Studies in Literature and Culture (385-0-21)

Topic

Visionary Literature: Dreams, Prophecies, Fantasie

Instructors

Smith William Yarberry

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 215: Mon, Wed 3:30PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

Dreams and dream visions, prophecies and rhapsodies! Literature has long been an art form that invites visions—reveries, fantasies, apparitions, imaginative insights—that distort the boundaries between reality and the unknown, the earthly world and the divine. This class sets out to explore these imaginative and estranging poetries and novels, paintings and other visual mediums, that have come to their authors in unusual ways: prophetic dictations from God (or dead poets), messages delivered in dreams, waking visions, literary fate dolled out by The Tarot. What are the political stakes of dreaming aloud in literature? What are the gender and racial, cultural and social, significance of traditions, such as tarot, automatic writing, and clairvoyance within the literary arts? From Franz Kafka and Sylvia Plath's surreal stories to Edgar Garcia's lucid-dream poems, this class will look to figures who risk getting a little weird in order to channel their experiences into the singular language of visionary literature. In addition to reading and discussing literary texts, our class will attend a field trip to special collections to experience archival materials related to our course.

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Pre-registration -- Reserved for English and Creative Writing students.