ENG 210-01 - Studies in Genre

4 credits (Spring)

Saints and Superheroes. Superhuman heroes of different eras reflect and exaggerate the ideals of the worlds that produce them. Exploring the lives of these saints and superheroes, we will consider how sensational details shift, are censored, or are exaggerated for a given audience or by a given author, and how their fabulous adventures interact with genres such as romance, heroic literature, poetry, and history. Alternating between the distant and more recent past, we will discuss how the surprising adventures of supernatural figures reflect both otherwordly ideals and the worldly ideologies of the authorities and institutions who promoted them. We will read scholarship on both eras, questioning our assumptions of both past and present and what their impossible ideals may have to tell us about the lived history of their authors and audiences.

Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; or for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or third-year standing.
Instructor: Lorden