NES 1970

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

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2018-2019.

From idealized innocence to invoked fear of the unknown, and through philosophical notions of contingency and geological coincidence: in "Poetics of the Insular" we read and write about islands in world literature. Through writing exercises that focus on close reading of written and visual material, we uncover the multivalent meaning that emanates from the insular form with regards to questions of identity, difference, human existence, knowledge, hope, and despair. Toward that goal, we engage works from the medieval and modern periods, such as the Sinbad Voyages, medieval picaresque narratives, Gulliver's Travels, excerpts from Utopian and Dystopian fiction, in addition to works from philosophy, geography, cartography and literary theory that help us think critically about islands, in literature and beyond. 

When Offered Spring.

Satisfies Requirement First-Year Writing Seminar.

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