Comparative Literature 100 - INTRO:THE PLEASURES OF READING

Topics course. We explore and compare how different cultures have imagined the island as a blank page and an idealized place to tell stories about themselves and their relation to other cultures, from the myths of Atlantis and Calypso's seduction of Odysseus to the castaway Robinson Crusoe, from Darwin's ecologically pristine Galapagos to the tourist paradise of the popular imagination, from Prospero's magical kingdom to the experimental playground of Dr. Moreau, from the space of freedom and social reinvention to the subjugation of colonial empire. Films and readings from a wide variety of genres and traditions, including short theoretical texts.

Topic: Islands, Real and Imaginary.