Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Art History 202/History 204: Looking at Art from the Renaissance to Present Day is a three-credit, junior-level course designed to introduce you to the developments in artistic expression in the Western world beginning with the Italian Renaissance and ending with Contemporary art. This course, which is offered in an individualized-study delivery mode and normally open to students throughout the year, introduces the basic premise of art history and teaches students how to critically view historical works and artistic practices.

ENGL 255 focuses on essay writing at the university level. In order to improve the necessary skills, students study examples of good writing, do a brief introductory assignment, write two short summaries, participate in online discussion forums, and complete three essays covering a spectrum of styles and purposes.

This course introduces students to the Canadian literary tradition—major authors, works, forms, periods, movements, and concerns—from colonial times to the present. Works are chosen primarily from English-Canadian authors, although a number of French-Canadian works are studied in translation.

English 304: A History of Drama Part II: Modernist Theatre is a senior-level university course which examines the beginnings of Western modernism in plays of the nineteenth and twentieth century from Europe, Britain, the United States, and Canada.

ENGL 306 is an introduction to literature created by people who do the actual work being depicted. This is a relatively new genre. In the past, most literature about the workplace was written by outsiders; by people who had never done the job and who therefore did not have an insider's knowledge of what actually went on in the daily life of workers. In breaking the taboo against depicting the realities of life on the job, the literature of work gives an exciting new perspective both on the workplace and on the possibilities of literature.

English 316 is an introductory level course designed to familiarize you with a variety of critical perspectives and help you understand literary works more profoundly by integrating literary theory in your response to these works. English 316 also aims to prepare English program students for English 423: Advanced Literary Theory and Criticism, which deals with some of the more contemporary literary theories covered in English 316 in more depth.

ENGL 325 is an introduction to the study of the plays of William Shakespeare and concentrates on the comedies and problem plays. The course will help you to interpret the plays as literary texts and as live theatre.

This course introduces students to American literature, its history and development, and its rich variety of forms and techniques. It surveys American literature from its beginnings to approximately 1900 and includes Native orators, Puritan authors, writers of the Enlightenment and Romantic periods, slave narratives, and works that would set the stage for the entry of the United States into the literary world of the Twentieth Century.

ENGL 351 is an introduction to the study of ethnic minority writing in Canada in the context of the country's two majority traditions—the English and the French.

This course is a genre-specific study of the poetry, prose, short fiction, and novels of the Harlem Renaissance. In this course you will focus on the cultural, historical, and artistic movement of the 1920s and 1930s, by examining the racial, political, and social issues of the time period.

English 384: Writing Creative Non-fiction is a senior-level course that offers students the opportunity to write creative non-fiction and receive feedback on their writing. Creative non-fiction, also called literary non-fiction or literary journalism, is a genre that applies to non-fiction the principles of storytelling usually associated with fiction. Students will learn these principles of storytelling as they produce their own work.

In this course we will focus on the first four decades of the twentieth-century British novel, its history and development, its rich variety of forms and techniques, and the ideas and events that influenced it.

ENGL 423 examines the major contemporary theories of literature and their application in practical criticism.

ENGL 492 is designed for students who want to pursue a particular literary topic of study. There is some choice of topic which is limited by the research and teaching interests of the faculty in the Centre for Language and Literature.

This course is designed for students who need a thorough foundation in writing skills before pursuing other courses of study. A developmental approach to the writing process guides students through writing sentences, paragraphs, and an essay. Participation in the editing process helps students to better analyze and improve their own writing skills. This course is appropriate for both ESL students and native speakers of English who require a good grounding in writing, or who need to upgrade their writing skills, before proceeding with further studies. This course may be recommended for students intending to take ENGL 177 or ENGL 187.

This course is designed for students who need to upgrade and practise their reading skills to improve general comprehension and reading efficiency.

This course provides an introduction to business communications for students who wish to attend a post-secondary institution where English is the medium of instruction. The aim of this course is to prepare students to succeed in complex business communication tasks in writing, reading, and listening. This is a preparatory course for students most interested in improving their skills in a business/economic content area or taking further courses in Business related areas. It is designed from an ESL perspective, however, it is also appropriate for native speakers of English who are in need of business writing preparation.

Welcome to French 100: French for Beginners I, a three-credit, introductory level course designed for students who wish to begin learning French. French 100 will help you become familiar with the foundation of the French language and will help you develop the four basic language skills of reading, writing, aural comprehension, and speaking. By the end of the course you will be able to make simple statements, and ask and answer a variety of questions. You will learn how to write simple sentences that are grammatically correct and to express yourself in simple French.

FREN 101 continues the study of the basic elements of the French language acquired in FREN 100. Oral and written skills are developed through the study of vocabulary, grammar, and idiomatic expressions. This course will enable students to speak and write in simple French in a range of everyday situations. A basic knowledge of English grammar is very important since FREN 101 contains a major grammar component.

FREN 200 trains the student in spoken and written French as a continuation of FREN 100 and FREN 101. The course enables students to use French in social situations and to talk about themselves, their opinions, and their experiences.

FREN 201 further develops the ability to speak and write French, enabling students to use French in social situations and to talk about themselves, their opinions, and their experiences. In addition, the course leads the student through a major review of grammar and develops the student's ability to understand and compose short passages.

French 305 presents an historical overview of the development of children’s literature in French and allows you to explore the various genres. Littérature jeunesse focuses on specific problems such as the role of the narrator, the relationship between narrator and reader, the relationship between the text and the illustrations, the evolution of the “hero” and how childhood has been perceived over the years. The course aims to develop skills in literary analysis, written and oral expression in French and also to increase awareness of the complexity and diversity of children’s literature.

French 362 is designed to follow French 201 or a full first-year university French course. This course continues the study of French grammar, expansion of vocabulary, and the study of short stories selected from francophone literature. The student will improve both written and spoken French through conversation, comprehension, grammar, and composition.

FREN 375 focuses on the lexical rather than the grammatical aspect of the French language. This course is designed to dramatically increase students' vocabulary level and retention.

Le cours Français 402 fait simplement l’étude comparative du français et de l’anglais. Il est important que vous vous posiez toujours la question suivante lorsqu’il faudra passer d’une langue à l’autre: De quels moyens dispose-t-on afin de rendre la forme française ou anglaise à partir des idées exprimées? Le manuel du cours présente justement certains moyens à l’aide desquels vous serez en mesure de passer d’une langue à l’autre, surtout d’une pensée anglaise à une expression bien française.

This course is intended to present translation strategies to students who are proficient in French and have a very good command of English. It is a course in translation practice and translation method which encourages students to be aware of the problems which arise in translating various kinds of texts from French to English and to develop strategies for overcoming these problems. The course helps students increase their awareness of the different ways in which the two languages express concepts. It offers a variety of material for translation including literary, journalistic, consumer-oriented and factual texts, and suggests ways of ensuring that the end product (the translation into English) is both accurate and idiomatic.

FRENCH 421 is designed for students who intend to major in French or to graduate in Education with French as a teaching subject. This course is also vital to those who intend to pursue translation as a profession and to those aspiring towards a higher degree (MA) in French Studies. It serves as an exploration of the 19th-Century novel through the detailed study of three novels: Francois le Champi (George Sand), Eugénie Grandet (Balzac) and Madame Bovary (Flaubert). Although the course focuses on a detailed analysis of only three authors, students will nonetheless be able to expand their horizon through references made to other contemporary novelists such as Chateaubriand, Stendhal, Hugo, Maupassant and Zola.

SPAN 301 consists of four integrated components: grammar, vocabulary, culture, and literature. The course reviews and further develops basic language skills acquired in First Year Spanish. The emphasis is on reviewing and learning grammar structures and on vocabulary acquisition. The objective of SPAN 301 is to strengthen both written and oral skills that will enable students to communicate in a variety of contexts.

SPAN 400 reviews and further develops language skills acquired in the first two years of Spanish. The emphasis is on advanced grammatical structures and on acquisition of more specialized vocabulary. The objective of SPAN 400 is to strengthen both written and oral skills that will enable students to communicate in a variety of contexts with emphasis on achieving an advanced level of mastery of complicated grammar. Students are expected to perform simple literary analysis exercises in this course

ENGL 255 focuses on essay writing at the university level. In order to improve the necessary skills, students study examples of good writing, do a brief introductory assignment, write two short summaries, participate in online discussion forums, and complete three essays covering a spectrum of styles and purposes.