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Crosslistings: REES 267 |
Parody is a form of artistic expression that is difficult to define but that has played a major role in literary history. This course will consider various definitions of parody offered by Russian and Western literary theorists. The major case study will be a slow reading of Fedor Dostoevsky's magnificently parodic novel THE DEVILS, along with the "target texts" to which the novel responds and with which it plays (works by Pushkin, Druzhinin, Turgenev, and others). Serious literary parody as employed by Dostoevsky will be compared to parody as pure humor (Woody Allen, MAD magazine). The final part of the course will be devoted to discussion of recent legal issues raised by parody, in the cases of 2 Live Crew versus Roy Orbison (which led to a Supreme Court decision in which Justice David Souter offered his own definition of parody), LOLITA and LO'S DIARY, and GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIND DONE GONE.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA RUSS Grading Mode: Student Option
Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-30-2006
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459