Fantastic Fiction. A Cultural and Ideological Introduction

Timetable

Tuesday at 9:45-11:15, room 14A in Collegium Novum (al. Niepodległości 4).

Module aim (aims)

• to make students acquainted with the most relevant theories on non-mimetic fiction, particularly on the fantastic as a narrative mode presenting two main forms: the classical and the contemporary fantastic.
• to make students familiar with canonical authors of fantastic fiction and their work in Western literature.
• to present the different evolution of the fantastic, mainly in the sociocultural contexts of Anglo-Saxon and Spanish-speaking countries, but in German and French literature as well.
• to improve students’ ability to interpret literary texts by applying tools for ideological analysis.
• to develop the students’ ability to compare literary texts.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Readiness to discuss texts in class, as well as basic terms of literary criticism and theory. English at B2 level. 

Syllabus

Week 1. A theoretical approach to the classical fantastic.

Week 2. E.T.A. Hoffmann: “The Sandman”.

Week 3. Edgar Allan Poe: “William Wilson”, “Berenice”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”.

Week 4. Guy de Maupassant: “Magnetism”, “The Apparition”, “The Horla”.

Week 5. Emilia Pardo Bazán: “The Woman Who Came Back to Life”, “The Talisman”; Miguel de Unamuno: “The Man Who Buried Himself”.

Week 6. Arthur Machen: “The Inmost Light”; H.P. Lovecraft: “The Call of Cthulhu”; Julio Cortázar: “House Taken Over”.

Week 7. Noel Clarasó: “Beyond Death”; Javier Marías: “Lord Rendall’s Song”; José María Merino: “The Deserter”.

Week 8. A theoretical approach to the contemporary fantastic. Franz Kafka: Metamorphosis.

Week 9. Juan José Arreola: “The Switchman”, “A Pact with the Devil”, “I’m Telling You the Truth”.

Week 10. Pere Calders: “The Desert”, “The Streak and the Wish”; Rodoreda: “My Cristina”.

Week 11. Julio Cortázar: “Letter to a Young Lady in Paris”, “Continuity of Parks”, “Axolotl”.

Week 12. Jorge Luis Borges: “The Library of Babel”, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius”, “The Circular Ruins”.

Week 13. Jorge Luis Borges: “Funes, His Memory”, “The Book of Sand”, “The Other”.

Week 14. Javier Marías: “Gualta”, “The Resignation Letter of Señor de Santiesteban”; Aixa de la Cruz: “True Milk”.

Week 15. Final exam.

 

Assessment overview

Final exam: 40%

Classroom discussion: 40%

Presentation in class: 20%

 

Assessment requirements for a pass: A mark of at least 50% overall.

Reading list

Mandatory

 

Jackson, Rosemary (1988). Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. London / New York: Routledge.

Roas, David (2018). Behind the Frontiers of the Real: A Definition of the Fantastic. Cham: Palgrave Pivot.

The selected fiction.

 

Optional

 

Apter, T.E. (1982). Fantasy Literature: An Approach to Reality. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Armitt, Lucie. Fantasy Fiction: An Introduction. Continuum, 2005.

Gregori, Alfons (2018). “Crossing Impossible Boundaries? Fantastic Narrative and Ideology.” Exploring the Fantastic: Genre, Ideology, and Popular Culture (117-140). Ed. by Ina Batzke & al. Bielefeld: Transcript.

Mücke, Dorothea E. von (2003). The Seduction of the Occult and the Rise of the Fantastic Tale. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Siebers, Tobin (1984). The Romantic Fantastic. Ithaca, New York / London: Cornell University Press.

Todorov, Tzvetan (1975). The Fantastic. A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (R. Howard [trans.]). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.

Traill, Nancy H. (1996). Possible Worlds of the Fantastic: The Rise of the Paranormal in Fiction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.