Postgraduate Course: Fantastic Fiction (CLLC11112)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Common Courses (School of Lit, Lang and Cult) |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course is being proposed to complement existing options available to students on the MSc programme in Comparative and General Literature. It offers an opportunity to engage with a wide range of 20th century and contemporary European and Latin-American texts through the specific perspective of the genre of the fantastic.
How do we define $ůFantastic Fiction&© and what is its purpose and effect? Through study of a wide range of modern and contemporary texts that engage with the $ůFantastic&© as a genre, this option aims to examine such questions, whilst considering the particular contexts in which each work was published. Students may engage with the intertextual dimensions of particular works; the use of the fantastic as ideological or political tool in literature; society and the individual; the relationship of the fantastic to the $ůreal&©; utopias and dystopias; negotiations of gender and race etc. The course begins with an overview of attempts to theorise the genre (Todorov et al), and is followed by close analysis of a selection of texts(selection may vary from year to year depending on staff availability). |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2011/12 Semester 1, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| No Classes have been defined for this Course |
| First Class |
First class information not currently available |
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Generally, the intended learning outcomes are those of all MSc Options offered on the General and Comparative Programme; they include the ability to negotiate complex intellectual ideas, in debate as well as in essays, and the appreciation of contrasting and evolving viewpoints. Intended learning outcomes are:
&· to demonstrate advanced knowledge and understanding of the chosen specialism(s)
&· to recognise and acknowledge the complexity of the subject
&· to show a good understanding of and apply competently complex conceptual frameworks
&· to construct coherent arguments which demonstrate an awareness of the problems posed by the texts/ issues which they are studying
&· to demonstrate a high level of expression in both written and oral presentations
&· to demonstrate the mastery of relevant technical terminology and research methods
&· to carry out personal research under the guidance of the tutor and offer evidence of research initiative
&· to offer alternative perspectives, identify and accommodate ambiguities and show an awareness of nuance
&· to develop original ideas
&· to demonstrate an awareness of the research agenda relating to the topic
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Assessment Information
The option will be assessed by ONE essay, of 4000 words, to be submitted at the end of week 12 of the semester in which the option is taught.
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Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
This course is being proposed to complement existing options available to students on the MSc programme in Comparative and General Literature. It offers an opportunity to engage with a wide range of 20th century and contemporary European and Latin-American texts through the specific perspective of the genre of the fantastic.
Aims and Objectives
How do we define $ůFantastic Fiction&© and what is its purpose and effect? Through study of a wide range of modern and contemporary texts that engage with the $ůFantastic&© as a genre, this option aims to examine such questions, whilst considering the particular contexts in which each work was published. Students may engage with the intertextual dimensions of particular works; the use of the fantastic as ideological or political tool in literature; society and the individual; the relationship of the fantastic to the $ůreal&©; utopias and dystopias; negotiations of gender and race etc.
The course begins with an overview of attempts to theorise the genre (Todorov et al), and is followed by close analysis of a selection of texts by the following authors (selection may vary from year to year depending on staff availability).
The students should, by the end of the course, be able:
&· to recognise and acknowledge the complexity of the subject
&· to show a good understanding of and apply competently complex conceptual frameworks
&· to construct coherent arguments which demonstrate an awareness of the problems posed by the texts/ issues which they are studying
&· to demonstrate a high level of expression in both written and oral presentations
&· to demonstrate the mastery of relevant technical terminology and research methods
&· to carry out personal research under the guidance of the tutor and offer evidence of research initiative
&· to offer alternative perspectives, identify and accommodate ambiguities and show an awareness of nuance
&· to develop original ideas
&· to demonstrate an awareness of the research agenda relating to the topic.
Texts are to be taught in English translation (although students are welcome to read in the original where appropriate).
Generally, the intended learning outcomes are those of all MSc Options offered on the General and Comparative Programme; they include the ability to negotiate complex intellectual ideas, in debate as well as in essays, and the appreciation of contrasting and evolving viewpoints. Intended learning outcomes are:
&· to demonstrate advanced knowledge and understanding of the chosen specialism(s)
&· to recognise and acknowledge the complexity of the subject
&· to show a good understanding of and apply competently complex conceptual frameworks
&· to construct coherent arguments which demonstrate an awareness of the problems posed by the texts/ issues which they are studying
&· to demonstrate a high level of expression in both written and oral presentations
&· to demonstrate the mastery of relevant technical terminology and research methods
&· to carry out personal research under the guidance of the tutor and offer evidence of research initiative
&· to offer alternative perspectives, identify and accommodate ambiguities and show an awareness of nuance
&· to develop original ideas
&· to demonstrate an awareness of the research agenda relating to the topic
|
| Syllabus |
Week 1: Introductory seminar (all tutors, if possible, for round table discussion, with highlighting of key texts eg. Todorov)
Weeks 2-3
&· German
F Kafka, Metamporphosis: and other Stories. Trans. Will and Edwin Muir, Penguin 1961. (MC)
Weeks 4-5
&· Spanish/Hispanic
Bioy Casares, Adolfo, La invención de Morel / The Invention of Morel (Penguin, 1996/ NYRB Classics, 2003)
Borges, Jorge Luis, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo, Antología de la literatura fantástica / The Book of Fantasy (Sudamericana, 2003 / Carroll and Graf, 1990)
[FM]
Weeks 6-8
&· French/Francophone
J. Harpman, Moi qui n&©ai pas connu les hommes/ I Who Have Never Known Men/ Seven Stories Press, 1997.
M. Darrieussecq, Truismes/Pig Tales (Poche, 1996/Faber, 2003) (SAB)
Weeks 9-10
&· Italian
I. Calvino, Our Ancestors. Three novels. The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees, The Non-Existent Knight. Translated by Archibald Colquhoun with a new
introduction by the author, Secker&Warburg, London 1980; Minerva, London, 1992. (CN)
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Indicative Bibliography
In addition to the list of Primary texts and General secondary reading, tutors may provide individual bibliographies for each unit on the option.
Alonso, Carlos J., ed., Julio Cortázar: New Readings (CUP, 1998)
Apter, T. E., Fantasy literature: an approach to reality (London: Macmillan, 1982)
Armitt, Lucy, Theorising the Fantastic (London: Arnold, 1996).
Bioy Casares, Adolfo, La invención de Morel / The Invention of Morel (Penguin, 1996/ NYRB Classics, 2003)
Booker, M. Keith, The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature: Fiction as Social Criticism (Portsmouth, NH: Greenwood Press, 1994).
Borges, Jorge Luis, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo, Antología de la literatura fantástica / The Book of Fantasy (Sudamericana, 2003 / Carroll and Graf, 1990)
Brooke-Rose, Christine, A Rhetoric of the Unreal: Studies in Narrative and Structure, Especially of the Fantastic (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1981).
Clute, John, and John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (St Martin&©s Griffin, 1999)
Cornwell, Neil, The Literary Fantastic: From Gothic to Postmodernism (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990).
Cruz, Julia G., Lo neofantástico en Julio Cortázar (Madrid: Pliegos, 2003)
Twentieth-Century Fantasists: Essays on Culture, Society and Belief in Twentieth-Century Mythopoeic Literature, ed. by Kath Filmer (New York: St Martin&©s Press, 1992).
Del George, Dana, The Supernatural in Short Fiction of the Americas: The Other World in the New World (Greenwood, 2001)
Esteban, Angel (ed.), Miradas oblicuas en la narrativa latinoamericana contemporánea: límites de lo real, fronteras de lo fantástico (Madrid / Frankfurt: Iberoamericana / Vervuert, 2009)
Fishburn, Evelyn and Eduardo L. Ortiz, Science and the Creative Imagination in Latin America (London: ISA, 2005).
Hume, Kathryn, Fantasy and Mimesis: Responses to Reality in Western Literature (NY: Methuen, 1984).
Hutton, Margaret-Anne, Redefining the real: the fantastic in contemporary French and Francophone women&©s writing (Oxford, [England] ; New York, N.Y. : Peter Lang, c2009)
Jackson, Rosemary, Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion (London: Methuen, 1981).
Kahn, Lauri Hutt, Vislumbrar la otredad: Los pasajes en la narrativa de Julio Cortázar (Peter Lang, 1996)
Klingenberg, Patricia N., Fantasies of the Feminine: The Short Stories of Silvina Ocampo (Lewisberg: Bucknell UP, 1999)
Labbé, Denis, and Gilbert Millet, Le fantastique (Paris: Ellipses, 2000).
Le fantastique argentin: Silvina Ocampo, Julio Cortázar, special issue of América: Cahiers du CRICCAL, 17 (Presses de la Sorbonne-nouvelle, 1997)
López Martín, Lola, Penumbra: antología crítica del cuento fantástico hispanoamericano del siglo XIX (Madrid: Lengua de Trapo, 2006)
Matthews, Richard, Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination (Routledge, 2002)
Rabkin, Eric S., The Fantastic in Literature (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971).
Rodero, Jesús, La edad de la incertidumbre: un estudio del cuento fantástico del siglo XX en Latinoamérica (NY; Oxford: Peter Lang, 2006)
Rodríguez-Luis, Julio, The Contemporary Praxis of the Fantastic: Borges and Cortázar (NY: Garland, 1991).
Sauble-Otto, $ůWriting to Exist: Humanity and Survival in Two fin de sičcle Novels in French (Harpman, Darrieussecq), L&©esprit créateur, 45, 1 (Spring 2005), 59-66 (p. 59).
Saciuk, Olena H., ed., The Shape of the Fantastic: Selected Essays from the 7th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (NY: Greenwood, 1990).
Selnes, Gisle, $ůThe Feminine (Ob)scene of Cruelty: On the Fantastic, its Genealogy and Margins&©, Orbis Litterarum, 63:6 (2008) 510-28
Silva-Cáceres, Raúl H., L'arbre aux figures: Étude des motifs fantastiques dans l'oeuvre de Julio Cortázar (Paris: L&©Harmattan, 1996)
Slusser, George Edgar, Eric S. Rabkin and Robert E Scholes, Bridges to Fantasy (Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1982).
Stavans, Ilan, Julio Cortázar: A Study of the Short Fiction (Twayne, 1996)
Sullivan, Ceri, ed., Writing and Fantasy (Longman, 1999).
Tcherepashenets, Nataly, Place and Displacements in the Narrative Worlds of Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar (Peter Lang, 2007)
Todorov, Tzvetan, Introduction ŕ la littérature fantastique (Paris: Seuil, 1970)/ The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (Cornell Uni Press, 1975).
Warner, Marina, Fantastic Metamorphoses (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002).
Yurkievich, Saúl, Julio Cortázar, mundos y modos (Buenos Aires: Edhasa, 2004)
Special issue on the Fantastic in Forum for Modern Language Studies, ed. C Whitehead (October 2008).
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | the genre of the fantastic; 20th century and contemporary European and Latin-American texts |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Susan Bainbrigge
Tel: (0131 6)50 8417
Email: Susan.Bainbrigge@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Heather Elliott
Tel: (0131 6)50 3030
Email: Heather.Elliott@ed.ac.uk |
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© Copyright 2011 The University of Edinburgh - 16 January 2012 5:48 am
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