Department of English

What do we call fantastic?  And what appears to be uncanny?  Are these general notions, or can the fantastic and uncanny be historically grounded?
This course will explore these questions and consider tales from the Romantic period to the early twentieth century.  Literary examples will include works by German, French, American, and English writers (Heinrich von Kleist, Adelbert von Chamisso, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Gérard de Nerval, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, Prosper Merimée, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary Wollestonecraft, Lewis Carroll). Essays by Sigmund Freud, Tzvetan Todorov, and others will frame the discussion.  All readings will be in English.

The course fulfills the Arts and Science requirement.