Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An Introduction to the study of literature within the wider cultural field, with a focus on contemporary issues across genres and media. Students with credit for ENGL 105W may not take this course for further credit. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Representation Matters: Sympathy and Identification in Literature and the Media

Calls for representation in contemporary media are often linked to the need for greater racial and cultural diversity that allows a wider audience to see themselves and their experiences reflected. These conversations highlight significant shifts over the last two hundred years, away from nineteenth-century assumptions that readers would be part of a predominantly white, middle-class reading audience. Such shifts in assumed audience have important implications for how literary works represent groups that are often marginalised, including people of colour and the working class. Historically, texts that wanted to foster sympathy for so-called “others” relied on carefully drawn moral distinctions between who deserved sympathy and who didn’t, but contemporary texts offer a wider range of possibilities for sympathetic identification.

In this course, we will explore how literature shapes culture through representation by asking not just why representation matters, but what the aims and mechanics of representation are. That is, how do narratives shape sympathy and identification? What is the difference between a sympathetic character, a relatable character, and a character you identify with? What kinds of strategies do historical and contemporary texts deploy in their representation of diverse characters and experiences, and how do those change between the 1818 publication of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein and the 2016 release of Ali Wong’s Netflix special, Baby Cobra?

This course will be delivered through a mix of synchronous and asynchronous modes. Each week, I’ll provide a few short, asynchronous lectures that give historical context and outline key concepts. We’ll also have between an hour and 90 minutes of synchronous class each week during the scheduled time, when we will discuss the week’s readings; because this is a writing-focused course, we’ll also use this time to workshop your writing and talk about writing generally.

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

All of the required books should be readily available to purchase as print and digital texts. I strongly recommend acquiring print copies, but it is not mandatory.

I will not be ordering books via the bookstore this semester. If you aren't sure where to order books, Pulpfiction in Vancouver offers 30% the list price on special orders and free local delivery and Massy Books offers free delivery across the Lower Mainland on orders over $50. If cost is a concern, some books may have limited availability as ebooks through the Vancouver Public Library. Because Frankenstein is out of copyright, you should be able to find it online (just make sure you are looking at the 1818 text).

We will be viewing one film that is available via Netflix. For those who do not have a subscription—or if you just want to watch it with other people—I will organize a class viewing using an online platform like Teleparty.

REQUIRED READING: