ENGLISH 207

Creating Stories


Please note: this is archived course information from 2017 for ENGLISH 207.

Description

We focus on some particularly creative stories from before Shakespeare to now, exploring why humans create stories, why we live surrounded by them, what difference they make to us, how we co-create them when we read or watch them and how we can get more out of them. We aim to become better readers and analysts of stories, and to understand better both what it is to be human and why and how we research, learn, question, and criticize.

We enjoy and examine a range of stories in different media (drama, 'classic' and modern novels, verse, short story, children’s story, comics and graphic novels, fiction and documentary film and painting) and from different eras (from the Sixteenth Century to the present—most closer to 'now' than to 'then') and regions (Europe, North America, Asia, Middle East, Australia). We learn about narrative theory and analysis, about the origin of stories, about the telling, imagining, retelling and adapting of stories and about their effects on readers, writers and others. We consider how stories reflect and affect minds and societies, and vice versa, and how stories can try to challenge the limits or assumptions of storytelling.

As well as reading a wide range of stories, we also have a special focus on two highly acclaimed storytellers, novelist Vladimir Nabokov and comics artist Art Spiegelman, who stretch the boundaries of stories in their own unique ways, but differently each time.

View the course syllabus

Availability 2017

Semester 1

Lecturer(s)

Lecturer(s) Distinguished Professor Brian Boyd

Reading/Texts

Prescribed texts:

Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Austen, Sense and Sensibility

Dr Seuss, Horton Hears a Who!

Nabokov, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

Nabokov, Lolita

Spiegelman, Maus I and II

Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

There will also be additional materials, critical and creative on Canvas.

Set films:

Tokyo Story (dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

Innocence of Memories (dir. Grant Gee, writer Orhan Pamuk, 2015)

Recommended Reading

Available through Canvas.

Assessment

Coursework + exam

Points

ENGLISH 207: 15 points

Prerequisites

60 points passed

Restrictions

ENGLISH 111