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
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
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
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
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
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

Not Offered Courses in 2026

300-level

ENGL302
Rebels, Devils and Cannibals: Literature and the Origins of Modernity
Description
Examining a range of literary texts in English from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, ENGL202/302 focuses on how the chosen works represent and are shaped by the first glimmerings of modern forms of culture and consciousness.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026, offered in 2018 , 2020 , 2021 , 2023
For further information see ENGL302 course details
Points
30 points
ENGL305
European Novels and Film Adaptations
Description
A study of important European novels and their film adaptations.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026, offered in 2021 , 2022 , 2023 , 2024 , 2025
For further information see ENGL305 course details
Points
30 points
ENGL315
The Contemporary Novel
Description
This course studies novels from the early twentieth century to the present, written by some of the world’s most original and compelling minds. Students will learn about the novel form, will consider the relation of past texts to the contemporary, and will engage with key moments in history and consciousness as these have been explored both critically and creatively by a selection of novelists.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026, offered in 2025
For further information see ENGL315 course details
Points
30 points
ENGL316
New Zealand Literature 3
Description
A course which is designed to follow ENGL 210 (New Zealand Literature 2), examining in depth the ways in which New Zealand literature can be written about. The course consists of four units, each of which addresses a specific critical context.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026, offered in 2011 , 2012 , 2014
For further information see ENGL316 course details
Points
30 points
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
ENGL349
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
Not offered 2026, offered in 2025
For further information see ENGL349 course details
Points
30 points