For more information on our course offerings, please go to the York Course Website.
Calendar Year
Term
Course #
Course Title
2024
F
gs/en 6000A
Literary Research Methods
Situating literary research methods in the context of those of other disciplines, this course is designed to introduce new graduate students in English department to conceptual and methodological frameworks which characterize literary scholarship; how to perform literature reviews; specialized research and writing resources; critical methods for interrogating those resources; and relevant, emerging issues in scholarly communication.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
SU
gs/en 6010A
Directed Reading
Instructional Format: DIRD
2024
Y
gs/en 6010A
Directed Reading
Instructional Format: DIRD
2024
W
gs/en 6010M
Directed Reading
Instructional Format: DIRD
2025
W
gs/en 6010M
Directed Reading
Instructional Format: DIRD
2024
F
gs/en 6150A
Satire: Twisting World Literature
This course studies satire from its the origins to the present but along a distinct through-line of the sub-genre called the grotesque. Melding repellent physicality with politically commentary, the grotesque invokes rude histories and contemporary dangers, producing abject responses to monstrous combinations of political horror and laughter.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
S1
gs/en 6151A
The City in Translation: Negotiating Linguistic Plurality in Urban Spaces
This interdisciplinary course investigates translation and multilingualism as they relate to the experience of the city. It provides an opportunity to study translation and various forms of languaging in narrative and poetic praxis, and explore the multilingual condition as a lived experience of translation in various cities, with an emphasis in Toronto.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
F
gs/en 6157A
Comparative and World Literature Seminar: History and Practice
Cross-listed in English, Humanities, and Translation Studies, this seminar introduces students to the conditions of emergence and development of the discipline of Comparative Literature from its beginnings in nineteenth-century Europe to its most recent global iteration of World Literature. Students will experience how expanded understandings of cultural translation and textuality have radically altered and expanded the Eurocentric character of the discipline. Questions for investigation include: How have the aesthetics and politics of Comparative Literature changed over the past two hundred years? What factors have influenced those changes? How is World Literature related to Comparative Literature? How do both relate to colonial, post-colonial, diasporic, cultural and translation studies and digital humanities?
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
F
gs/en 6305A
Global Georgics: Land and Labour across the Long Eighteenth Century
This course examines the relationship between land, labour, and poetry from the classical origins of the georgic mode to the present day. Special focus is given to the relationship between georgic, transatlantic slavery, and settler colonialism in the long eighteenth century and beyond.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
SU
gs/en 6385A
Nineteenth-Century Imperial Culture: Britain and the United States
Offers a comparison and contrast between British and American imperialist cultures in the long nineteenth century, from the American Revolution to the First World War. We begin with a historical overview and introduction to theories of imperialism, and proceed with such topics as territorial expansion, exceptionalism, theories of race, imperial women, slavery, and science fiction.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
F
gs/en 6424A
Victorian Sexualities
Examines Victorian representations of sexual pleasure and anxiety in a range of theoretical, historical, scientific, and literary texts.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
F
gs/en 6425A
Readings in Victorian Literature
This course explores Victorian literature and culture through readings drawn from a range of genres.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
W
gs/en 6450M
Nineteenth Century British Fiction
Instructional Format: SEMR
Instructor(s): T. Choi
2024
F
gs/en 6517A
The Cold War and U.S. Literature
This course considers the literary response to geo-political and domestic dramas of the Cold War, and the attempt to rethink the purpose of culture in the 1950s and beyond. Emphasis will be placed upon emerging conceptions of race, ethnicity, and sexuality.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2025
W
gs/en 6549M
Modernism, Interdisciplinarity, and the Arts
Examines the literary, musical, and visual cultures of modernism to create better understanding of the forms, meanings, and significance of interdisciplinary art practices.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
W
gs/en 6611M
Imperial American Culture: The Long 1990s
Between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, during what historian Gary Gerstle terms the 'unipolar moment' of '90s, the United States found itself in the unique position of world imperial supremacy. This course considers the relations between that globalizing political power bloc deemed the 'neoliberal order' during the 'long 1990s' and the culture wars of the decade. As an English course, The Long 1990s focuses primarily on American literary production as well as theoretical developments, but will consider film, television, music, digital culture, politics, etc., en route.
Instructional Format: SEMR
Instructor(s): A. Redding
2024
SU
gs/en 6625A
The Crisis of Love: Twenty-First Century Fiction
This course examines twenty-first century fictions to engage questions about love and its affective, ethical, social and political valences. It follows a critical practice that attends both to the contexts informing their writing and reading and their formal dimensions and properties.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
W
gs/en 6691M
Exile
This course surveys both literary and theoretical texts on exile, or the condition of being forcefully removed from one's homeland. It will delve into the politics and poetics of involuntary migration through an engagement with contemporary exilic authors, thinkers, novelists, artists and film makers.
Instructional Format: SEMR
Instructor(s): M. Ebrahimi
2025
W
gs/en 6695M
Muslim Women Write Back
In this course we will read and discuss contemporary literature and theory by and about Muslim/Middle Eastern women, with an emphasis on current world issues.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
S1
gs/en 6741A
Modern Canadian Poetry
This course examines Canadian poetry produced between 1920 and 1960, incorporating an overview of Modernist trends in Canadian poetry alongside a consideration of longer collections by significant poets.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2025
W
gs/en 6776M
Seminar-Workshop in Creative Writing: Poetry
Along with matters of craft, this workshop course considers questions that confront poets: how to make poetry relevant in today's society, what forms of attention does poetry allow, what relationship to poetic tradition is most effective, what is an effective relationship towards formal tradition and innovation, etc. All students will write both poetry and academic papers (critical and/or theoretical engagements with elements of contemporary poetry and poetics). Students taking the course as part of the GDiP in Creative Writing will be evaluated primarily on their poetry; other students will be evaluated on the basis of their academic work.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2025
W
gs/en 6779M
Seminar-Workshop in Creative Writing: Fiction
What exactly is realism in fiction? How is it challenged by other ways of telling? Where is the border between factual and fictional narrative? How do we engage creatively with a world in crisis? Readings will be drawn from a range of contemporary fiction and criticism, spanning regions and genres. Students will write fiction and a short critical paper.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
W
gs/en 6779M
Seminar-Workshop in Creative Writing: Fiction
What exactly is realism in fiction? How is it challenged by other ways of telling? Where is the border between factual and fictional narrative? How do we engage creatively with a world in crisis? Readings will be drawn from a range of contemporary fiction and criticism, spanning regions and genres. Students will write fiction and a short critical paper.
Instructional Format: SEMR
Instructor(s): P. Malla
2025
W
gs/en 6965M
Theorizing Memory
This course explores contemporary theories of cultural, collective, archival and literary memory through transhistoric texts and transgeneric materials that have proven central to current configurations of memory studies.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
W
gs/en 6987M
Utopian and Dystopian Literature
This course traces the history of utopian and dystopian literature from the Renaissance to the present, studying how changing perspectives on the nature of the ideal or nightmarish society have been shaped by historical, cultural, intellectual, and literary developments.
Instructional Format: SEMR
Instructor(s): A. Weiss
2024
F
gs/en 6998A
Studies in Contemporary Literature
This course focuses on texts and theories of contemporary English literature. The content and method change from year to year, depending on the instructor.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
W
gs/en 6998M
Studies in Contemporary Literature
This course focuses on texts and theories of contemporary English literature. The content and method change from year to year, depending on the instructor.
Instructional Format: LECT
Instructor(s): R. Zacharias
2025
W
gs/en 7000M
Dissertation Proposal Writing Workshop
This writing workshop analyses the components of the dissertation proposal, discusses appropriate writing strategies, and provides a faculty-member-facilitated, peer-review setting for students to develop their dissertation topics and draft their proposals according to Faculty of Graduate Studies' guidelines.
Instructional Format: SEMR
2024
W
gs/en 7000M
Dissertation Proposal Writing Workshop
This writing workshop analyses the components of the dissertation proposal, discusses appropriate writing strategies, and provides a faculty-member-facilitated, peer-review setting for students to develop their dissertation topics and draft their proposals according to Faculty of Graduate Studies' guidelines.
Instructional Format: SEMR
Instructor(s): K. Valihora
For a more in-depth review of our Fall/Winter 2023–24 courses, please see the course outlines below:
The Graduate Program in English at York is an exciting environment to pursue innovative, socially engaging, career-ready education. Contact our Graduate Program Assistant to learn more.