- 2026–2027 Courses:
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Fall 2026term list
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ENGL 100: Novel, Nation, Self
With an emphasis on critical reading and writing in an academic context, this course will examine how contemporary writers from a range of global locations approach the question of the writing of the self and of the nation. Reading novels from both familiar and unfamiliar cultural contexts we will examine closely our practices of reading, and the cultural expectations and assumptions that underlie them.
Prerequisites:Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.
6 credits; AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1; offered Fall 2026 · Arnab Chakladar -
ENGL 100: Controlling Narratives
Do we lose control in hurrying to seize it? Gyasi's fictional character poses the question, "Do we have control over our thoughts?" Ta-Nehisi Coates' experiences convince him that he has no control over his own body. In addition to Gyasi's Transcendent Kingdom and Coates' Between the World and Me, we will read an autobiography, a memoir, essays, as well as an anthropologist's narrative on college life and discuss the differing scenarios in which control might be beyond reach, negotiated, staged, wrested away, or strategically ceded. Equally important: Is the control you exercise over your own writing constant or sporadic?
Prerequisites:Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.
6 credits; AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1; offered Fall 2026 · Kofi Owusu -
ENGL 100: Imagining a Self
This course examines how first-person narrators present, define, defend, and construct the self. We will read an assortment of autobiographical and fictional works, focusing on the critical issues that the first-person speaker "I" raises. In particular, we will consider the risks and rewards of narrative self-exposure, the relationship between autobiography and the novel, and the apparent intimacy between first-person narrators and their readers. Authors will include James Boswell, Charlotte Bronte, Harriet Jacobs, Sylvia Plath, and Dave Eggers.
Prerequisites:Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.
6 credits; AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1; offered Fall 2026 · Jessica Leiman -
ENGL 100: The Fine Art of Hating: Critique and Appreciation
Everyone’s a critic! To unpack the relationship between critique and art, we will indulge in some of fiction’s finest haters—think Vladimir Nabokov, Ottessa Mossfegh, and Shirley Jackson. We will also reconsider and learn to appreciate outsider and overlooked art, exploring historical and contemporary debates around “good” and “bad” art. Who creates taste? Which cultural forms gain our approval, and which get excluded? We will practice diverse forms of contemporary critique—essays, music and book reviews, the Substack screed—ultimately building to our own considered, philosophical works of cultural criticism.
Prerequisites:Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.
6 credits; AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1; offered Fall 2026 · Johana Godfrey -
ENGL 118: Introduction to Poetry
“Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought”—Audre Lorde. In this course we will explore how poets use form, tone, sound, imagery, rhythm, and subject matter to create works of astonishing imagination, beauty, and power. In discussions, Moodle posts, and essay assignments we’ll analyze individual works by poets from Sappho to Amanda Gorman (and beyond); there will also be daily recitations of poems, since the musicality is so intrinsic to the meaning. 6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027 · Constance Walker -
ENGL 160: Creative Writing
You will work in several genres and forms, among them: traditional and experimental poetry, prose fiction, and creative nonfiction. In your writing you will explore the relationship between the self, the imagination, the word, and the world. In this practitioner’s guide to the creative writing process, we will examine writings from past and current authors, and your writings will be critiqued in a workshop setting and revised throughout the term. 6 credits; ARP, Arts Practice, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027 · Gwen Kirby, Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 210: Masterpieces of English Renaissance Literature
Gorgeous language, unhinged poets, forbidden desire, and murderous bar fights are just the beginning as we encounter the transgressive brilliance and daring of early modern poetry, drama, and prose. We will explore a culture shaped by scientific discovery, religious upheaval, and curiosity about the human condition through works by Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, Aemilia Lanyer, William Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I, John Donne, Isabella Whitney, Andrew Marvell, John Milton, and others. This is art forged in the crucible of power, sex, skepticism, and faith; it is not for the timid.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026 · Pierre Hecker -
ENGL 217: A Novel Education
Samuel Johnson declared novels to be “written chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they serve as lectures of conduct, and introductions into life.” This course explores what sort of education the novel offered its readers during a time when fiction was considered a source of valuable lessons and also an agent of corruption. We will read a selection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century children’s literature, seduction fiction, and novels of manners, considering how these works engage with early educational theories, notions of male and female conduct, and concerns about the didactic and sensational possibilities of fiction. Authors include Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, and Charles Dickens. 6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026 · Jessica Leiman -
ENGL 224: Cruel Summer, 1816
A circle of poets and writers, friends and lovers, spend the summer in Geneva sightseeing, arguing, telling ghost stories, reading and writing passionately together—and changing the course of literary history. We’ll explore the personal and artistic relations between Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and others, reading the works they wrote in conversation with each other including Frankenstein, “Prometheus,” and Prometheus Unbound, as well as studying diaries, manuscripts, biographical accounts, and films. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026 · Constance Walker -
ENGL 240: Join Us: Victorian Era Conformity and Rebellion
Repression breeds rebellion. Themes of nonconformity and self-determination run through Victorian literature, as characters struggle to assert their independence and worth against religious, sexual, and social norms. In this course, we will explore nineteenth-century celebrations of the divergent and rebellious, surveying major writers like James Hogg, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, and George Eliot. We will also take frequent detours into the eccentric poetry and short fiction of the period, thinking about experimental writing as a type of literary nonconformity.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026 · Johana Godfrey -
ENGL 242: Queer Literature: The Pre-Stonewall Origins
The LGBTQ+ movement turned on the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Prior to that, queer life was largely illegal and underground in the United States and most places globally. Queer content in literature was censored and banned. This course explores the strategies queer writers used to circumvent censorship and get published. Writers whose work we will read, discuss and analyze are: Oscar Wilde, E.M. Forster, Radclyffe Hall, Patricia Highsmith and James Baldwin.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026 · Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 254: Fictional Worlds
What makes the imaginary world created by a novel feel “real”? What aspects of narrative contribute to our sense of being immersed in a coherent and convincing universe? From the Victorians who addressed letters to Mr. Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street, to fans of a Middle Earth that now encompasses multiple books and films, readers have always been drawn to narratives that create a place that seems capacious and vivid enough to enter. In this course, we will look at world-building from the nineteenth century through the present, comparing novels to other contemporary media in order to develop an understanding of the way in which the impulse towards “realism” has shaped narrative in a variety of different forms. Works to be studied include books and stories by Bram Stoker, A. Conan Doyle, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Octavia Butler, as well as Villeneuve’s film of Dune.
3 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered First Five Weeks, Fall 2026 · Alison Byerly -
ENGL 258: Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage
This course examines work by U.S. playwrights of color from the 1950s to the present, focusing on questions of race, performance, and self-representation. We will consider opportunities and limitations of the commercial theater, Off-Off Broadway, ethnic theaters, and non-traditional performance spaces. Playwrights may include Alice Childress, Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, Ntozake Shange, Luis Valdez, Cherrie Moraga, August Wilson, David Henry Hwang, Philip Gotanda, Maria Irene Fornes, Anna Deavere Smith, and Chay Yew. We will watch selected film adaptations and attend a live performance when possible. 6 credits; IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies, LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026 · Nancy Cho -
ENGL 270: Short Story Workshop
An introduction to the writing of the short story. Each student will become familiar with contemporary short stories, complete a number of short writing exercises, and have discussed in class two full-length stories (from 3,000 to 7,000 words in length) and give constructive suggestions, including written critiques, for revising the stories written by other members of the class. Attention will be paid to all the elements of fiction: characterization, point of view, conflict, setting, dialogue, etc.
Prerequisites:Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 6 credit English course excluding Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; S/CR/NC; ARP, Arts Practice, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027 · Gwen Kirby -
ENGL 294: Directed Research in English
Students work on a research project related to a faculty member's research interests, and directed by that faculty member. Student activities vary according to the field and stage of the project. The long-run goal of these projects normally includes dissemination to a scholarly community beyond Carleton. The faculty member will meet regularly with the student and actively direct the work of the student, who will submit an end-of-term product, typically a paper or presentation.
1 – 6 credits; No Exploration; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027 -
ENGL 295: Critical Methods
Required of students majoring in English, this course explores practical and theoretical issues in literary analysis and contemporary criticism.
Prerequisites:Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026, Spring 2027 · Peter Balaam, Nancy Cho -
ENGL 324: Cruel Summer, 1816
A circle of poets and writers, friends and lovers, spend the summer in Geneva sightseeing, arguing, telling ghost stories, reading and writing passionately together—and changing the course of literary history. We’ll explore the personal and artistic relations between Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and others, reading the works they wrote in conversation with each other including Frankenstein, “Prometheus,” and Prometheus Unbound, as well as studying diaries, manuscripts, biographical accounts, and films. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
Prerequisites:Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026 · Constance Walker -
ENGL 329: The City in American Literature
How do American authors “write the city”? The city as both material reality and metaphor has fueled the imagination of diverse novelists, poets, and playwrights, through tales of fallen women and con men, immigrant dreams, and visions of apocalypse. After studying the realistic tradition of urban fiction at the turn of the twentieth century, we will turn to modern and contemporary re-imaginings of the city, with a focus on Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Selected films, photographs, and historical sources will supplement our investigations of how writers face the challenge of representing urban worlds. Prerequisites:Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026 · Nancy Cho -
ENGL 350: The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts
Authors from the colonies and ex-colonies of England have complicated our understandings of the locations, forms and indeed the language of the contemporary English novel. This course will examine these questions and the theoretical and interpretive frames in which these writers have often been placed, and probe their place in the global marketplace (and awards stage). We will read a number of major novelists of the postcolonial era from Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean and the diaspora as well as some of the central works of postcolonial literary criticism. Prerequisites:Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; IS, International Studies, LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026 · Arnab Chakladar -
ENGL 372: Advanced Creative Non-Fiction Workshop
Shaping experience into story is one of our inherited birthrights. To write from facts is rigorous; to write creatively from facts means embracing a dialectic between order and anarchy. This workshop will give students training and practice in the writing of memoir, essay, and other types of creative nonfiction– foregrounding the true, the real, and the witnessed—yet with much room for the subjective, fabulist, and speculative. Participants will strengthen their creative writing skills and produce new work combining narrative modes of fiction, lyrical modes of poetics, and fact-based storytelling techniques fundamental to journalism and documentary arts.
Prerequisites:Student has completed any one of the following course(s): ENGL 160 or ENGL 161 or ENGL 263 or ENGL 265 or ENGL 270 or ENGL 271 or ENGL 273 or CAMS 271 or CAMS 278 or CAMS 279 or CCST 270 or THEA 246 with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; ARP, Arts Practice; offered Fall 2026 · Sun Yung Shin -
ENGL 394: Directed Research in English
Students work on a research project related to a faculty member's research interests, and directed by that faculty member. Student activities vary according to the field and stage of the project. The long-run goal of these projects normally includes dissemination to a scholarly community beyond Carleton. The faculty member will meet regularly with the student and actively direct the work of the student, who will submit an end-of-term product, typically a paper or presentation.
1 – 6 credits; No Exploration; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027 -
ENGL 395: The Novelist as Critic; the Critic as Novelist
This seminar focuses on Toni Morrison as creative artist and scholar-critic. Our first class meeting will be devoted almost entirely to stage-setting name-dropping: Henry James' prefaces; Woolf's essayistic explorations; Nabokov's reflections on literariness; critical theorizing by Ellison, Achebe, Gordimer, Ngugi, Coetzee, and Rushdie. When we turn our full attention to Morrison, we do so with the understanding that the supposed "barrier" between critic and creative artist is a spurious construction. We will treat selected Morrison novels and essays as paired sites for critical interrogation.
Repeatable: Course is repeatable provided the topics are different.
Prerequisites:Student must have completed any of the following course(s): ENGL 295 and one 300 level ENGL course with grade of C- or better.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026 · Kofi Owusu
Winter 2027term list
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ENGL 109: The Craft of Academic Writing
This course is designed to demystify the practice of academic writing and to introduce students to the skills they’ll need to write effectively in a variety of academic disciplines and contexts. Students will learn how to respond to other authors’ claims, frame clear arguments of their own, structure essays to develop a clear logical flow, integrate outside sources into their writing, and improve their writing through revision. All sections will include a variety of readings, multiple writing assignments, and substantial feedback from the course instructor.
Repeatable: This course is repeatable for up to 12 credits.
6 credits; No Exploration, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · George Shuffelton -
ENGL 112: Introduction to the Novel
This course explores the history and form of the British novel, tracing its development from a strange, sensational experiment in the eighteenth century to a dominant literary genre today. Among the questions that we will consider: What is a novel? What makes it such a popular form of entertainment? How does the novel participate in ongoing conversations about family, sex, class, race, and nation? How did a genre once considered a source of moral corruption become a legitimate literary form? Authors include: Daniel Defoe, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Bram Stoker, Virginia Woolf, and Jackie Kay. 6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · Jessica Leiman -
ENGL 118: Introduction to Poetry
“Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought”—Audre Lorde. In this course we will explore how poets use form, tone, sound, imagery, rhythm, and subject matter to create works of astonishing imagination, beauty, and power. In discussions, Moodle posts, and essay assignments we’ll analyze individual works by poets from Sappho to Amanda Gorman (and beyond); there will also be daily recitations of poems, since the musicality is so intrinsic to the meaning. 6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027 · Constance Walker -
ENGL 131: Speculative Fiction
This course uses "speculative fiction" as umbrella term for categories and (sub)genres that include science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror. Deviation from the norm is our norm. You will have to teach your eyes to hear, and your ears to see. Above all, your multisensory engagement should allow for a reality check: does speculative fiction replicate or repudiate known stereotypes of women and blacks, in particular? What do you find (un)appealing about speculative fiction? We will read a variety of short fiction from the DARK MATTER anthology as well as longer narratives by Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinson.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · Kofi Owusu -
ENGL 160: Creative Writing
You will work in several genres and forms, among them: traditional and experimental poetry, prose fiction, and creative nonfiction. In your writing you will explore the relationship between the self, the imagination, the word, and the world. In this practitioner’s guide to the creative writing process, we will examine writings from past and current authors, and your writings will be critiqued in a workshop setting and revised throughout the term. 6 credits; ARP, Arts Practice, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027 · Gwen Kirby, Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 201: Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales include the sublime, the scandalous, the sacred, and the seriously silly. As experiments in polyvocal narration, metafiction, and the possibilities of the English language, they have influenced six centuries of writers. We will read them in Middle English (no previous knowledge necessary). Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · George Shuffelton -
ENGL 228: Banned. Censored. Reviled.
What makes a work of art dangerous? While present-day attacks on books, libraries, and schools feel unprecedented, writers and artists have always had to fight efforts to suppress their work, often at great personal and societal cost. We will study literature, films, graphic novels, images, music, and other materials that have been challenged and attacked as offensive, taboo, or transgressive, and also explore strategies of resistance to censorship. 6 credits; IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies, LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered Winter 2027 · Pierre Hecker -
ENGL 231: Lyric America: Power of the Word
A thematic and formal exploration of the traditions of American poetry. Against all odds, and frequently against violent histories, American poets have turned again and again to locate in the power of the word the resources to make something happen– psychologically, morally, politically, religiously. Ideal for students of creative writing before, after, or simultaneously with ENGL 160, 271, and/or 371.
Recommended Preparation: ENGL 118 or other ENGL "Foundations" course, or equivalent.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · Peter Balaam -
ENGL 232: Narrative and Friendship
"Friendship has splendors that love knows not," writes Mariama Bâ. And Alice Walker reports that when women "have asked for love, [they] have been given children." The love thing has also inspired some of the most insipid prose and atrocious incidents ever concocted and inflicted on readers. Our selected texts will suggest that it is the nurturing of friendship, not the mislabeling of an instantaneous falling–presumably "in love," that underwrites plot and character development over the course of a narrative. Final assignment in lieu of final exam will be creative writing: original short story featuring friends-friendship and/or love-lovers.
3 credits; ARP, Arts Practice, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered First Five Weeks, Winter 2027 · Kofi Owusu -
ENGL 239: The Real Supernatural: Realism and Genre Fiction
Who put mindreading in my realist novel? This course examines how nineteenth-century writers troubled the boundaries between high realism and supernatural genre fiction. We’ll track these concerns through realist novels (Brontë and Eliot) before turning to popular literature representing the ghastly, the ghoulish, and the vampiric, like Carmilla. We will consider newspapers, paintings, and scientific tracts, anchoring ourselves in nineteenth-century culture. Probing the overlap between realistic representations of life and more fantastic modes of writing, we will unpack the shared concerns and rhetoric that knit these two categories closely together.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · Johana Godfrey -
ENGL 249: Modern Irish Literature: Poetry, Prose, and Politics
What can and should be the role of literature in times of bitter political conflict? Caught in partisan strife, Irish writers have grappled personally and painfully with the question. We will read works by Joyce, Yeats, and Heaney, among others, and watch films (Bloody Sunday, Hunger) that confront the deep and ongoing divisions in Irish political life.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · Constance Walker -
ENGL 251: Contemporary Indian Fiction
Contemporary Indian writers, based either in India or abroad, have become significant figures in the global literary landscape. This can be traced to the publication of Salman Rushdie’s second novel, Midnight’s Children in 1981. We will begin with that novel and read some of the other notable works of fiction of the following decades. The class will provide both a thorough grounding in the contemporary Indian literary scene as well as an introduction to some concepts in post-colonial studies. 6 credits; IS, International Studies, LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · Arnab Chakladar -
ENGL 259: Creative Travel Writing Workshop
Travelers write. Whether it be in the form of postcards, text messages, blogs, or articles, writing serves to anchor memory and process difference, making foreign experience understandable to us and accessible to others. While examining key examples of the genre, you will draw on your experiences off-campus for your own work. Student essays will be critiqued in a workshop setting, and all work will be revised before final submission. Some experimentation with blended media is also encouraged. This course was formerly listed as CCST 270.
CCST 259 is cross listed with ENGL 259.
Prerequisites:Student has enrolled in any of the following course(s): Any Carleton OCS course or Non-Carleton OCS course with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; S/CR/NC; ARP, Arts Practice, IS, International Studies, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · Peter Balaam -
ENGL 270: Short Story Workshop
An introduction to the writing of the short story. Each student will become familiar with contemporary short stories, complete a number of short writing exercises, and have discussed in class two full-length stories (from 3,000 to 7,000 words in length) and give constructive suggestions, including written critiques, for revising the stories written by other members of the class. Attention will be paid to all the elements of fiction: characterization, point of view, conflict, setting, dialogue, etc.
Prerequisites:Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 6 credit English course excluding Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; S/CR/NC; ARP, Arts Practice, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027 · Gwen Kirby -
ENGL 271: Poetry Workshop
This workshop offers you ways of developing poetic craft, voice, and vision in a small-group setting. Your poetry and individual expression is the heart and soul of the course. Through intensive writing and revision of poems written in a variety of styles and forms, you will create a significant portfolio. Prerequisites:Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 6 credit English course excluding Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; ARP, Arts Practice, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 294: Directed Research in English
Students work on a research project related to a faculty member's research interests, and directed by that faculty member. Student activities vary according to the field and stage of the project. The long-run goal of these projects normally includes dissemination to a scholarly community beyond Carleton. The faculty member will meet regularly with the student and actively direct the work of the student, who will submit an end-of-term product, typically a paper or presentation.
1 – 6 credits; No Exploration; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027 -
ENGL 301: Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales include the sublime, the scandalous, the sacred, and the seriously silly. As experiments in polyvocal narration, metafiction, and the possibilities of the English language, they have influenced six centuries of writers. We will read them in Middle English (no previous knowledge necessary). Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · George Shuffelton -
ENGL 326: Seductive Fictions
Stories of virtue in distress and innocence ruined preoccupied British novelists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This course will focus on the British seduction novel, considering the following questions: What was the allure of the seduction plot? What does it reveal about sexual relations, gender, power, race, and class during this period? How does the seduction plot address and provoke concerns about novel-reading itself during a time when the genre was considered both an instrument of education and an agent of moral corruption? Authors may include: Eliza Haywood, Samuel Richardson, Susanna Rowson, and Bram Stoker.
Prerequisites:Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better. NOT open to students who have previously taken ENGL 395 Seductive Fictions.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Winter 2027 · Jessica Leiman -
ENGL 394: Directed Research in English
Students work on a research project related to a faculty member's research interests, and directed by that faculty member. Student activities vary according to the field and stage of the project. The long-run goal of these projects normally includes dissemination to a scholarly community beyond Carleton. The faculty member will meet regularly with the student and actively direct the work of the student, who will submit an end-of-term product, typically a paper or presentation.
1 – 6 credits; No Exploration; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027 -
ENGL 400: Integrative Exercise
Senior English majors may fulfill the integrative exercise by completing one of the four options: the Colloquium Option (a group option in which participants discuss, analyze and write about a thematically coherent list of literary works); the Research Essay Option (an extended essay on a topic of the student’s own devising); the Creative Option (creation of a work of literary art); or the Project Option (creation of an individual or group multidisciplinary project). The Research Essay Option is open to students who have completed a senior seminar in the major by the end of fall term senior year. The Creative Option is open only to students who have completed at least two creative writing courses (one of which must be at the 300 level) by the end of fall term senior year. Prerequisites:Student is an English major AND has Senior Priority.
6 credits; S/NC; No Exploration; offered Winter 2027 · Peter Balaam
Spring 2027term list
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ENGL 115: The Art of Storytelling
Jorge Luis Borges is quoted as saying that “unlike the novel, a short story may be, for all purposes, essential.” This course focuses attention primarily on the short story as an enduring form. We will read short stories drawn from different literary traditions and from various parts of the world. Stories to be read include those by Aksenov, Atwood, Beckett, Borges, Camus, Cheever, Cisneros, Farah, Fuentes, Gordimer, Ishiguro, Kundera, Mahfouz, Marquez, Moravia, Nabokov, Narayan, Pritchett, Rushdie, Trevor, Welty, and Xue. 6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Kofi Owusu -
ENGL 135: Imperial Adventures
Indiana Jones has a pedigree. In this class we will encounter some of his ancestors in stories, novels and comic books from the early decades of the twentieth century. The wilds of Afghanistan, the African forest, a prehistoric world in Patagonia, the opium dens of mysterious exotic London–these will be but some of our stops as we examine the structure and ideology and lasting legacy of the imperial adventure tale. Authors we will read include Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rudyard Kipling and H. Rider Haggard. 6 credits; IS, International Studies, LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Arnab Chakladar -
ENGL 209: Measure for Measure: A Project Course
This interdisciplinary course, taught in conjunction with a full-scale Carleton Players production, will explore Shakespeare's complex "comedy," Measure for Measure. We will investigate the play’s historical, social, and theatrical contexts as we try to understand not only the world that produced the play, but the world that came out of it. How should what we learn of the past inform a modern production? How can performance offer interpretive arguments about the play’s meanings? Mixing embodied and experiential learning, individual and group projects may involve dramaturgy, stagecraft, literary analysis, music, and research in Special Collections. Offered at both the 200 and 300 level for THEA majors ONLY; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
ENGL 209 is cross listed with THEA 209.
6 credits; ARP, Arts Practice, IS, International Studies; offered Spring 2027 · Andrew Carlson, Pierre Hecker -
ENGL 218: The Gothic Spirit
The eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw the rise of the Gothic, a genre populated by brooding hero-villains, vulnerable virgins, mad monks, ghosts, and monsters. In this course, we will examine the conventions and concerns of the Gothic, addressing its preoccupation with terror, transgression, sex, otherness, and the supernatural. As we situate this genre within its literary and historical context, we will consider its relationship to realism and Romanticism, and we will explore how it reflects the political and cultural anxieties of its age. Authors include Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Emily Bronte. 6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Jessica Leiman -
ENGL 220: Arts of Oral Presentation
Instruction and practice in being a speaker and an audience in formal and informal settings. 3 credits; S/CR/NC; No Exploration; offered First Five Weeks, Spring 2027 · George Shuffelton -
ENGL 222: The Art of Jane Austen
All of Jane Austen's fiction will be read; the works she did not complete or choose to publish during her lifetime will be studied in an attempt to understand the art of her mature comic masterpieces, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Constance Walker -
ENGL 236: American Nature Writing
A study of the environmental imagination in American literature. We will explore the relationship between literature and the natural sciences and examine questions of style, narrative, and representation in the light of larger social, ethical, and political concerns about the environment. Authors read will include Thoreau, Muir, Jeffers, Abbey, and Leopold. Students will write a creative Natural History essay as part of the course requirements. 6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Peter Balaam -
ENGL 253: Food Writing: History, Culture, Practice
We are living in perhaps the height of what might be called the “foodie era” in the U.S. The cooking and presentation of food dominates Instagram and is one of the key draws of YouTube and various television and streaming networks; shows about chefs and food culture are likewise very popular. Yet a now less glamorous form with a much longer history persists: food writing. In this course we will track some important genres of food writing over the last 100 years or so. We will examine how not just food but cultural discourses about food and the world it circulates in are consumed and produced. We will read recipes and reviews; blogs and extracts from cookbooks, memoirs and biographies; texts on food history and policy; academic and popular feature writing. Simultaneously we will also produce food writing of our own in a number of genres. 6 credits; ARP, Arts Practice, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Arnab Chakladar -
ENGL 255: The Poetics of Disability
Scholar Michael Davidson has suggested that “perhaps the closest link between poetry and disability lies in a conundrum within the genre itself: poetry makes language visible by making language strange.” In this class we will read a wide range of poets who tackle ideas of normalcy and “ability” by centering disability consciousness and culture. We will engage with poetry’s capacity as a genre to destabilize our assumptions and generate new imaginaries. Alongside contemporary U.S. poetry, we will study contemporary theory in the field of disability studies in order to better understand the critical conversations around the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability. 6 credits; IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies, LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Adriana Estill -
ENGL 264: Ballet in a Phone Booth: Writing Flash Fiction
They say flash fiction is the perfect art for an era of short attention spans—but a great piece of flash arrests as well as lingers, staying with a reader for a lifetime. In this class, we will learn, in the words of Russell Baker, to do “ballet in a phone booth.” We’ll discuss how setting, plot, characterization, and more work in limited space; how to break rules and take risks; and what stories thrive in 1,000 words. Students will read published pieces, write their own, participate in workshop, and talk to flash magazine editors and professional flash fiction writers.
6 credits; ARP, Arts Practice; offered Spring 2027 · Gwen Kirby -
ENGL 279: Living London Program: Urban Field Studies
A combination of background readings, guided walks and site visits, and individual exploration will give students tools for understanding the history of multicultural London. Starting with the city’s early history and moving to the present, students will gain an understanding of how the city has been defined and transformed over time, and of the complex cultural narratives that shape its standing as a global metropolis. There will be short written exercises (creative and analytical), informal mini-presentations, and a final group presentation focused on a specific urban site.
Prerequisites:Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Living London Program.
6 credits; S/CR/NC; IS, International Studies, No Exploration; offered Spring 2027 · Local Instructor -
ENGL 281: Reading London/Writing London
This is a creative writing course about writing and place, specifically London. Students will have the opportunity to write short stories, poetry, and non-academic essays (also referred to as creative nonfiction). We will be reading select examples in these genres by contemporary writers and poets based in the United Kingdom, some of whom will visit our class. The primary mode of instruction will be the workshop, which involves large and small-group critique and discussion. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
Prerequisites:Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Living London Program.
6 credits; ARP, Arts Practice, IS, International Studies, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 282: Living London Program: London Theater
Students will attend productions (at least two per week) of classic and contemporary plays in a range of London venues both on and off the West End, and will do related reading. We will also travel to Stratford-upon-Avon for a three-day theater trip. Class discussions will focus on dramatic genres and themes, dramaturgy, acting styles, and design. Guest speakers may include actors, critics, and directors. Students will keep a theater journal and write several full reviews of plays. Prerequisites:Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Living London Program.
6 credits; IS, International Studies, LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Local Instructor -
ENGL 285: Textual Technologies from Parchment to Pixel
As readers, we rarely consider the technologies, practices, and transactions that deliver us our texts. This course introduces students to the material study of writing, manuscripts, books, printing, and digital media. It attends to the processes of copying, revision, editing, and circulation; familiarizes students with the disciplines of descriptive bibliography, paleography, and textual criticism; and introduces the principles of editing, in both print and electronic media. It offers hands-on practice in most of these areas.
ENGL 285 is cross listed with DGAH 285.
6 credits; HI, Humanistic Inquiry; offered Spring 2027 · George Shuffelton -
ENGL 294: Directed Research in English
Students work on a research project related to a faculty member's research interests, and directed by that faculty member. Student activities vary according to the field and stage of the project. The long-run goal of these projects normally includes dissemination to a scholarly community beyond Carleton. The faculty member will meet regularly with the student and actively direct the work of the student, who will submit an end-of-term product, typically a paper or presentation.
1 – 6 credits; No Exploration; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027 -
ENGL 295: Critical Methods
Required of students majoring in English, this course explores practical and theoretical issues in literary analysis and contemporary criticism.
Prerequisites:Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Fall 2026, Spring 2027 · Peter Balaam, Nancy Cho -
ENGL 359: Contemporary World Literature
Our focus is on contemporary writers. Specifically, we will privilege genre-bending fiction published within the last two decades in which we encounter a continuum, not a line of demarcation, between us and them, insider and outsider, here and there, then and now, femaleness and maleness, North and South, the local and the global. Authors to be read include Zinzi Clemmons, Teju Cole, Esi Edugyan, Mohsin Hamid, Tommy Orange, Zadie Smith, and Colson Whitehead.
Prerequisites:Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; IS, International Studies, LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Kofi Owusu -
ENGL 370: Advanced Fiction Workshop
An advanced course in the writing of fiction. Students will write two to three short stories which will be read and critiqued by the class. In addition to writing, students will read and discuss short story collections by contemporary masters of the genre, asking questions about what it means for a writer to have an artistic project and encouraging students to think about their own aims as fiction writers.
Recommended preparation: ENGL 270
Repeatable: This course is repeatable with instructor permission.
Prerequisites:Student has completed any one of the following course(s): ENGL 160 or ENGL 161 or ENGL 263 or ENGL 265 or ENGL 270 or ENGL 271 or ENGL 273 or CAMS 271 or CAMS 278 or CAMS 279 or CCST 270 or THEA 246 with a grade of C- or better.
Students who have previously taken ENGL 370 must request a prerequisite override from the instructor.
6 credits; S/CR/NC; ARP, Arts Practice, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Gwen Kirby -
ENGL 371: Advanced Poetry Workshop
In this workshop, students choose to write poems from a broad range of forms, from sonnets to spoken word, from ghazals to slam, from free-verse to blues. Over the ten weeks, each poet will write and revise their own collection of poems. Student work is the centerpiece of the course, but readings from a diverse selection of contemporary poets will be used to expand each student’s individual poetic range, and to explore the power of poetic language. For students with some experience in writing poetry, this workshop further develops your craft and poetic voice and vision. Prerequisites:Student has completed any one of the following course(s): ENGL 160 or ENGL 161 or ENGL 263 or ENGL 265 or ENGL 270 or ENGL 271 or ENGL 273 or CAMS 271 or CAMS 278 or CAMS 279 or CCST 270 or THEA 246 with a grade of C- or better.
6 credits; ARP, Arts Practice, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Sun Yung Shin -
ENGL 381: Reading London/Writing London
This is a creative writing course about writing and place, specifically London. Students will have the opportunity to write short stories, poetry, and non-academic essays (also referred to as creative nonfiction). We will be reading select examples in these genres by contemporary writers and poets based in the United Kingdom, some of whom will visit our class. The primary mode of instruction will be the workshop, which involves large and small-group critique and discussion. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
Prerequisites:Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Living London Program.
6 credits; ARP, Arts Practice, IS, International Studies, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 394: Directed Research in English
Students work on a research project related to a faculty member's research interests, and directed by that faculty member. Student activities vary according to the field and stage of the project. The long-run goal of these projects normally includes dissemination to a scholarly community beyond Carleton. The faculty member will meet regularly with the student and actively direct the work of the student, who will submit an end-of-term product, typically a paper or presentation.
1 – 6 credits; No Exploration; offered Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027 -
ENGL 395: Reanimating the Past in 19th-C. Fiction
Nineteenth-century writers were obsessed with the past: they rewrote it in historical novels, unsettled it in ghost and time travel narratives, and attempted to pin it down by deploying anthropology, archaeology, and folklore. This was a national project, critical to the making of British imperial identity. Can history be re-imagined to liberatory ends? Or are we doomed by cause and effect? Writers include George Eliot, Emily Brontë, Thomas Hardy, and many lesser-known practitioners of odd short fiction. We will also consider the theoretical and scientific underpinnings of these texts by examining excerpts from 19th c. anthropology and museum studies.
Repeatable: Course is repeatable provided the topics are different.
Prerequisites:Student must have completed any of the following course(s): ENGL 295 and one 300 level ENGL course with grade of C- or better.
6 credits; LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis, WR2, Writing Rich 2; offered Spring 2027 · Johana Godfrey