Course Descriptions

This is an intensive course in fundamental writing and reading skills. It is not transferable to university, but successful completion guarantees admission to English 100.

This university writing course introduces students to foundational strategies for critical reading, analytical thinking, and clear writing. Through the exploration of topical questions in local and global contemporary culture, the course teaches core skills for active reading and discussion, and provides students with opportunities to write in a range of forms and genres from blog posts to critical analysis to research projects. Revision and detailed individual feedback are fundamental components of the course. Modules on research literacy are taught in collaboration with the university library. Modules on editing, revision, and digital literacy are taught in collaboration with the Capilano Writing Centre.

This course introduces students to a rich variety of literature in both traditional and new genres, including novels, plays, poems, screenplays, memoirs, and graphic novels. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course focuses on Indigenous poetry, plays, screenplays, films, novels, and memoirs across national boundaries. The course may also include work by non-Indigenous writers on Indigenous subjects. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course explores contemporary issues as represented in literature, film and music. The specific issue investigated differs between sections, instructors and years. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course will support first-year students in their development as writers in a university context, targeting skills in attentive reading, thoughtful writing, and dialogical exchange through the study of short texts (literary, popular, and multimedia) about global cultures and issues.

In this introductory Creative Writing workshop, students sharpen their writing craft by writing and workshopping in multiple genres while also studying contemporary practice. All sections of ENGL 190 involve creation of writing through prompts and exercises, editorial feedback through a variety of means, and the curation of a substantial written portfolio.

In this course, students develop their writing craft by writing and workshopping in multiple genres while studying contemporary practice. All sections of ENGL 191 involve creation of writing through prompts and exercises, editorial feedback through a variety of means, the curation of a substantial electronic portfolio with an artist statement, and a focus on writing "the series," or long project. This project will provide students with the skills needed to research and write a coherent and comprehensive serial or longer form work, which will form a significant portion of the curated ePortfolio.

This course surveys significant works in early English literary history, from the medieval period to the mid-17th century (1660), covering a variety of literary forms, such as epic, Celtic narratives, Arthurian romances, mystical writings and autobiography, lyrics, sonnets, and Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.

This course surveys significant works in English literary history from the Restoration (1660) to the modernist period (early 20th century). Tracing the rise of print culture, this course investigates different literary forms, including plays, novels, short stories, poetry, as well as less conventional modes such as diaries, journals, magazine articles, and letters.

This course examines important works of Canadian literature across a range of genres and in relation to the unique history of Canadian cultural identity.

The course explores modern American culture through selected works of literature written in the United States from the late 19th century to the present day.

This course introduces students to the dynamic history of literary theory and criticism, focusing on the last century and approaches such as formalism, structuralism, psychoanalysis, feminism, Marxism, and post-structuralism.


This course extends the student’s knowledge of the story-telling genres by exploring selected works of fictional narrative, such as novels, novellas, short stories, or graphic novels, chosen for their literary, cultural, or historical importance.

This course invites students to sample modern literature written in English and drawn from a variety of countries, cultures, and traditions around the globe.

This course examines topics, texts, and/or genres for their experimental or radical qualities, which place them on the margins of traditional literary studies.

This course explores the rich variety of children's literature and considers how writing for children delights, instructs, and subverts. Texts will include poems, novels, tales, illustrations, and films.

This course examines works of literature alongside their film or television adaptations, exploring the textual and visual as distinct modes of expression while considering what is lost or gained in the translation of content from one medium to another.

This course introduces students to the intellectual practices and institutional networks that sustain the work of writing. Bridging the divide between creative and academic literary production, the course explores a range of histories and methods to illuminate their social contexts. Investigating key institutions of literary culture and scholarship (e.g. coteries, schools, readings, conferences, journals, archives), students will familiarize themselves with the interpersonal processes that support literary research and will collaborate on final creative-scholarly projects.

This is an intensive workshop in the writing of poetry, concentrating on an understanding of form, an awareness of voice, and an individual poetics. Students will have the opportunity to try a variety of forms: the short lyric, the serial poem, narrative verse, prose poetry.

This is an intensive workshop in the writing of fiction, concentrating on narrative techniques in student writing and in a variety of published works of contemporary fiction. Students will have the opportunity to develop an awareness of voice, rhythm, dialogue, diction, character, and point-of-view.

This is an intensive workshop in writing literature for children of various ages. Students will work on such forms as text for picture books, nonsense rhymes, and chapters of young adult novels in verse.

This is an intensive workshop in the writing of creative nonfiction, concentrating on contemporary forms such as magazine articles, personal essays, travel writing, blogging, etc, as well as professional aspects of writing, such as "the pitch", book proposals, and the editing process.

The focus of this Creative Writing course is determined by the individual instructor in consultation with the department. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This is an intensive workshop in the writing of short plays, concentrating on effective playwrighting skills with an established playwright and a director. Students will develop and draft their works multiple times, ultimately seeing these works performed before a public audience at the end of the course.

Building on writing, research, and revision skills introduced in ENGL 100, this course will deepen the writer's knowledge of rhetorical choices and awareness of current essay genres. Students will learn to effectively take the investigative project through all stages of composition - from inception and handling of research to revision and stylistic editing - and will gain confidence in writing in a variety of modes.

This course offers advanced study in the theory and/or history of rhetoric. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This exploration of British Columbian literature reveals perspectives on places and events, and on the operation of language as seen from different cultural perspectives.

This course studies selected works of Canadian literature important for their artistic, cultural, or historical content and contexts. Depending on the term, iterations of the course may focus on a specific moment in Canadian literary culture, or may look at the history of Canadian literature as a whole. Sample course titles: Canadian Modernism, Postcolonial Canadian Literature, Canadian Literary Urban Fiction.

The course explores aspects of British literature through selected works of literature written by authors from or based in the United Kingdom from early modern period to the present day. Topics covered might include the birth of the novel, representations of the Industrial Revolution, the Imperial and post-Imperial novel, or Anglo-American modernism. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course explores aspects of American literature through selected works of literature written by authors from or based in the United States from the early modern period to the present day. Topics covered might include the birth of a nation, race relations, the West and Manifest Destiny, or the post-9/11 novel. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course explores national literatures and their cultural, social, and political power in relation to the development and construction of personal and national identity. The course, for example, may focus on Central American, Iranian, Irish, and Russian literature. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course examines influential works of literature, both in English and in translation, from various periods and countries that are part of what has been traditionally known as the Western World. It explores the ways in which mythology, religion, and history have helped construct western literature. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course examines world literature from a comparative/global framework, or it focuses on a specific geographical/national region from a transnational perspective. This course might also explore the politics, art and theory of translation from historical and/or contemporary perspectives.

This course focuses on the emergence and persistence of a specific literary or non-literary genre, such as the gothic novel, lyric poetry, modernist elegy, tragic drama, detective story, travel narrative or memoir/autobiography. The course is intended to develop a deep critical awareness of the formal techniques and social contexts of a given genre's representation of experience.

The course surveys poetry traditions and practices across different times and cultures with particular attention to the emergence of new forms and theories of poetry. A specific section of the course may select a particular time period and place, e.g. medieval poetry in England, France, and Japan. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course examines literary performances, plays, and practices, as well as the performative dimensions of other types of expression. Students will be introduced to, and will use, a range of theoretical perspectives and methods to analyze a variety of performance texts and contexts. This might include studying theatre, film, dance, gesture and physicality, gender, the internet and online performances, and everyday site specific performances.

This course explores ideology, religion, theory, and other societal constructs as presented by writers across the centuries; sample courses include "Marxism and the Novel," "Representations of Faith in Twentieth-Century Literature," and "Lawyers, The Truth, and The Novel". See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course explores literary art criticism within the framework of media studies. Students will consider the diverse forms and technologies that have shaped written and oral literature, and will situate literary texts within our increasingly diverse landscape of media forms.

This course surveys the complex interplay between text, typography, images and the book as a material object from a historical and/or contemporary vantage point, emphasizing the ways in which literary texts register both technological change as well as historical, societal, and cultural change. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course explores literature in the context of recent environmental and ecological thought.

Pre-modern poetic cultures were characterized by a dizzying variety of literary and interpretive practices, encompassing oral and written poetry, political rhetoric, prose narrative, dramatic performance, fable, history, confession, and philosophical speculation. But these practices were not understood to belong under a single unifying idea of “literature” as a distinct discipline of fiction-making and interpretation. How did such works fit in their historical worlds, and what can they teach us about our own moment?

The invention and institutionalization of “literature” as we know it occurred between the late-sixteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, alongside vast political and cultural changes—the rise of settler-colonial empires, a reading middle class, women’s entrance into the literary marketplace, scientific and industrial revolutions, and the first truly global wars. How were literary innovations in realism, character, diction, prosody, and performance shaped by these historical contexts, and what do they reveal about the world we live in now?

The idea of literature as a distinct discipline developed side-by-side with the capitalist world system, which from the mid-nineteenth century onward has faced a series of crises that have revealed violent global interdependencies and prompted radical social change. The literary arts correspondingly underwent profound transformations in form, language, and media that persisted through to the end of the twentieth century. How can we understand these innovations in relation to historical shifts in sexuality, decolonization, race, science, technology, and the environment?

This course will explore a specific topic in US literary history, concentrating on a specific period, movement, or development between the early colonial period and the American Civil War. Each iteration of the course will concentrate on a distinct period, such as the colonial era, Revolutionary era, antebellum era, or some portion/combination thereof. Sample course titles: The American Slave Narrative; The American Constitution as Work of Art; Melville and Modernity; American Literature before the "United States"; Resisting "Removal": American Literature and the Trail of Tears.

This course will explore a specific topic in US literary history, concentrating on a single period, movement, or development between the Reconstruction Era and the 1970's. Sample course titles: American Naturalism; The Harlem Renaissance; US Literature of the Cold War; American Lyric from Dickinson to Dylan; Hollywood and Literary Culture.

This course studies distinctive features of contemporary culture through works of literature written from roughly 1970 to the present day.

This course takes up specific questions and issues in the field of historical and/or contemporary Indigenous literature. Reading lists may include Indigenous literatures from around the world, and may focus on a single author, a literary movement, or a theoretical perspective.

This course investigates key genres of English literature and the processes of their formation and transformation. In a seminar setting foregrounding accountable reading, shared inquiry, and collaborative critical dialogue, students will study a wide range of prose, poetry, and performance texts - from the classical to the modern to the contemporary - exploring the ways in which the formal conventions of genres and subgenres have been shaped and reshaped by the particular contexts in which they emerge.

This course investigates literary and cultural traditions and countertraditions with a focus on their local, global, and postcolonial contexts. In a seminar setting foregrounding accountable reading, shared inquiry, and collaborative critical dialogue, students will study how a wide range of writers, artists, and other thinkers have imagined, articulated, critiqued, and in some cases revised such concepts as personhood, citizenship, justice, and community through varied uses of narrative, storytelling, and other modes of representation.

This course offers experiential study of the literature, history, and culture of a Land School location, with a focus on introducing students to Indigenous ways of knowing. The Land School may be organized around critical approach, historical period, decolonizing practices, or geographical and cultural area. The course has three parts: classroom time, a one- to two-week immersive Land School experience that encourages students to consider place as a form of learning, and opportunities for reflection.

This course is designed for students in any discipline who wish to learn about some of the philosophies and practices involved in the teaching of writing and revision. With a special focus on preparing students for roles in peer-tutoring contexts, the course offers a hands-on, experiential approach to a range of writing and revision pedagogies that will not only equip students for future positions as writing tutors but also help them sharpen their own writing skills.

This course focuses on developments in poetry and poetics since the 1970s such as the long poem, serial forms, procedural writing, language-centred writing, ecopoetics, conceptual writing, visual poetry, prose poetry, documentarian forms, poet's theatre, guerrilla poetry, dialect and patois, and new media. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course focuses on developments in fiction and narrative since the 1970s such as new narrative, genre fiction, graphic novels, microfiction, the city-novel, appropriated narratives, biofiction, new media, and other forms and modes.

Travel writing is one of the most popular genres of contemporary literary non-fiction. This course will give students an opportunity to develop substantial, publishable works of travel writing under the guidance of a current practitioner. It will be of interest to all who love travel and adventure and have imagined documenting their experience and sharing them with a wide audience.

This course presupposes that students have current portfolios. It addresses advanced practices, methods, and techniques used by writers working in a variety of literary genres. Topics include conceptualizing large projects, research methods in the literary genres, global restructuring of manuscripts, examining the writing process, and experimenting with new procedures. In addition to lectures and workshops, local guest writers will visit the class to discuss these aspects of their practice.

Students will adapt material (such as short stories, poems, and essays) from other writing classes, as well as from other sources, for text-based performance genres such as the screenplay, the radio drama, poets theatre, "movie telling," and/or the podcast. Collaboration will be encouraged.

The focus of this Creative Writing course is determined by the individual instructor in consultation with the department. Examples might include New Media, Writing and the Body, Transmissions, or Writing from the Land.

This course focuses on digital genres of creative writing. Engaging with texts in a range of forms, students will learn to analyze and model sources that emerge specifically from online communities of writers. The outcome of this class is greater writing versatility through a deep engagement with the online literary archive and hands-on experimentation with diverse written forms.

This upper-level course focuses on versatility and cross-pollination in creative writing genres. Students will read diverse literary samples, from the traditional to the experimental, to examine how form is connected to the cultural and societal impact of literary texts. Students will then attempt multiple creative experiments by modeling and adapting form with a range of cultural and societal considerations in mind.

This course offers an in-depth study of a single author.

This course is an advanced seminar in twentieth-century literature with an emphasis on the close study of specific literary movements and schools such as Modernism, Harlem Renaissance, OULIPO, the New York School, or Postmodernism and/or prevalent thematic concerns present in twentieth-century literature. See the Department of English website for the focus of the course in a specific term.

This course offers an in-depth study of a selected topic in literary-critical theory.

This course examines electronic literature (literature created exclusively on and for digital devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones). Students will consider the genre as a form possessing computer-driven aesthetics - such as speed, animation, and multimodal semiotics - that produce different literary effects and reading practices.

This course investigates histories and modes of criticism and the relation between theory and other creative and cultural formations. In a seminar setting foregrounding accountable reading, shared inquiry, and collaborative critical dialogue, students will survey a wide range of critical and literary theories, analyze the social and institutional contexts of their emergence, situate them in relation to each other, and evaluate their impact on both scholarly and creative practices in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In this course, students will refine a creative or critical work of their own making as well as collaboratively produce a professional-quality anthology publication for both print and web formats. Beginning with a brief history and assessment of the anthology form itself, the course will guide students through every stage of the production process, inviting them to try a variety of tasks and allowing them to specialize in the publishing-related role of their choice.

This is a work-experience course that connects students with a host organization in a relevant field or industry. The Practicum is conducted under the mentorship of a Capilano faculty member and a supervisor from the host organization. Students gain valuable experience applying their skills in research, writing, critical thinking, and imaginative problem-solving in a unique real-world setting, discovering how their training and knowledge can be used in various business, education, research, or cultural contexts.

Students will work with an English faculty member and be guided in the development of a research-based project. Specific course details will be arranged between individual students and faculty members. Registration is by permission of the instructor and the English Department Coordinator.

In this course students in the English Honours program undertake a research project culminating in a graduating honours thesis. The course is delivered over two terms, the first devoted to reading and research for the project, the second to the drafting and completion of the written thesis.

Students will work with an English faculty member and be guided in the development of a research-based project. Specific course details will be arranged between individual students and faculty members. See the Department of English website for complete details on the application process. Admission is by permission of the instructor and the department.

Students will work with an instructor to guide them with a topic-based analytical/creative project, approved by the student's advisor. Specific course details will be arranged between individual students and faculty members. Registration is by permission of the instructor and the Creative Writing Convenor.