WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2010-2011       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Animal Stories
COL 120
Spring 2011
Section: 01  

Humans are a species of animal, and animals have long been used to represent human qualities and dilemmas. In Western narrative, these representations have taken many complex forms, all the way to wildly imaginative distortions of the human in the animals, and the animal in the human. We shall look first at traditional representations (Homer's similes, Aesop's and La Fontaine's fables) and some modern revisions (Bresson's film AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, Art Spiegelman's MAUS), then at obsessional relations of men to animals (Kleist's MICHAEL KOHLHAAS, Flaubert's A SIMPLE HEART, Cormac McCarthy's novel THE CROSSING), and conclude with the powerful renderings of animals - scarcely human, all-too-human - in Kafka's short stories. The seminar is an introduction to the close study of comparative literature across different periods, styles, and cultural contexts, with a view toward the philosophical issues raised by literature. Frequent short papers and regular participation in discussions are required.

Essential Capabilities: Interpretation, Writing
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA COL
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None
Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available

Last Updated on MAR-29-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459