ENL 200: Studies in Literature

Course Topic Description: Literature and religion are both forms of belief: on the one hand, the religious believer's faith in the divine; on the other, what Coleridge termed the reader's "willing suspension of disbelief," their readiness to temporarily treat a fictional world as real. This course explores the complicated relationship between these two kinds of belief across a range of texts, from the Bible itself to contemporary novelists grappling with the disenchantment of the modern world.

Course Topic Description: Imaginative fiction has a long history of proposing more perfect worlds, ones that resolve the conflicts and shortcomings of the imperfect world we occupy. As a genre, utopian texts focus particularly on this task, creating societies or worlds that attempt to address the flaws of the time and place of their invention. In this short, but intensive, literature course, we will return to the origins of the utopian idea, we will begin with one of the primary originating literary text: Utopia by Sir Thomas More. In 1516, More coined the term utopia to name the ideal place his narrator describes in his fictional travel narrative to Utopia. Since More's work, utopia has become a literary genre, an ideal, and a method for exploring social arrangements for a more just and equitable future. In our return to the origins of utopia, we will consider the historical conditions to which More responds in his Utopia, the literary structure of his narrative, and the social and the political value of what More initiates with his fiction. For more details, please read the full course topic description under the syllabus link above. Thank you.

Course Topic Description: Merriam Webster's 2023 word of the year was "authentic." This should come as no surprise in the year when ChatGPT was released to the wider public. This new technology raised questions about the difference between authentic and artificial intelligence, between real footage and deepfakes, and between sincere people and influencers--among other distinctions. These questions have only grown more pressing since then. This course investigates a range of fictional genres that grapple with authenticity in its many forms. In addition to sharpening our powers of observation and analysis, students will discover how artistic forms both reflect and shape the world we live in and how we understand it. The class concludes with a self-directed creative project that invites students to imagine something related to the theme of authenticity that engages with the concepts we¿ve explored during the semester.