{"id":4571,"date":"2015-03-02T14:54:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T19:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/?page_id=4571"},"modified":"2026-08-04T10:29:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T14:29:45","slug":"fall-2026-intro-courses","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/academics\/undergraduate\/courses\/fall-2026-intro-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall 2026 Introductory Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introductory Undergraduate Courses in Language and Literature<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Academic Year 2026-2027, Semester I<\/strong>
\n———————————————————————————————————————————————————<\/p>\n

All courses carry 4 credits, unless otherwise indicated.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Effective Fall 2020, one course numbered CAS EN 121 \u2013 201 and 203 \u2013 215 may count toward the seven additional courses, provided it was taken before or concurrently with EN 220.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

If you are considering a major or minor in English, you should take EN 220 rather than WR 150, 151, or 152.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Please note that a class may not be used to fulfill more than one distribution requirement.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

All of the courses listed below fulfill the Humanities divisional credit in CAS.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

———————————————————————————————————————————————————<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Encounters: Reading across Time and Space<\/strong><\/p>\n

*Note that this\u00a0course\u00a0is the introduction to the English Major. Non-majors looking for Hub units should consider other\u00a0courses, including 100-level English\u00a0courses.<\/p>\n

This team-taught\u00a0course\u00a0provides an introduction to English literature across the ages. We will stage encounters across time and space between authors working in the English language \u2013 from the middle ages to the present, and from England to the Americas and around the globe.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0course\u00a0fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity\/Innovation, Teamwork\/Collaboration.<\/p>\n

EN 101<\/strong>\u00a0A1 and B1<\/strong>\u00a0Appleford and Rezek<\/p>\n

TR 9:30a \u2013 10:45a<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Freshman Seminar<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Race and Gothic Fiction<\/strong><\/p>\n

How does race show up in Gothic literature? How do authors from marginalized communities engage with the Gothic? This course will explore figurations of race in Gothic literature from the 19th-century to now. Over the course of the semester, we will read works by writers like Mary Shelley, William Faulkner, and Toni Morrison. Students will encounter instances of haunting, monsters, vampires, and more through the occasional film, poems, short stories, and novels. This course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: First-Year Writing Seminar.<\/p>\n

EN 120<\/strong>\u00a0A1<\/strong>\u00a0Ford<\/p>\n

MWF 9:05 \u2013 9:55a<\/p>\n

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Reading Caribbean Literature<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In this class, we will explore a wide range of written works that contribute to, or complicate, what may be considered Caribbean literature. We will encounter authors across the 20th and 21st centuries, including Derek Walcott, Claude McKay, and Nalo Hopkinson, while examining key concepts such as race, nationhood, and gender. Students will improve their methods of critical inquiry through the practice of close reading and produce writing that demonstrates prolonged engagement with the course’s texts. This course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: First-Year Writing Seminar.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/span>EN 120<\/b>\u00a0B1<\/b>\u00a0Barry<\/span><\/p>\n

MWF 10:10 \u2013 11:00a<\/span><\/p>\n

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Poets on Poetry<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this course, we will read both poems and writings about poetry from poets including Hopkins, Eliot, Perse, Moore, Bishop, Stevens, and Heaney. Students will engage in attentive close reading and develop a critical voice of their own through sustained writing practice. This course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: First-Year Writing Seminar.<\/p>\n

EN 120<\/strong>\u00a0C1<\/strong>\u00a0Gerardin<\/p>\n

MWF 11:15a \u2013 12:05p<\/p>\n

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The Body in Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n

How are bodies represented in art? How do writers explore the body\u2019s role in perception, sensation, and aesthetic experience? In this course, we consider questions of embodiment alongside performance pieces spanning from ancient Greek tragedy to modern experimental drama. We examine how our understanding of the body has changed throughout time and how artists express their ideas through the staging of the body. This course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: First-Year Writing Seminar.<\/p>\n

EN 120<\/strong>\u00a0D1<\/strong> Kulczycky<\/p>\n

TR 11:00a \u2013 12:15p<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Reading World Literature<\/strong><\/p>\n

Study of literature in English or English translation \u2014 poetry, drama, and prose narrative \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

EN 121<\/strong>\u00a0A1<\/strong> Krishnan<\/p>\n

MWF 1:25 \u2013 2:15 p<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reading American Literature<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

EN 127 A1\u00a0<\/strong>Patterson<\/p>\n

MWF 12:20 \u2013 1:10p<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Introduction to Poetry<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

EN 142<\/strong>\u00a0A1<\/strong> Voekel<\/p>\n

MWF 9:05 \u2013 9:55a<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Myth of the Family in Classic U.S. Literature, Film, & TV<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Wire<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Breaking Bad<\/i>,\u00a0two of the most popular serials in television history, are exceedingly traditional in form and theme. It is not simply that they are serials, and that most major works of nineteenth-century fiction were also introduced in short increments designed to create an appetite for their plots and characters, while building collective audiences of readers (and viewers). It is also the way they combine graphic violence with verbal invention and eloquence, powerful characters with epic failure and criminality, and, above all, the way they represent the myth of family. Both\u00a0The Wire<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Breaking Bad<\/i>\u00a0portray contemporary U.S. families in grimly realistic terms; but no matter how provisional, battered, or broken these families appear the idea of family retains a mythic power. The more one studies these popular serial television mythologies of family, the more typical of a U.S. cultural tradition they seem. In canonical works of literature and film, Twain\u2019s\u00a0Huckleberry Finn<\/i>\u00a0and Morrison\u2019s\u00a0The Bluest Eye<\/i>, for instance, or\u00a0The Godfather<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Boys Don\u2019t Cry<\/i>, the devotion of characters to the idea of blood bonds, their loyalty to kin, is inseparable from the abuse that prevails in the families these works represent. Yet each of these works also represents an original and lyrical dialect speech as the means by which this violence can be overcome and the myth redeemed. This course will offer intensive study of\u00a0Huckleberry Finn,\u00a0As I Lay Dying,\u00a0The Bluest Eye,\u00a0The Godfather,\u00a0Boys Don\u2019t Cry<\/i>, and the first seasons, respectively, of\u00a0Breaking Bad<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0The Wire<\/i>. We will attend to the differences between novels, films, and television as cultural forms.\u00a0N.B.: This course charts a U.S. tradition of great works that are as complex as they are unsparing. If you have difficulty (more than average) reading about or watching scenes where bad things happen to good people (or animals), you have been warned. This course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration and Social Inquiry I.<\/span><\/p>\n

EN 155\/CI 255 A1<\/b>\u00a0Mizruchi<\/span><\/p>\n

TR 12:30 \u2013 1:45p<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Graphic Novel<\/strong><\/p>\n

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. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Digital\/Multimedia Expression, Creativity\/Innovation.<\/p>\n

EN 170<\/strong>\u00a0A1<\/strong>\u00a0Ruliffson<\/p>\n

MWF 11:15a \u2013 12:05p<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Introduction to Film & Media Aesthetics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduction to fundamental concepts for the analysis\/understanding of film and media. Key concepts of formal composition (e.g. editing, mise-en-sc\u2019ne, 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.<\/p>\n

EN 176\/CI 200 A1<\/strong>\u00a0Foltz<\/p>\n

M 6:30 \u2013 9:15p Film Screening<\/p>\n

TR 2:00 \u2013 3:15p Lecture\/Discussion<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Introduction to Asian-American Literature<\/strong><\/p>\n

What does it mean to be \u201cAsian American?\u201d 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. Through this class, students will critically engage works of fiction by authors such as Hisaye Yamamoto, Jhumpa Lahiri, R. Zamora Linmark, Maxine Hong Kingston, and l\u00ea thi di\u1ec5m th\u00fay; theater by Frank Chin and Lauren Yee; poetry by Janice Mirikitani, Al Robles, and other more contemporary Asian American poets; essays by Lisa Lowe and Daniel Y. Kim; and graphic novels by Gene Luen Yang and more. Students will interrogate these works through a combination of critical essays and creative writing prompts in order to harness the intellectual vibrancy and ethical and political urgency that Asian American literature engenders. 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.<\/p>\n

EN 177 A1\u00a0<\/strong>Rivera<\/p>\n

TR 11:00a \u2013 12:15p<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Introduction to Literary Studies<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Introduction to Literature: Modernist Print Culture<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Though the printed text has long had to justify its own existence against various technological and social alternatives, a pinnacle of the crisis came with the arrival of the 20th century. Photography and photo-reproduction, cinema, industrialized printing, the telephone, and the telegraph all offered faster, more durable, more dazzling, and\/or less expensive options. In the face of these various advancements, modernist artists and writers accelerated their investigations and innovations in print, and in many ways print proliferated, rather than dwindled, during the first half of the century. This course explores the many faces of this new environment for the materiality of the text. It asks why certain formats and processes were selected over others, what this selection means for a given text or image, and how the printed object functions in a crowded media environment. We will explore letterpress printing, little magazines, mass-market fashion and journalistic periodicals, and photobooks, an approach that embraces figures from T. S. Eliot to Virginia Woolf, W. B. Yeats to James Joyce, and W. E. B. Du Bois to Jack Kerouac. Students will learn \u201cmedia literacy,\u201d broadly defined, through textual readings, visual appreciation, regular writing, and tactile\u00a0<\/span>practice.\u00a0<\/span>This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Writing-Intensive Course.<\/span><\/div>\n

EN 201 A1<\/b>\u00a0Ivey Santaus<\/span><\/p>\n

MWF 10:10a \u2013 11:00a<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introductory Undergraduate Courses in Language and Literature Academic Year 2026-2027, Semester I ——————————————————————————————————————————————————— All courses carry 4 credits, unless otherwise indicated. Effective Fall 2020, one course numbered CAS EN 121 \u2013 201 and 203 \u2013 215 may count toward the seven additional courses, provided it was taken before or concurrently with EN 220. If you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6520,"featured_media":0,"parent":5984,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6520"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4571"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10231,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4571\/revisions\/10231"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}