NES 1970

FWS: On Islands: Poetics of the Insular in World Literature

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2019-2020.

In literary imagination, islands teem with aesthetic and functional possibilities.  They can be idealized as pure, innocent Edens, but also as objects of desire passively awaiting exploitation.  They can provoke visions of "savagery" and cultural judgment, even violent fantasies of otherness.  We will read and write about islands in world literature, asking questions about identity and difference, existence, certitude, and knowledge, hope and despair.  Texts will include the Sinbad Voyages, medieval picaresque narratives, Gulliver's Travels, and modern works of utopian, dystopian, and science fiction. Through close readings of literary texts, students will write essays that vary in goal and complexity. Written assignments include but are not limited to: critical literary analysis, comparative literary analysis, in addition to research-based argumentative essays.

When Offered Fall.

Satisfies Requirement First-Year Writing Seminar.

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