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 497: Critical Studies in Literature and Philosophy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Truth, beauty, reason, emotion, interpretation, justice, meaning--this course reads literature from specific philosophical perspectives, and understands philosophical texts using literary methods. It also examines historical, theoretical, and aesthetic relationships between literature and philosophy. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Critical Thinking.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Critical Thinking
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS EN 498: Critical Studies in Contemporary Literature
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior status. Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. - May be repeatable for credit as topics vary. Please see English Department's Website for current topic.
• CAS EN 500: Henry James and New Media
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior status. - James's writing exposed moral and aesthetic dimensions of society's play with status, wealth, and romance. After exploring contemporary dating apps, social media, and films of James's works, students complete a video, graphic novel, or other form of "new media" criticism. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Digital/Multimedia Expression
• CAS EN 502: Reading and Writing Literary Nonfiction
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing; and First-Year Writing (WR 120 or equivalent). - This reading and writing seminar explores literary nonfiction, a wide-ranging, sometimes controversial genre in which writers use techniques associated with fiction and poetry to make meaning of lives. How do writers describe their world, especially peoples, places, and things? What are different ways of using personal voice? Each weekly meeting includes discussion of published nonfiction along with writing short exercises, and workshopping writing. The learning goals of this course are to become better readers and more skillful practitioners of the craft of literary nonfiction. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS EN 505: Poetry Workshop
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, to whom a selection of poems must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - A workshop in the writing of poetry. Manuscripts read and discussed in class. Individual conferences. Enrollment limited chiefly to graduate students.
• CAS EN 506: Poetry Workshop
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, to whom a selection of poems must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, to whom a selection of poems must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - A workshop in the writing of poetry. Manuscripts read and discussed in class. Individual conferences. Enrollment limited chiefly to graduate students.
• CAS EN 508: Seminar: Creative Writing, Poetry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, to whom a selection of poems must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - Individual conferences. Enrollment limited chiefly to graduate students.
• CAS EN 509: Playwriting 2: Writing the Social/Political Play
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, to whom a short play or scene from a play must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - Explores the dramatist's response to political and social events over 2,000 years from the Greeks through the modern period. Examines how playwrights dramatized the pressing issues of their times with a focus on content, historical context, and theatrical forms.
• CAS EN 510: Playwriting 1: Writing of Short Plays
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, to whom a short play or scene from a play must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - A seminar in the writing of short, original plays, addressing structure, language, and theme. Students read and discuss the masters of modern drama. Writing exercises are assigned to stir the imagination and develop craft. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation. Effective Fall 2026 this course no longer carries HUB units.
• CAS EN 513: Modern English Grammar and Style
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - This course shows how to systematically analyze grammar and style of sentences and longer units of discourse. Explores academic and popular debates on grammar and grammar instruction and helps the student become a better speaker and writer.
• CAS EN 517: Drama in Theory and Practice 1: Structure and the Script
  Prerequisites: By consent of instructor, to whom a short play or scene from a play must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - Structure and the Contemporary Script. A comparison and analysis of the design of plays from the last two decades, encouraging students to imitate the form, character, and plot from these plays while experimenting with their own narrative structures. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation. Effective Fall 2026 this course no longer carries HUB units.
• CAS EN 519: Drama in Theory and Practice 2: Experiments with Character and Form
  Prerequisites: Consent of the instructor, to whom a short play or scene from a play must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - Course includes the reading and analysis of dramatic works. Classes allow experimentation with the full-length monologue and small cast plays while giving attention to dramatic structure and style. Students present their own work in a workshop format, and material is critiqued in class. Students also attend performances and write critiques of professional productions. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation. Effective Fall 2026 this course no longer carries HUB units.
• CAS EN 520: Drama in Theory and Practice 3: Adaptation and the Theatre
  Prerequisites: Consent of instructor, to whom a short play or scene from a play must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - This playwriting seminar focuses on translation versus adaptation, comparing the two, and culling material from other writing genres. Focusing on tone, imagery, stage design, and language, students write their own stage adaptations as well as read various texts translated from World Theatre. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation. Effective Fall 2026 this course no longer carries HUB units.
• CAS EN 521: Literature of the Middle Ages 1
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Topic varies by semester. Please see the English Department’s website for the current topic. Topic for Fall 2026: The Art of Dying. Introduction to the ars moriendi (the art of dying) and associated literary and visual death culture of medieval England. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Research and Information Literacy, Writing-Intensive.
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  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS EN 522: Literature of the Middle Ages 2
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Topic varies by semester. Past topics include Medieval Erotic Literature, Arthurian Literature. Please see English Department's website or contact instructor for current topic.
• CAS EN 537: Black Thought: Literary and Cultural Criticism in the African Diaspora
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - An introduction to the cultural criticism of African-America and the Black Diaspora. This ranges from literary, theoretical and public conversations centered on race, and interrelated issues such as gender, sex, and migration. The course hones in on specific trends, themes, topics and characteristics of this work and assesses its relationship to historical and contemporary political and social contexts.
• CAS EN 538: Teaching American Literature
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - This course focuses on teaching American literature at the high school level. Goals include building a knowledge base in American literary history, modeling deep learning with selected texts, addressing theoretical questions in English Language Arts pedagogy, and learning practical classroom skills. 4 cr. 1st sem. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Individual in Community, Teamwork/Collaboration.
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  • The Individual in Community
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• CAS EN 539: Marxist Cultural Criticism
  An introduction to Marxist cultural criticism that examines the transformation of concepts in classic Marxism (Marx, Lukacs, Althusser, Adorno, and Gramsci) into contemporary debates about race, gender, sexuality, colonialism, modernity, and language (Said, Zizek, Spivak, and others). Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • The Individual in Community
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS EN 546: The Modern American Novel
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing; and First-Year Writing Seminar (CASWR 120 or equivalent). - Topics vary each semester but this course may be taken only once for credit. Topic for Fall 2025: Representative Works 1900 - 1950. Novelistic responses to American modernity, centered on idea that "the color line" is its central feature. How does racism structure modern economic, social, cultural change' Authors: James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Willa Cather, Faulkner, Hurston, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS EN 548: Joyce and After
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Readings in transatlantic modernism (Irish, British, American) from 1922 forward. Joyce's Ulysses is central. Other readings from authors such as James Baldwin, Alison Bechdel, Samuel Beckett, Elizabeth Bishop, Ralph Ellison, William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, Alice Walker, and Virginia Woolf. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Aesthetic Exploration.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Ethical Reasoning