Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Advanced seminar. May be organized by author, genre, period, critical approach, or other criteria. This course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

The Weird, The Eerie and … The Thrilling: Narrative and Manipulation

Most of us enjoy a good story with interesting characters and a compelling narrative. Among other things, we enter the world of a character, or a narrating character, and see what they see, learn what they feel, etc. Some call this “imaginative empathy" or narrative theory of mind. This semester we’ll look at one particular sub-set of stories that adds an element to this: it adds the wrinkle that the narrator is unreliable, either because (self) deceived or because deceptive. The effect can be unsettling, and often thrilling.

We’ll start with some early works — early 20th century — and move on to several mid-century classics, before ending with several contemporary works. 

The works we’ll look at include a Poe story (Tell-Tale Heart), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Agatha Christie), The Franchise Affair (Josephine Tey), We Have Always Lived In the Castle (Shirley Jackson), Pop. 1280 (Jim Thompson), The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins), and Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn). 

 

Students will be expected to:

—attend all classes,

—read some theoretical material (supplied by me at cost or posted), 

—watch several films at home and in class, 

—write two 6-7 page papers, with revision work done on both (5% on each for revision). 

I’m open to you generating your own topics for the papers, if you wish. No prior knowledge of philosophy or narrative theory will be presupposed. You may use any editions of these works, including Kindle, e-book, etc. I will use Canvas Announcements from time to time. The syllabus will be provided by week one. There are murders and violence in these works.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: