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 480: Critical Studies in American Writers
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Topic for Spring 2021: Pragmatism and Literature. How do we determine truth? What do we do when faced with uncertainty? This course pairs pragmatist philosophy with novels, poems, essays, and autobiographies (including Emerson, Poe, Dickinson, Du Bois, Henry James, Pauline Hopkins, and Stephen Crane).
• 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 483: Critical Studies in Literature and Ethnicity
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - May be repeated for credit as topics vary. Topic for Spring 2020: Multiethnic Women's Literature in the U.S. Readings may include works of fiction, poetry, or drama composed by multiethnic women writers. Attention to a wide range of literary works and historical and cultural contexts.
• CAS EN 484: Critical Studies in Literature and Ethnicity
  Topic for Spring 2021: "Identity." This course takes seriously the ongoing dependence on "identity" in cultural tensions, artistic expressions and cultural debates. Where did it come from, what does it mean and why does it matter? Via a cross-cultural exploration of literary, historical and critical works we engage how "identity" is claimed, mobilized and sometimes weaponized.
• 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. 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 for Fall 2024; Gender and Sexuality in the Neo-slave Narrative. Examines how neo-slave narratives intervene in the sexual and gendered silences of slave narratives and the power relations that produced them. Students who are hesitant to study depictions of sexual violence might consider taking another course.
• CAS EN 492: Independent Study
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, department, and CAS Room 105. - Application forms available in CAS Room 105.
• 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 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 500: Henry James and New Media
  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 Firs t-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 503: Fiction Workshop
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, to whom two or three stories or a portion of a novel must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - A workshop in the writing of fiction. Manuscripts read and discussed in class. Individual conferences. Enrollment limited chiefly to graduate students.
• CAS EN 504: Fiction Workshop
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, to whom two or three stories or a portion of a novel must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, to whom two or three stories or chapters from a novel must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - A workshop in the writing of fiction. Manuscripts read and discussed in class. Individual conferences. Enrollment limited chiefly to graduate students.
• 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 507: Seminar: Creative Writing, Fiction
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor, to whom two or three stories or chapters from a novel must be submitted during the period just before classes begin. - A workshop in the writing of fiction. 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. First Year W riting Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - 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.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• 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.