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Academic Year 2004/2005

The Fantastic in Narrative Imagination
COL 105 FA
Crosslistings:
RUSS 290

Literature of the fantastic plays an important role in the history of modern European and Russian fiction from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. This course will focus on the narrative implications of the fantastic and its development as a popular genre in relation to national histories and the history of the novel. In distinction from the realist trajectory of representing the world as rational, the fantastic tests the limits of the irrational and the uncanny. The class will explore the evolution of the transgressive themes of self, consciousness, anxiety, and sexual desire.

MAJOR READINGS

Our readings will include the following works:
Ann Radcliffe, THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO
Mary Shelley, FRANKENSTEIN
E.T.A. Hoffman, "The Sandman"
Aleksandr Pushkin, "The Queen of Spades"
Nikolai Gogol, "Diary of a Madman", "Nose", and "The Overcoat"
Fedor Dostoevsky, "The Double"
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Purloined Letter" and other stories
Guy de Maupassant, "The Horla"
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Minister's Black Veil"
Henry James, "The Turn of the Screw"

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Two papers, oral presentation.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

This course counts toward the major in Russian Language and Literature or Russian and East European Studies.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA COL    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-21-2005

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