Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• CAS EN 402: Senior Independent Work
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: approval of Honors Committee. - SR INDEP WORK
• CAS EN 404: History of Literary Criticism 1
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - A historical survey of western literary-critical standards from the earliest surviving formulations in classical Athens to the dawn of the twentieth century. Writers include Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Augustine, Dante, Sidney, Hume, Wordsworth, Marx, Nietzsche. 4 cr. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Aesthetic Exploration.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS EN 406: History of Literary Criticism II
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Survey of recent literary critical theory. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
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  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS EN 437: Thinking with Animals
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - In literary texts, animals appear as tricksters, clueless victims, predatory men, eloquent captives, and heroic matriarchs. This course analyzes narratives about animals in Anglo-American philosophy, science, and literature. Human myths about animals and the supremacy of the human are central to beliefs about race, gender, and private property. Focuses on animals as food, embodied mindedness, environmental justice, and ecological thinking. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS EN 452: Asian American Studies: Theory and Methods
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - A brief overview of the theories and methods of Asian American studies, reading theory, literature, history, culture, sociology, and legal study to define a mode of inquiry and action inspired by a legacy of activism and survival from the Asian diaspora. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
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  • The Individual in Community
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS EN 453: Native American and Indigenous Studies: Theories and Methods
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - An overview of the theories and methods of Native American and Indigenous studies. Focusing in particular on Indigenous Critical Theory, this course reads and discusses ideas from disciplines including history, law, literature, film and media studies, museum studies, and environmental studies to discuss how Native peoples advocate for issues important to Indian Country and to global Indigenous communities.
• CAS EN 465: Critical Studies in Literature and Society
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Two previous literature courses or junior or senior status. - Topic varies by semester. Past topics include Fables and Tales, Hamlet/Lear/Macbeth, etc. Please see English Department's website for current topic.
• CAS EN 471: Critical Studies in American Literary Movements
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Two previous literature courses or junior or senior status. - Topic varies by semester. Past topics include Transatlantic Revolutions, Reading U.S. Empire, etc. Please see the English Department's website for the current topic. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Research and Information Literacy
• CAS EN 473: Critical Studies in Literary Genres
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Two previous literature courses or junior or senior status. – Topic varies by semester. Past topics include Narratives of Illness, The Artist Novel, etc. Please see the English Department's website for the current topic.
• CAS EN 474: Critical Studies in Literary Genres
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Topic varies. Past topics include Film Noir, Early Modern Women Authors, etc. Please see English Department's website or contact instructor for current topic.
• CAS EN 475: Critical Studies in Literature and Gender
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Topic varies by semester. Past topics include Marriage and Money in American Fiction, Early Modern Women Authors, The Origin of Love, etc. Please see the English Department's website for the current topic.
• CAS EN 480: Critical Studies in American Writers
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. – Topic varies by semester. Past topics include American Literature and Pragmatism, etc. Please see the English Department's website for the current topic.
• CAS EN 482: Critical Studies in Modern Literature
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Topic varies. Past topics include Global Literature, Approaches to the Postmodern novel, etc. Please see English Department's website or contact instructor for current topic. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Aesthetic Exploration.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS EN 486: Critical Studies in Anglophone Literature
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior status. - Topics vary. Past topics include Comparative Readings in Postcolonial Literature, Anglophone Caribbean Poetry. Please see English Department's Website for current topic.
• CAS EN 488: Critical Studies in African American Literature
  Undergrad prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. Graduate prerequisites: graduate standing. – Topic varies by semester. Past topics include Gender and Sexuality in the Neo-slave Narrative, Black Women in Life and Writing, etc. Please see the English Department’s website for the current topic.
• CAS EN 491: Independent Study
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, department, and approved application.
• CAS EN 492: Independent Study
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, department, and approved application.
• CAS EN 494: Critical Studies in Literature and the Arts
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior status. Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. - May be repeatable for credit as topics vary. Past topics include Film Language and Narrative Theory, Music and Poetry, Poetry and Visual Arts. Please see English Department's Website for current topic.
• CAS EN 495: Critical Studies in Literary Topics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Topic varies by semester. Past topics include Literature and Affect Theory, Multiethnic Speculative Fiction, Literature and Conceptions of Time, etc. Please see English Department's website or contact instructor for current topic.
• CAS EN 496: Critical Studies in Literary Topics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Topic varies by semester. Past topics include Fables and Tales, etc. Please see the English Department's website for the current topic.