Stranger Things: Art of Unreal

Catalog description

'Reality is not always probable, or likely.' -Jorge Luis Borges. In this class, we will study how literature and other media can usher us into a claimed actuality very different from the external world as it is collectively perceived or experienced. At least initially, then, the issues we confront will be epistemological in nature, that is, they will concern how art challenges or otherwise defines the limits of what we can know and understand; and yet we will also try to push beyond familiar theoretical frameworks (e.g., Plato, Freud) by examining modern philosophical accounts of literary aesthetics. This work will guide us through a broad range of textual forms and discourses, from classical epic to contemporary film and television, all variously marked by the ramifying proximity of the alien and the familiar, by moments of estrangement and epistemic disruption. To reference the shadowy parallel dimension from the popular television miniseries 'Stranger Things', think of the course as a class trip to the Upside Down and its analogous settings, as afforded by engagements with classical poetry; medieval romance; Arthurian legend; fantasy literature; mystical and visionary writing; magical realism; abstract expressionism; and, by the end of the term, science fiction. We will read/view selections from Virgil, Dante, Malory, Kempe, Tolkien, Hoffman, Lovecraft, Rushdie, Pynchon, Borges, Kubrick, Dali, Asimov, and the Wachowskis, supplementing such material with critical and theoretical readings intended for a general student audience. Requirements will include regular responses to an on-line discussion forum, a critical essay, and at least one collaborative multimedia project.