity, regionalism and the global perspective, class divides, ecocritical views, and other current issues. Authors may include Dionne Brand, Tomson Highway, Lynn Coady, Don McKay, Eden Robinson, Katherena Vermette, and Joshua Whitehead.

An exploration of selected topics in American literature and culture. The theme of the course changes each year. In each course, students read selected works of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and/or drama and may also explore the relationship between U.S. literature and other media such as film and television. Possible themes include the American West, multi-ethnic literature, U.S. presidential elections, the Beat Generation, and Hollywood fictions. Please see the Department of English Handbook or website for the current description.

This course traces the beginnings of English literature to 1660, with a focus on love and sexuality, cultural and linguistic upheavals, religion and secularism, and the impact of imperialism. While society was structured by powerful ideas of order grounded in religion, nature, social rank, gender, ethnicity, and race, traditional thinking about these concepts was increasingly challenged, not least by contact with non-European cultures and the Scientific Revolution. As literacy rates rose, English literature found new audiences, producing richly varied and often playful works. Works by figures such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton are central to the course, but other texts will also be discussed. Genres include poetry, drama, and prose. This course is required for the English Major and Honours programs, and strongly recommended for Minors. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 2011 and ENGL 2901.

This course picks up the story from ENGL 2011. In these centuries, trade, industrialization, wars, and Britain's rise as an imperial power helped to spark social conflicts centring on class, race, indigeneity, gender, sexuality, politics, and religion. New genres (such as the novel) emerged and others (such as poetry) transformed; the accelerating rise in literacy rates created new audiences for literature and also meant that people from an ever-broader range of social backgrounds were writing. Poetry and prose are the major genres here. This course is required for the English Major and Honours programs, and strongly recommended for Minors. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 2012 and ENGL 2902.

This course introduces students to major stages in the development of film as an international art. Topics include Silent Cinema, German Expressionism, Soviet Montage, Classical Hollywood, Italian Neorealism and Modernism, French New Wave, Japanese New Wave, British New Wave, Australian New Wave, Experimental Cinema, Cinema Novo, New German Cinema, Postcolonial Cinema, Bollywood, the New Hollywood, American Independent Cinema, Dogme 95, and others. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 2909 and FILM 2909. 

Examines a wide variety of medieval literature from the British Isles, including courtly romances and dream visions, bawdy fabliaux, alliterative heroic verse, lyric poetry, verse satire, and drama. Also explores the historical context of the individual works: the politics and shifting social structures of this period, the intellectual and cultural environment, and the ways in which the works respond to the international political, religious, and military conflicts of the age and to contact with non-European cultures. 

A study of the development of literary theory and criticism, with some attention to critical practice. The course covers major approaches to literary interpretation, such as deconstruction, gender studies, Marxism, new historicism, postcolonial studies, and psychoanalysis. Readings will include excerpts from theorists such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Judith Butler, and Homi Bhabha. NOTE: Students cannot obtain credit for both ENGL 3083 and ENGL 5083.

Consider the role of cross-cultural contact in crafting an English literary tradition, examining not only Latin and French influences but also Celtic borrowings and allusions. Examining how texts from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries reflect the linguistic diversity of literacy culture in England and how authors experimented with a flexible vernacular, the course has a wide generic scope, treating examples of dream-vision, romance, and prose narrative, as well as devotional and mystical texts.

NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3085 or ENGL 3040.

A studio course offers students the opportunity to work on an independent creative writing project supervised by a faculty member of the English Department or by a person approved by the Director of Creative Writing and the Chair of the Department. Students wishing to take a studio course must find a faculty member willing to supervise the project. The project may explore a single genre in depth or may be a multi-genre work. Readings will typically be assigned in addition to the writing done for the course. Students will meet regularly with the supervisor in editorial sessions to discuss the writing in detail and to discuss assigned readings. The course must not include writing done for another course or workshop.

A creative writing course aimed at developing skills in the writing of poetry. Students will participate in workshops and discussions and will complete assigned readings and exercises as they explore the poetic possibilities of language.

A creative writing course aimed at developing skills in the writing of short fiction. Students will participate in workshops and discussions and will complete assigned readings and exercises as they delve into the craft of storytelling.

A creative writing course aimed at developing skills in the writing of non-fiction. It involves prescribed readings, exercises, workshops, and discussions.

Taught in a workshop format, this course is designed to advance students' skills in the writing of stage plays. Students will learn through readings, presentations, and exercises, and submit work regularly for class discussion. 

A project-based course that builds on ENGL 2173/DRAM 2173 and ENGL 2174/DRAM 2174 by offering advanced training in acting, directing, and design for the theatre. Instruction centres on 1-2 full-scale theatre productions mounted by the class for Theatre UNB. Rehearsal, workshop, and performance time additional to regular class hours required.

NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3170 and DRAM 3170.

Building on the skills developed in ENGL 2175/DRAM 2175, participants in this course form a theatre company and produce, rehearse, and perform a mainstage production for the Theatre UNB season, under the direction of the instructor. Rehearsal and performance time additional to regular class hours required. Permission of the instructor is required.

NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3175 and DRAM 3175.

This course guides writers through the basics of short format screenplay structures and introduces them to basic story, character, and dialogue principles.  Students will be exposed to a wide range of short films in a variety of genres and forms so that they can explore the limits and possibilities of briefer forms of cinematic storytelling.

NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3183 and FILM 3183.

This intensive course guides writers through the basics of feature screenplay structure, character principles, archetypal storytelling, writing and rewriting strategies, and ‘the biz.’ Classes are a combination of lectures, discussion, and workshops. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3186 and FILM 3186.

A study of selected plays. 

A study of English medieval and Renaissance drama, excluding Shakespeare. 

Examines a wide variety of sixteenth-century poetry and prose, including sonnets and other lyric poetry, allegorical epic, early prose fiction, statements on literary theory, and contemporaneous commentary on political events, as well as early translations of a few major works of the European Renaissance. Also explores the historical and intellectual contexts of the works, and the politics and social structures of this age of exploration and experimentation.

Examines a wide variety of non-dramatic poetry and prose from the end of the reign of Elizabeth I to just after the Restoration (1660). The course explores the poetry of Donne and the Metaphysical poets, Jonson and the Cavalier poets, Marvell, and the gradually more numerous women writers; it also examines the new forms of prose and includes a selection of Milton's works.

Among the major events of the long eighteenth century was the invention of the English novel. This course tracks the early development of the novel, from the beginnings to the early nineteenth century, and may include such authors as Behn, Defoe, Richardson, Burney, Henry and Sarah Fielding, Walpole, Godwin, Wollstonecraft, and Austen. Some attention will be paid to the social contexts of the emerging genre and to its roots in such forms as the letter, the newspaper, and broadsheet criminal biography.

Focuses on poetry and prose from the long eighteenth century (c.1660-1790). Considers how British literature develops during this time in relation to its rapidly changing socio-political, economic, and technological environments. Authors may include Dryden, Equiano, Finch, Gray, Johnson, Leapor, Milton, Lady Wortley Montagu, Pope, and Swift. May take an eco-critical approach or investigate literature's investments in colonial and anti-colonial perspectives. 

Examines the major works of British literature in the Romantic period (c.1789-1832). Focuses on the poetry and prose of Barbauld, Wollstonecraft, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Mary and Percy Shelley, and Keats. Considers the context of the tremendous social, economic, political, scientific, and cultural events of the period, including the American and French revolutions, the industrial revolution, educational reform, and the rising tides of early feminism, abolitionism, and animal rights. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3400 and ENGL 3406.

Examines brief selections of the major works of British literature in the Romantic period (c.1789-1832), with special emphasis on the poetry and prose of Barbaud, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, the Shelleys, and Keats. Considers the context of the tremendous social, economic, political, scientific, and cultural events of the period, including the American and French revolutions, the industrial revolution, educational reform, and the rising tides of early feminism, abolitionism, and animal rights.  NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3406 and ENGL 3400. 

Examines British literature from the Victorian Age (c.1830-1901). This was a time of great transition. Many writers, starting in the 1830s, felt a new sense of modernity, a new historical self-consciousness, and pressing moral purpose. Includes poetry, non-fiction prose (essays, scientific texts), and fiction by major and minor writers from Arnold to Wilde. Key topics include changing landscapes, visions of time, sexuality, and the co-evolution of literature and science. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3416 and ENGL 3410.

Examines British literature from the Victorian Age (c.1830-1901). This was a time of great transition. Many writers, starting in the 1830s, felt a new sense of modernity, a new historical self-consciousness, and pressing moral purpose. Features a brief selection of poems, essays, scientific texts, and short fiction by major writers such as Arnold, Barrett Browning, Browning, Dickens, Darwin, Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti, Ruskin, Tennyson, and Wilde. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3410 and ENGL 3416. 

Examines the meteoric rise of the novel throughout the long nineteenth century with a focus on major Victorian novelists (such as the Brontë sisters, Dickens, Eliot, and Hardy). Key ideas here include serialization, realism, increased literacy rates, the rising middle class, the "New Woman," and the Gothic.

This course explores a variety of British poems from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including examples of traditional artistic concerns, technical innovations, war protest, social criticism, whimsy, emotional turmoil, and political commentary. The primary focus is on the detailed examination of a small number of selected works.

This exploration of ten British novels from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries reveals the period’s wide range of both social concerns and literary techniques. The varied selection of the course offers intriguing stories that display the complexities of human relationships and social conventions as well as the possibilities of technical experimentation. A sense of the overall development of the modern novel is provided by the inclusion of both early representatives and novels published within the last few years.

A survey of Canadian non-fiction prose, poetry, fiction, drama, and/or film from early narratives of encounter to 1900, examining key cultural and historical moments in the development of Canada as a nation. Authors may include Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain, Joseph Brant, Oliver Goldsmith, Susanna Moodie, Anna Brownell Jameson, Catherine Parr Traill, George Copway, Mary Ann Shadd, Louis Riel, E. Pauline Johnson, Charles G.D. Roberts, Sara Jeannette Duncan, Bliss Carman, and Archibald Lampman. 

A survey of English-Canadian prose, poetry, drama, and/or film from the turn of the century to 1970, with a focus on the development of realism and modernism in Canada. Authors may include Jessie Sime, Stephen Leacock, L.M. Montgomery, Robert Service, Frederick Philip Grove, E.J. Pratt, F.R. Scott, A.M. Klein, Dorothy Livesay, P.K. Page, Sinclair Ross, Sheila Watson, Elizabeth Smart, Al Purdy, and Chief Dan George. 

A survey of English-Canadian poetry, prose, drama, and/or film from 1970 to the present. Authors may include Michael Ondaatje, Robert Kroetsch, Alice Munro, Maria Campbell, Rohinton Mistry, M. NourbeSe Philip, Thomas King, Miriam Toews, Kai Cheng Thom, and Liz Howard. 

A survey of American poetry and prose from colonial times to the early nineteenth century, examining key cultural and historical moments in the development of the United States as a nation. Texts will include contact narratives, Puritan poetry and memoirs, revolutionary-era fiction and plays, and the earliest published work by Native- and African-American writers. 

A survey of nineteenth-century American fiction, poetry, and non-fiction prose ranging from the American Renaissance to the Realist and Naturalist period. Authors may include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Rebecca Harding Davis, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, and others. 

A close study of selected works of American modernism published in the first half of the twentieth century, including poetry and fiction. The course covers different varieties of modernism, such as expatriate writing, the Harlem Renaissance, and proletarian literature. Authors discussed may include Cather,  H.D., Eliot, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Frost, Hemingway, Hughes, Hurston, Larsen, Moore, Pound, Rukeyser, Stein, Stevens, Williams, Wright, and others.

A survey of major developments in twentieth-century theatre. Plays will be studied with attention to their often controversial engagements with social and political issues, moral debates, and theatrical conventions, as well as their connections to movements such as realism, modernism, expressionism, and absurdism.

A study of women's writing in English from a range of historical periods. Texts will vary from year to year, but will include poetry, drama, fiction, and/or non-fiction written primarily by British, American, and Canadian women. Attention will also be paid to relationships between women's writing and history, contemporary feminist and gender theory, and social issues such as identity, sexuality, class, and race. 

Engage in the history of film theory, with how filmic experiments arose, and with the legacy of these ideas in film. The history of film has also been the history of exploring what unique powers film has to reflect, challenge, and alter our perceptions of the world. Explore the potential of moving images through our own creative and experimental projects. No filmmaking or editing experience required. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3903 and  FILM 3903. 

The Film Genre course explores the history, iconography, and socio-cultural significance of one particular film genre by means of a number of examples. The specific focus of the course varies from year to year. 

NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3907 and FILM 3907.

Zombie films make up one of the longest living sub-genres of horror though representations of zombies have evolved from exoticized monstrous figures from Haiti to cannibalistic brain eaters and eventually to infectious bodies carrying epidemics. This course explores the evolution of zombies from studio pictures starring Bela Lugosi to B-movies featuring fighting ninjas and murdering cheerleaders through to modern film zombies who look uncannily like the unconscious bored populace and/or become loving family pets. Zombies are never simply undead; they always reflect something about our changing lives and fears. These films also permit us to explore the murky spaces between high and low culture, the history and development of horror films as a genre, and the aesthetics of fear. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3908 and FILM 3908.

Through the study of various representative Canadian filmmakers and prevalent genres, this course explores the roles that regionalism, commercialism, and independent filmmaking play in defining national ideas about Canadian cinema and film audiences. This course concurrently traces developments in Canadian film production, policy, funding, distribution, and use since the creation of Telefilm (formerly the CFDC) and how these funding and cultural policies have affected and responded to the central themes and issues facing Canadian filmmakers and audiences. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3966, ENGL 3916, and FILM 3916.

Explore significant historical periods, movements, styles, film theories, directors, and topics in the development of particular national and/or transnational cinemas. The specific focus of the course varies from year to year. NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3917 and FILM 3917.

One of the most exciting movements in cinema, the French New Wave radically altered film, influencing and informing new kinds of cinema around the world and changing how we talk about and study films. The films of filmmakers like François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, and Jean-Luc Godard continue to inspire contemporary filmmakers and critics. Through watching and analyzing their first films, reading their writings in Cahiers du Cinéma, and exploring how film historians interpret this period now, we will attempt to understand the artistic, social, economic, and historical forces that shaped the film movement and filmmaking in the decades to follow.

NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 3918 and FILM 3918.

Open to students completing the final year of a Double Major or Minor in Drama. Working in groups, students produce a full-scale production for Theatre UNB. The second requirement for the course is to complete an independent project designed to further students’ knowledge of a theatre discipline of their choice. Both halves of the course are completed under the supervision of the Director of Drama. 

NOTE: Students can take no more than 6 ch of ENGL 4170 (or DRAM 4170), ENGL 4173 (or DRAM 4173), and ENGL 4174 (or DRAM 4174) for credit.

Open to students completing the final year of a Double Major or Minor in Drama. Working in groups, students produce a full-scale production for Theatre UNB, under the supervision of the Director of Drama.

NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 4173, DRAM 4173, ENGL 4170, and DRAM 4170. 

Open to students completing the final year of a Double Major or Minor in Drama. Under the supervision of the Director of Drama, students complete an independent project designed to further their knowledge of a theatre discipline of their choice.

NOTE: Students can obtain credit for only one of ENGL 4174, DRAM 4174, ENGL 4170, and DRAM 4170. 

Many visceral notions — that is, ideas about bodies — may seem new to us; transgender, mental health, feminism, anti-racism, and bioethical concerns come to mind. Yet literary texts from a variety of periods anticipate many of these fields and often do so with scant attention to social acceptability. This course focuses on bodily matters as they appear in poetry, drama, and prose: desire, illness, technology, emotion, gender, race, species, suffering, pleasure, etc.  

Examine contemporary postcolonial novels from Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia, Australia, the UK, and Canada. Through brief lectures, class discussion, presentations, and short secondary readings, learn how these fictions engage imaginatively with ideas of space, place, identity, and related concepts such as land, nation, boundary, territory, migration, exile, home, dwelling, environment, and self. A recurring theme is displacement: the experience of characters who are forcibly, voluntarily, or otherwise moved from familiar surroundings and prompted to re-establish their identities and renegotiate relations with others. Readings include historical novels and ones set in the present or future, as well as a mix of realistic and more fantastical or speculative narratives. 

Examine the representation of social inequality and gain insight into the form and function of difference in Victorian fiction. Develop an understanding of the relationship between literature and the formation of social identities - particularly how novels give expression to the evolution of ideas about class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and disability during this period. Investigate themes such as the representation of difference as 'monstrous' in gothic fiction: the connection between literary realism and revolution; the role of racial Otherness in the construction of Empire; and the formal impact of gender and sexual dissidence. Discover how difference is conceived of and represented historically - as well as how it shapes our world today.