Autumn Quarter 2026 — Undergraduate Course Descriptions

200 A READING LIT FORMS (Reading Literary Forms) MW 9:30-11:20 14641

Catalog Description: Techniques and practice in reading and enjoying literature in its various forms: poetry, drama, prose fiction, film. Examies such features of literary meanings as imagery, characterization, narration, and patterning in sound and sense.

200 B READING LIT FORMS (Reading Literary Forms) TTh 9:30-11:20 14642

Catalog Description: Techniques and practice in reading and enjoying literature in its various forms: poetry, drama, prose fiction, film. Examies such features of literary meanings as imagery, characterization, narration, and patterning in sound and sense.

200 C READING LIT FORMS (Reading Literary Forms) MW 12:30-2:20 14643

Catalog Description: Techniques and practice in reading and enjoying literature in its various forms: poetry, drama, prose fiction, film. Examies such features of literary meanings as imagery, characterization, narration, and patterning in sound and sense.

200 D READING LIT FORMS (Reading Literary Forms) TTh 2:30-4:20 14644

Catalog Description: Techniques and practice in reading and enjoying literature in its various forms: poetry, drama, prose fiction, film. Examies such features of literary meanings as imagery, characterization, narration, and patterning in sound and sense.

200 E READING LIT FORMS (Reading Literary Forms) MW 2:30-4:20 14645

Catalog Description: Techniques and practice in reading and enjoying literature in its various forms: poetry, drama, prose fiction, film. Examies such features of literary meanings as imagery, characterization, narration, and patterning in sound and sense.

200 F READING LIT FORMS (Reading Literary Forms) TTh 11:30-1:20 14646

Catalog Description: Techniques and practice in reading and enjoying literature in its various forms: poetry, drama, prose fiction, film. Examies such features of literary meanings as imagery, characterization, narration, and patterning in sound and sense.

202 A INTRO TO ENGL LANG AND LIT (Introduction to the Study of English Language and Literature) MWF 10:30-11:20 14647

Catalog Description: Gateway course designed for English pre-majors and majors. Introduces critical, historical, and theoretical frameworks important to studying the literature, language, and cultures of English.

202 AA INTRO TO ENGL LANG AND LIT (Introduction to the Study of English Language and Literature) W 11:30-12:20 14648

Catalog Description: Gateway course designed for English pre-majors and majors. Introduces critical, historical, and theoretical frameworks important to studying the literature, language, and cultures of English.

202 AB INTRO TO ENGL LANG AND LIT (Introduction to the Study of English Language and Literature) W 12:30-1:20 14649

Catalog Description: Gateway course designed for English pre-majors and majors. Introduces critical, historical, and theoretical frameworks important to studying the literature, language, and cultures of English.

202 AC INTRO TO ENGL LANG AND LIT (Introduction to the Study of English Language and Literature) W 1:30-2:20 14650

Catalog Description: Gateway course designed for English pre-majors and majors. Introduces critical, historical, and theoretical frameworks important to studying the literature, language, and cultures of English.

202 AD INTRO TO ENGL LANG AND LIT (Introduction to the Study of English Language and Literature) W 1:30-2:20 14651

Catalog Description: Gateway course designed for English pre-majors and majors. Introduces critical, historical, and theoretical frameworks important to studying the literature, language, and cultures of English.

202 AE INTRO TO ENGL LANG AND LIT (Introduction to the Study of English Language and Literature) TH 10:30-2:20 14652

Catalog Description: Gateway course designed for English pre-majors and majors. Introduces critical, historical, and theoretical frameworks important to studying the literature, language, and cultures of English.

202 AF INTRO TO ENGL LANG AND LIT (Introduction to the Study of English Language and Literature) TH 11:30-12:20 14653

Catalog Description: Gateway course designed for English pre-majors and majors. Introduces critical, historical, and theoretical frameworks important to studying the literature, language, and cultures of English.

204 A POPULAR FICTION & MEDIA (Popular Fiction and Media) MW 9:30-11:20 14654

Catalog Description: Introduces students to the study of popular culture, possibly including print or visual media, understood as sites of critical reflection. Particular attention to dynamics of production and reception, aesthetics and technique, and cultural politics. Topics may foreground genres (science fiction; romance) or forms (comics; graffiti

204 B POPULAR FICTION & MEDIA (Popular Fiction and Media) TTh 9:30-11:20 14655

Catalog Description: Introduces students to the study of popular culture, possibly including print or visual media, understood as sites of critical reflection. Particular attention to dynamics of production and reception, aesthetics and technique, and cultural politics. Topics may foreground genres (science fiction; romance) or forms (comics; graffiti

208 A Data and Narrative (Data and Narrative) TTh 12:30-2:20 14656

Catalog Description: Contexts and differential impacts of various data and the narratives created around them. How data are communicated through narrative: the stories data tell for good or ill; the stories we tell about data; the harm and histories of various data; the content data narratives obscure; and their asymmetrical effects on diverse groups.

210 A LIT 400 to 1600 (Medieval and Early Modern Literature, 400 to 1600) MW 10:30-12:20 14657

Catalog Description: Introduces literature from the Middle Ages and the Age of Shakespeare, focusing on major works that have shaped the development of literary and intellectual traditions of these periods.

212 A LIT 1700-1900 (Literature, 1700-1900) MW 10:30-12:20 14658

Catalog Description: Introduces eighteenth and nineteenth -century literature, focusing on representative works that illustrate literary and intellectual developments of the period. Topics include: exploration, empire, colonialism, slavery, revolution, and nation-building

242 A READING Prose FICTION (Read Prose Fiction) TTh 2:30-4:20 14660

Catalog Description: Critical interpretation and meaning in works of prose fiction, representing a variety of types and periods

243 A READING POETRY (Reading Poetry) MW 12:30-2:20 14662

Catalog Description: Critical interpretation and meaning in poems. Different examples of poetry representing a variety of types from the medieval to modern periods.

244 A READING DRAMA (Reading Drama) MW 1:30-3:20 14663

Catalog Description: Critical interpretation and meaning in plays, representing a variety of types and periods.

250 A American Literature (American Literature) TTh 12:30-2:20 14664

Catalog Description: Introduces American culture through a careful reading of a variety of representative texts in their historical contexts.

259 A LIT & SOC DIFFERENCE (Literature and Social Difference) MW 12:30-2:20 14665

Catalog Description: Literary texts are important evidence for social difference (gender, race, class, ethnicity, language, citizenship status, sexuality, ability) in contemporary and historical contexts. Examines texts that encourage and provoke us to ask larger questions about identity, power, privilege, society, and the role of culture in present-day or historical settings.

265 A INTRO ENVIR HUMANITIES (Introduction to Environmental Humanities) MW 10:00-11:20 14666

Catalog Description: ntroduces the study of the environment through literature, culture, and history. Topics include changing ideas about nature, wilderness, ecology, pollution, climate, and human/animal relations, with particular emphasis on environmental justice and the unequal distribution of environmental crises, both globally and along class, race and gender lines.

270 A USES OF ENGL LANG (The Uses of the English Language) MW 12:30-2:20 14667

Catalog Description: Survey of the assumptions, methodologies, and major issues of English in its cultural settings. Designed to connect English Language study with the study of literature, orality and literacy, education, ethnicity, gender, and public policy.

277 A CHILD & YOUNG ADULT LIT (Introduction to Children's and Young Adult Literature) TTh 9:30-11:20 14668

Catalog Description: Introduction to creative works written for children and young adults, with emphasis on historical, cultural, institutional, and industrial contexts of production and reception. Also examines changing assumptions about the social and educational function of children's and young adult literature.

283 A BEGIN VERSE WRITING (Beginning Verse Writing) TTh 1:30-2:50 14683

Catalog Description: Intensive study of the ways and means of making a poem.

283 B BEGIN VERSE WRITING (Beginning Verse Writing) MW 3:00-4:20 14684

Catalog Description: Intensive study of the ways and means of making a poem.

283 C BEGIN VERSE WRITING (Beginning Verse Writing) MW 1:00-2:20 14685

Catalog Description: Intensive study of the ways and means of making a poem.

284 A BEG SHORT STRY WRIT (Beginning Short Story Writing) TTh 1:30-2:50 14686

Catalog Description: Introduction to the theory and practice of writing the short story.

284 B BEG SHORT STRY WRIT (Beginning Short Story Writing) MW 10:00-11:20 14687

Catalog Description: Introduction to the theory and practice of writing the short story.

284 C BEG SHORT STRY WRIT (Beginning Short Story Writing) TTh 10:30-11:50 14688

Catalog Description: Introduction to the theory and practice of writing the short story.

295 A English Study Abroad (Study Abroad) ARR 14695

Catalog Description: Equivalency for 200-level English courses taken on UW study abroad programs or direct exchanges. May not apply to major requirements

302 A CRITICAL PRACTICE (Critical Practice) TTh 2:30-4:20 14709

Catalog Description: Intensive study of, and exercise in, applying important or influential interpretive practices for studying language, literature, and culture, along with consideration of their powers/limits. Focuses on developing critical writing abilities. Topics vary and may include critical and interpretive practice from scripture and myth to more contemporary approaches, including newer interdisciplinary practices.

302 B CRITICAL PRACTICE (Critical Practice) MW 12:30-2:20 14710

Catalog Description: Intensive study of, and exercise in, applying important or influential interpretive practices for studying language, literature, and culture, along with consideration of their powers/limits. Focuses on developing critical writing abilities. Topics vary and may include critical and interpretive practice from scripture and myth to more contemporary approaches, including newer interdisciplinary practices.

306 A INTRO TO RHETORIC (Introduction to Rhetoric) TTh 1:30-3:20 14712

Catalog Description: Introduces rhetorical theory from the classical period to the present, including an overview of core issues, vocabulary, and concepts in rhetorical theory; a discussion of methods for studying rhetoric, and a consideration of the social importance of studying rhetoric in the contemporary moment.

316 A POSTCLNIAL LIT & CLTR (Postcolonial Literature and Culture) MW 12:30-2:20 14713

Catalog Description: Readings of major tests and writers in postcolonial literature and culture. Surveys some of the most important questions and debates in postcolonial literature, including issues of identity, globalization, language, and nationalism.

316 B POSTCLNIAL LIT & CLTR (Postcolonial Literature and Culture) TTh 2:30-4:20 14714

Catalog Description: Readings of major tests and writers in postcolonial literature and culture. Surveys some of the most important questions and debates in postcolonial literature, including issues of identity, globalization, language, and nationalism.

318 A BLACK LIT GENRES (Black Literary Genres) MW 11:30-1:20 14715

Catalog Description: Considers how generic forms and conventions have been discussed and distributed in the larger context of African American, or other African diasporic literary studies. Links the relationship between generic forms to questions of power within social, cultural, and historical contexts. Offered: jointly with AFRAM 318; AWSp.

321 A CHAUCER (Chaucer) MW 2:30-4:20 14716

Catalog Description: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and other poetry, with attention to Chaucer's social, historical, and intellectual milieu.

324 A SHAKESPEARE AFTER 1603 (Shakespeare After 1603) MW 11:30-1:20 14717

Catalog Description: Explores Shakespeare's later works. Focuses on the mature tragedies and late-career romances, by may include selected comedies and histories.

325 A Early Modern Literature (Early Modern English Literature) TTh 1:30-3:20 14718

Catalog Description: Covers selected poetry, prose, and/or drama from the English Renaissance through the English Civil War and Commonwealth. Readings may include Petrarchism and the early English laureates, early defenses of poesy, the first essays, works by Shakespeare and/or his contemporaries, the metaphysical poets, Milton, and early transatlantic writers such as Anne Bradstreet.

335 A AGE OF VICTORIA (English Literature: The Age of Victoria) MW 10:30-12:20, MW 10:30-12:20 14719

Catalog Description: Examines literary works from Victorian Britain and its empire (1837-1901), paired with contemporary social, scientific, and historical developments such as industrialization; urbanization; child labor; imperial expansion; scientific ideas of evolution and geologic time; changing ideas of gender/sexuality; mass education and mass literacy; and the popularization of print media.

337 A MODERN NOVEL (The Modern Novel) MW 1:30-3:20 14720

Catalog Description: Explores the novel in English from the first half of the twentieth century. May include such writers as Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, Gertrude Stein, E.M. Forster, Claude McKay, Elizabeth Bowen, Raja Rao, William Faulkner, Jean Rhys, and Edith Wharton. Includes history and changing aesthetics of the novel as form, alongside the sociohistorical context.

340 A Anglo Irish Lit (Anglo-Irish Literature) TTh 10:30-12:20 14721

Catalog Description: Principal writers in English of the modern Irish literary movement -- Yeats, Joyce, Synge, Gregory, and O'Casey among them -- with attention to traditions of Irish culture and history.

345 A STUDIES IN FILM (Studies in Film) TTh 10:30-12:20 14722

Catalog Description: Types, techniques, and issues explored by filmmakers. Emphasis on narrative, image, and point of view.

348 A Studies Pop Culture (Studies in Popular Culture) TTh 3:30-5:20 14723

Catalog Description: Explores one or more popular genres (fantasy, romance, myster) or media (comics, television, videogames), with attention to historical development, distinctive formal features, and reading protocols. May include study of audience, reception histories, or fan cultures

355 A CONTEMP AM LIT (American Literature: Contemporary America) TTh 1:30-3:20 14724

Catalog Description: Examines recent American literature and its historical and cultural contexts.

359 A CONT AM IND LIT (Contemporary American Indian Literature) MW 9:30-11:20 14725

Catalog Description: Creative writings -- novels, short stories, poems -- of contemporary Indian authors; traditions out of which they evolved. Differences between Indian writers and writers of the dominant European/American mainstream.

362 A US LATINO/A LIT (U.S. Latino/a Literature) MW 3:30-5:20 14726

Catalog Description: Addresses selected contemporary and historical works by United States Latino/a authors from the nineteenth century to the present, tracing their genealogy from a foundational triad of communities - Mexican, American, Puerto Rico, and Cuban American. Engages with issues of power, inequality, and marginality stemming from ethnic, linguistic, and racial experience.

380 A TOP IN LIT AND HIST (Special Topics in Literature, Culture, and History) MW 10:30-12:20

Catalog Description: Introduces and explores a specific area of history as it has influenced the production, practice or study of literature, language and culture in English

381 A ADV EXPOSITORY WRIT (Advanced Expository Writing) TTh 2:30-4:20 14728

Catalog Description: Concentration on the development of prose style for experienced writers.

383 A CRAFT OF VERSE (The Craft of Verse) TTh 11:30-12:50 14733

Catalog Description: Intensive study of various aspects of the craft verse. Readings in contemporary verse and writing using emulation and imitation.

Prerequisites:

ENGL 283 & ENGL 284

384 A CRAFT OF PROSE (The Craft of Prose) TH 4:30-7:20p 14734

Catalog Description: Intensive study of various aspects of the craft of fiction or creative nonfiction. Readings in contemporary prose and writing using emulation and imitation.

Prerequisites:

ENGL 283 & ENGL 284

385 A GLOBAL MODERNISMS (Global Modernisms) TTh 11:30-1:20 14735

Catalog Description: Includes anglophone modernisms from the global south as well as Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian diasporic modernisms; narratives of historical development and modernity; intersections between art and politics; global circulation of ideas, artifacts, and forms.

386 A ASIAN-AMERICAN LIT (Asian-American Literature) TTh 2:30-4:20 14736

Catalog Description: Examines different forms of Asian American expression as a response to racial formations in local and global contexts. Teaches critical thinking about identity, power, inequalities, and marginality.

387 A SCREENWRITING (Screenwriting) MW 3:30-5:20 14737

Catalog Description: Students read screenwriting manuals and screenplays, analyze exemplary films, and write synopses, treatments, and first acts of their own screenplays.

395 A STUDY ABROAD (Study Abroad) ARR 14740

Catalog Description: Relates major works of literature, literary theory and criticism, or creative writing to the landscape and activities of their settings for students in UW English Department study abroad programs. Equivalency for upper-division English coursework taken on a UW study abroad program or direct exchange

440 A SPEC STUDIES IN LIT (Special Studies in Literature) MW 11:30-1:20 14742

Catalog Description: Themes and topics offering special approaches to literature.

471 A TEACHING WRITING (The Theory and Practice of Teaching Writing) TTh 12:30-2:20 14743

Catalog Description: Reviews the research, core debates, and politics tht have shaped the practice, teaching and study of writing. Introduces theoretical and methodological approaches that inform the teaching and learning of writing

478 A LANG & SOCL POLICY (Language and Social Policy) MW 11:30-1:20 14744

Catalog Description: Examines the relationship between language policy and social organization; the impact of language policy on immigration, education, and access to resources and political institutions; language policy and revolutionary change; language rights.

483 A ADV VERSE WORKSHOP (Advanced Verse Workshop) TTh 2:30-3:50 14745

Catalog Description: Intensive verse workshop. Emphasis on the production and discussion of student poetry.

Prerequisites:

ENGL 383, 384

484 A ADV PROSE WORKSHOP (Advanced Prose Workshop) T 4:30-7:20p 14746

Catalog Description: Intensive prose workshop. Emphasis on the production and discussion of student fiction and/or creative nonfiction.

Prerequisites:

ENGL 383, 384

491 A INTERNSHIP (Internship) ARR 14748

Catalog Description: Supervised experience in local businesses and other agencies. Open only to upper-division English majors. Credit/no credit only.

491 B INTERNSHIP (Internship) ARR 14749

Catalog Description: Supervised experience in local businesses and other agencies. Open only to upper-division English majors. Credit/no credit only.

492 A EXPOSIT WRIT CONF (Advanced Expository Writing Conference) ARR 14750

Catalog Description: Tutorial arranged by prior mutual agreement between individual student and instructor. Revision of manuscripts is emphasized, but new work may also be undertaken.

493 A CREATIVE WRIT CONF (Advanced Creative Writing Conference) ARR 14751

Catalog Description: Tutorial arranged by prior mutual agreement between individual student and instructor. Revision of manuscripts is emphasized, but new work may also be undertaken.

494 A HONORS SEMINAR (Honors Seminar) TTh 12:30-2:20 14752

Catalog Description: Survey of current issues confronting literary critics today, based on revolving themes and topics. Focuses on debates and developments affecting English language and literatures, including questions about: the relationship of culture and history; the effect of emergent technologies on literary study; the rise of interdisciplinary approaches in the humanities.

494 B HONORS SEMINAR (Honors Seminar) MW 1:30-3:20 14753

Catalog Description: Survey of current issues confronting literary critics today, based on revolving themes and topics. Focuses on debates and developments affecting English language and literatures, including questions about: the relationship of culture and history; the effect of emergent technologies on literary study; the rise of interdisciplinary approaches in the humanities.

499 A INDEPENDENT STUDY (INDEPENDENT STUDY) ARR 14754

Catalog Description: Individual study by arrangement with instructor.

back to schedule

to home page
top of page
top