Introductory Undergraduate Courses in Language and Literature
Academic Year 2025-2026, Semester I
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All courses carry 4 credits, unless otherwise indicated.
Effective Fall 2020, one course numbered CAS EN 121 – 201 and 203 – 215 may count toward the seven additional courses, provided it was taken before or concurrently with EN 220.
If you are considering a major or minor in English, you should take EN 220 rather than WR 150, 151, or 152.
Please note that a class may not be used to fulfill more than one distribution requirement.
All of the courses listed below fulfill the Humanities divisional credit in CAS.
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Encounters: Reading across Time and Space
*Note that this course is the introduction to the English Major. Non-majors looking for Hub units should consider other courses, including 100-level English courses.
This team-taught course provides an introduction to English literature across the ages. We will stage encounters across time and space between authors working in the English language – from the middle ages to the present, and from England to the Americas and around the globe.
Highlighting canonical and non-canonical texts, we will discuss representative moments in the history of genre, including poetry, drama, travel narrative, autobiography, the novel, film, and performance. Alongside our early works, we will read and view the work of artists from various backgrounds who have responded creatively to texts from literary history, in gestures of homage, repudiation, or ambivalence. These conversations might be direct and explicit or more indirect and allusive. We will also pay special attention to how a later work might influence our understanding of an earlier work. Along with more formal thesis-driven assignments, students will have their own opportunity to speak back to our readings; like the artists and activists on our syllabus, students will be invited to draw on their specific histories and experiences to craft creative encounters with the early works we read. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation, Teamwork/Collaboration.
EN 101 A1 and B1 Appleford and Rezek
TR 9:30 – 10:45a
Freshman Seminar
Limited enrollment. Variable topics. Through discussions and frequent writing assignments, students develop skills in the close reading of literary texts and learn to express their interpretive ideas in correct and persuasive prose. Satisfies CAS WR 120 requirement. The Freshman Seminar fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: First-Year Writing Seminar.
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EN 120 A1 Staff
MWF 9:05 – 9:55a
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EN 120 B1 Staff
MWF 10:10 – 11:00a
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EN 120 C1 Staff
MWF 11:15 – 12:05p
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EN 120 D1 Staff
TR 11:00 – 12:15p
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EN 120 E1 Staff
MWF 12:20 – 1:10p
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EN 120 F1 Staff
MWF 9:05 – 9:55a
Reading World Literature
Study of literature in English or English translation — poetry, drama, and prose narrative — outside of British and American traditions. Attention to such topics as cultural self-construction, relationships of historical context to artistic expression, and development of literary forms. 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.
EN 121 A1 Staff
MWF 1:25 – 2:15 p
Medieval Worlds
Why does the deep medieval past continue to haunt our dreams? In novels, games, and on TV? Medieval literature and its afterlives. Topics may include Arthurian romance, otherworld visions, monsters and heroes, women’s lives and writing, modern medievalism. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Teamwork/Collaboration.
EN 122 A1 Staff
TR 5:00 – 6:15p
Reading American Literature
How does American literature inspire readers to reflect upon cultural developments in the United States, from the 1830s up through the Civil Rights movement? What genres, themes, and stylistic tendencies are central to American fiction, poetry, and nonfiction prose during this period? How and why do these works still speak to us today, representing the hopeful possibilities and benefits of community, as well as the challenges posed by communities-in-crisis to cherished individuality? This survey begins with texts by Emerson, Thoreau, Douglass, Whitman, and others who were deeply troubled by the effects of industrialization in America, protested against slavery, and confronted the crisis of Civil War. We will then turn to authors such as James, Du Bois, Hughes, Larsen, Cather, and Hemingway, exploring cultural changes brought about by expatriation and migration, including the New Negro Renaissance and the flourishing of modernism. Our concluding sessions will examine how wartime experience fostered the discovery of new forms in poetry by Eliot, H.D., and Gwendolyn Brooks, and consider how this American legacy lives on in the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration and The Individual in Community.
EN 127 A1 Staff
TR 2:00 – 3:15 p
Reading American Literature
Readings may include works of fiction, poetry, or drama composed in America from the colonial period to the present. Attention to a wide range of literary works and historical and cultural contexts. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration and The Individual in Community.
EN 127 B1 Staff
MWF 9:05 – 9:55a
Introduction to African American Literature
What is the African American literary tradition? How does it change over time? This course is to introduce you to the cultural, political, and historical contexts of the African American experience through readings of literature. We will read poetry, slave narratives, essays and speeches, tales, short stories, and novels, and as we examine these texts, we will consider how culture, politics, and history shape African American literature.
Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking. Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (WR100/120 or equivalent)
EN 129/AA 103 A1 Staff
MWF 10:10 – 11:00 a
Science/Fiction
Through readings in British and/or American literature, an exploration of some of the following topics: science and technology as literary themes; historical construction of science and art; similarities and differences between literary and scientific methods; the development of science fiction. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Ethical Reasoning.
EN 130 A1 Staff
MWF 9:05 – 9:55a
Science/Fiction
Through readings in British and/or American literature, an exploration of some of the following topics: science and technology as literary themes; historical construction of science and art; similarities and differences between literary and scientific methods; the development of science fiction. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Ethical Reasoning.
EN 130 B1 Staff
MWF 11:15a – 12:05p
Introduction to Poetry
Introduction to the understanding, interpretation, and appreciation of a wide range of poetry. Focus on poetic form, genre, and style, with explorations of cultural and aesthetic contexts. Particular emphasis on close, careful reading and discussion. Topics vary by instructor. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Oral and/or Signed Communication.
EN 142 A1 Staff
MWF 9:05 – 9:55a
The Graphic Novel
Examination of the rise, nature, and status of the contemporary book-length graphic novel. Topics may include graphic vs. traditional novel, word and image, style and space, representations of subjectivity, trauma, and history. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Creativity/Innovation.
EN 170 A1 Staff
MWF 11:15a – 12:05p
Introduction to Film & Media Aesthetics
Introduction to fundamental concepts for the analysis/understanding of film and media. Key concepts of formal composition (e.g. editing, mise-en-sc’ne, cinematography, sound and more) over a diverse set of media texts. Foundational skills in analysis appropriate to film, television and moving-image media. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Aesthetic Exploration, Critical Thinking.
EN 176 Staff
M 6:30 – 9:15p Film Screening
TR 11:00 – 12:15p Lecture/Discussion
Introduction to Asian-American Literature
What does it mean to be “Asian American?” What are the racial legacies of U.S. imperial expansion, race-based incarceration, and immigration exclusion? How do these meanings relate to gender and sexuality throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? This course grapples with these questions and more by studying the literature and culture of Americans of Asian ancestry in the United States. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, The Individual in Community, Teamwork/Collaboration.
EN 177 A1 Jewel Pereyra
TR 11:00a – 12:15p
Introduction to Trans Literature
Is there such a thing as trans literature? In this course we will engage with a wide-ranging trans literary tradition that spans time, genre, and language. We will ask questions about authorship, community, and the social and political conditions which allow and bar the flourishing of trans culture. The readings reflect an array of disciplinary modes, including narrative, memoir, and manifesto as well as poetry, adaptations, creative media and legal documents to understand the textual bodies of transgender experiences. The questions we ask in this course include the following: What can the word “trans” mean, and how does its multiple meanings open space to imagine new ways of becoming? How can literature expand how the world might be, rather than what it is? What themes emerge as central to trans literature? Authors may include: Callum Angus, Cameron Awkward-Rich, Stephanie Burt, Leslie Feinberg, Jordy Rosenberg, Rivers Solomon, jiaqing wilson-yang, and others. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, and Teamwork/Collaboration
EN 179 A1 Goodrich
TR 9:30 – 10:45a
Introduction to Literary Studies
Introduction to literary analysis and interpretation. Variable topics. Through frequent writing assignments and discussion, students develop skills in the analysis of literary texts and learn to express their interpretive ideas in correct and persuasive prose. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Writing-Intensive Course.
EN201 A1 Staff
MWF 11:15a – 12:05p