Semester One

100-level

ENGL102
Great Works
Description
This course introduces students to university-level English by exploring in depth a sequence of works that have earned the label 'great' for some or all of the following reasons: because of their enduring, wide and deep cultural influence; because of the originality of their creative conception; because of the power of their language; because of the power and appeal of the stories they tell or the characters or images they contain.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
15 points
ENGL110
Maori Storytelling
Description
This course introduces students to a wide range of texts by Maori authors writing in English, and situates these works within a vast and vibrant whakapapa of Maori creative production in Aotearoa and beyond. Key themes within the course include: purakau and their contemporary retellings, representations of nonhuman perspectives, the relationship between writing and other forms of narrative, and Maori futurism.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Semester One 2026 (Distance)
Points
15 points
ENGL118
Creative Writing: Skills, Techniques and Practice
Description
This course provides a grounding in the skills, techniques and tricks a writer needs to transform ideas and material into art. Guided exercises will develop students’ creative practice of observation, play and experiment; the study of selected poetry, short prose and dramatic texts will introduce diverse forms and approaches. Students will also develop a feedback and revision practice at the weekly workshops; closely and sensitively engage with both published and peer texts.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
15 points
Restrictions
WRIT118

200-level

ENGL201
The Essay and Beyond: Creative Non-Fiction
Description
Non-fiction writing has a strong place within the traditions of literature, but has often tended to be neglected as a subject of study. To redress this, we will look at different genres of non-fiction: essays, popular science, travel writing, nature writing, and various types of "life writing". We will question the particular techniques and generic distinctions of texts studied, consider the specific subjects of non-fiction texts, examine how the texts are constructed and discuss their significance in the contexts most relevant to them. In addition, the course will explore the representation of place, displacement and placement; the history of subjectivity; recent interventions into postcolonial, globalisation and literary studies, and ecocriticism and human-animal studies; and the operation of gender and class as they apply to the production and readership of literary non-fiction.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ENGL; DISC101 or DISC102; or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
WRIT201
ENGL210
Inventing New Zealand in Literature
Description
ENGL 210 is an introduction to New Zealand literature. The course has a twentieth-century focus, and, in its survey of the century, examines texts that engage the issues of translation (a politics of metaphor) by which different ideas of ‘New Zealandness’ have been established and critiqued. What is it we mean when we speak of New Zealand literature? What are the assumptions, readings and interpretations employed in the formation of something like New Zealand identity, and what are their contexts?
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ENGL, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
ENGL252
Crime Stories
Description
The course addresses the usefulness and range of the crime genre as an appropriate focus for the acquisition of the skills (in research, critical analysis, and written expression) peculiar to English studies, as well as a form of social and political critique. It will particularly concentrate on the last two centuries of the representations of crime, detection, confession, and punishments, assaying major trends and preoccupations present in a range of texts and theories. Within a general contextual examination of engagements between these facets, the development of genre forms and concerns will be considered, especially because the genre often speculates the fears and desires of its time in ways that likewise shape wider perceptions of crime and punishment. Students will be expected to read a range of key material, including a small selection of novels, some short fiction, theoretical writings and visual texts that should represent differences and similarities in representation and subject choice that writers and directors negotiate.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from CULT or ENGL, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ENGL352; CULT252; CULT352

300-level

ENGL317
Modern Poetry
Description
This course begins with the study of a selection of English and American poets from the early 20th century who are identified with literary modernism. When these poets found that the conventions of traditional English poetry failed to represent the social and political upheavals of modernity, including the impacts of industrialisation and the horrors of the First World War, they searched for ways to break with the past and make poetry new. Although the defining decade for modernist poetry was the1920s, modernism has influenced much of the poetry in English produced in the subsequent century. With this in mind, the remainder of the course studies the way later poetry has responded to modernist forms, techniques and preoccupations, with particular attention paid to recent poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ENGL421; ENGL434
ENGL331
Writing with Impact
Description
This course develops to an advanced level students' skills and knowledge in various forms of non-fiction writing. The aim is to produce graduates who can write with novelty, vitality, and versatility across a range of genres; who can evoke distinctive voices of many kinds; who can express subtle and individual nuances of emotion; who can produce real embodied descriptions of the world; whose work can undertake fresh formal experiments, produce unprecedented effects, and go in surprising directions. Genres covered, depending on the year, may include life writing (biography, autobiography, and memoir); the personal and informal essay; popular science and science communication; writing about nature, animals, and the environment; travel, food, and health writing; review writing; writing for and about the digital and online world; and professional writing (reports, funding applications, web content).
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
WRIT301
ENGL332
Sexualities in Culture
Description
This course analyses representations and models of 'normal' and 'abnormal' sexuality as these occur in sexology, psychiatry, self-help psychology, cinema and popular culture, and queer activism.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from CULT or ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
AMST332, CULT303, GEND307, GEND211
ENGL352
Crime Stories
Description
The course addresses the usefulness and range of the crime genre as an appropriate focus for the acquisition of the skills (in research, critical analysis, and written expression) peculiar to English studies, as well as a form of social and political critique. It will particularly concentrate on the last two centuries of the representations of crime, detection, confession, and punishments, assaying major trends and preoccupations present in a range of texts and theories. Within a general contextual examination of engagements between these facets, the development of genre forms and concerns will be considered, especially because the genre often speculates the fears and desires of its time in ways that likewise shape wider perceptions of crime and punishment. Students will be expected to read a range of key material, including a small selection of novels, some short fiction, theoretical writings and visual texts that should represent differences and similarities in representation and subject choice that writers and directors negotiate.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from CULT or ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ENGL252; CULT252; CULT352

Semester Two

100-level

ENGL107
Shakespeare
Description
This course is designed to introduce first year students to a range of Shakespeare’s plays as well as to develop their understanding of the different ways in which his plays have been received in recent literary criticism.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
15 points

200-level

ENGL206
Science, Technology and Literature
Description
This course will particularly concentrate on the last two centuries of intersections between science, technology and literature, assaying major trends and preoccupations present in a range of texts and theories. Within a general examination of literature's engagements, the development of science fiction forms and concerns will be considered, especially because of the way that the genre often speculates the fears and desires of its time onto both futuristic settings and "alternate realities". Students will be expected to read a range of key material, including a small selection of novels, some short fiction, theoretical writings and visual texts.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ENGL, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ENGL306
ENGL220
Creative Writing: Storymaking and the Short Story
Description
In this course students explore storymaking with a focus on the short story. The course is structured into three modules: ‘the beginning’, ‘middle’, and ‘end’, and each includes diverse readings, guided writing exercises, and discussion. Students explore character, place, plot, structure, voice, meaning, resolution and editing, and the weekly workshops offer space for supportive feedback and experiment. By the end, students will have drafted, re-crafted and completed a short story, developed their fingerprint storytelling voice and style.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ENGL; DISC101 or DISC102; or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
WRIT220
ENGL243
Creature Features: From Jaws to Planet of the Apes
Description
This course explores cinematic representations of insects, mammals, fish, birds and reptiles, with an emphasis on their special place in horror and science fiction genres. Students will also be introduced to Human-Animal Studies as a field of scholarship.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from CULT or ENGL, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
CINE243, CULT206, ENGL349
ENGL250
Indigilit - Indigenous Literature in Aotearoa and Beyond
Description
This course is a survey of Indigenous literature which presents Indigenous creative production in Aotearoa in relation to Indigenous literatures around the globe. Students are encouraged to consider various forms of narrative which constitute 'literature' in Indigenous contexts, to critically engage with representations of and ideas about Indigenous peoples within a range of texts, and to read Indigenous texts comparatively.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ENGL, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
TITO201, MAOR207

300-level

ENGL306
Science, Technology and Literature
Description
This course will particularly concentrate on the last two centuries of intersections between science, technology and literature, assaying major trends and preoccupations present in a range of texts and theories. Within a general examination of literature's engagements, the development of science fiction forms and concerns will be considered, especially because of the way that the genre often speculates the fears and desires of its time onto both futuristic settings and "alternate realities". Students will be expected to read a range of key material, including a small selection of novels, some short fiction, theoretical writings and visual texts.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ENGL206
ENGL313
Scream Theory: The Changing Face of Fear
Description
This course examines shifting representations of the fearful, monstrous and abject in visual culture and popular culture more generally. Emphasis is placed on sociocultural, feminist and postmodern interpretations of horror themes in American, Japanese and New Zealand contexts.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from CULT or ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
AMST313, CULT317, AMST413, ENGL413, CULT417
ENGL318
Animal Stories: From Mythology to Social Media
Description
This course explores the role of imagery and narrative in producing historical and contemporary ideas about ‘animality’ and ‘speciesism’ across a range of texts and media (including mythology, fables and bestiaries; wildlife documentaries; contemporary art; graphic novels; animal biographies; online activism; social media). Students will also learn about intersectional theory and its use in the field of Critical Animal Studies.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from CULT or ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
CULT335
ENGL345
Close to the machine: digital literatures from the avant-garde to AI
Description
This course offers a wide-ranging exploration of ways in which literary reading and writing are being amplified, deterritorialised or hybridised by digital computing and the Internet. We will read a variety of combinatory writing, interactive fiction, as well as literary texts emerging from digital lifeworlds such as those of social media and software, and will examine how digital objects and processes - such as randomness, networks and machine learning - relate to narrative and poetic techniques. Alongside these, the course will consider wider cognitive and cultural implications connected to these shifts, including for literary research.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from DIGI or ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
DIGI301
ENGL350
Creative Writing: New Narratives
Description
This course marks the culmination of students’ undergraduate creative writing journey, offering a focused experience in the development, drafting, and completion of a substantial creative writing project. Through a combination of readings, discussion, exercises, and practical workshops, students will explore new narrative forms such as the novelette, novella-in-flash, verse novel and poetic sequence. The course emphasizes revision and peer feedback, supports the development of practice-led research, and will prepare students for graduate study or continued creative practice.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
WRIT350

Summer Nov

200-level

ENGL233
Creative Writing for Stage
Description
This course combines the development of students' creative writing with teaching of the practical skills and dramaturgic techniques of scripting for stage.
Occurrences
Summer Nov 2025 start
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ENGL; DISC101 or DISC102; or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ENGL234
ENGL239
Creative Writing: Eco-Lit in the Field
Description
In this course students will have a series of immersive experiences of the Aotearoa environment and explore a range of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction texts by key writers including pioneers of environmental writing, contemporary writers, and writers with a strong Aotearoa New Zealand connection. Students will participate in daily lectures, writing workshops and guided writing exercises and walks, will engage in close observation and explore ways to effectively and powerfully communicate ideas about the environment, landforms and lifeforms through creative writing. This course will take place over five Tuesdays and will require that students attend two full day fieldtrips to Hinewai on Banks Peninsula and Cass Field Station in the Southern Alps, as well as three on-campus days. Students can book a place in the UC vans on the fieldtrip days, and are strongly advised to email pieta.gray@canterbury.ac.nz or vana.manasiadis@canterbury.ac.nz to confirm a place, if required, before enrolling. The fee for a place in the van is $40.
Occurrences
Summer Nov 2025 start
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ENGL; or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA; or permission of the Head of Department

Not Offered Courses in 2026

Semester Two

300-level

ENGL317
Modern Poetry
Description
This course begins with the study of a selection of English and American poets from the early 20th century who are identified with literary modernism. When these poets found that the conventions of traditional English poetry failed to represent the social and political upheavals of modernity, including the impacts of industrialisation and the horrors of the First World War, they searched for ways to break with the past and make poetry new. Although the defining decade for modernist poetry was the1920s, modernism has influenced much of the poetry in English produced in the subsequent century. With this in mind, the remainder of the course studies the way later poetry has responded to modernist forms, techniques and preoccupations, with particular attention paid to recent poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific.
Occurrences
ENGL317-26S2 (C)
Semester Two 2026 - Not offered
For further information see ENGL317 course details
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ENGL421; ENGL434