Why do some stories remain potent and highly influential over time, while others do not? Why do later authors sometimes choose to revisit, reshape, extend, or challenge these stories, eliciting new meanings for new audiences? To whom do such stories really “belong,” and who gets to decide? We will explore these questions by revisiting a range of classic sources—from Biblical creation stories to Greek myth and epic, classic fairy tales, and a major 19th-century American novel—and delving into powerful retellings. Our texts will include Mark Twain’s Diaries of Adam and Eve, excerpts from John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Homer’s Odyssey, Madeline Miller’s Circe, Percival Everett’s new prize-winning novel James (a reworking of Twain’s Huckleberry Finn), and modern fairy stories by Angela Carter, Neil Gaiman, and others. In the process, we will learn how the best retellings can inform and reshape, sometimes radically, our understanding of literary works.
As this will be a reading-intensive program, students should plan to immerse themselves in each text. We will practice close reading and collaborative critical thinking. Students will participate in seminars and workshops, and pursue various writing activities as assigned, including literary retellings of their own. As time allows, we will also consider the adaptation of classic texts to other media, including film, visual art, and music. Join us as we put to the test Everett’s claim that “Reading is perhaps the most subversive thing that we can do.”
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:
8 - World Literature
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Academic Details
Literature, humanities, education, and any other field that prizes collaborative study and close attention to texts.