Genres of Popular Literature

Instructor: Ildikó Limpár

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Week 1 (September 11): Introduction

Week 2 (September 18): Comedy, Parody, and Fairy Fantasy:

  • William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Background reading: Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
  • Written task: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is structured on the principle of doubles that contrast each other. List at least 4 of such contrastive pairs, signaling what contrastive characteristics/values/ideas they represent. (You may think in term of characters as well as setting). Then choose one pair and discuss very briefly (half a page) in what ways we can see them as contrasts and how they contribute to a fuller understanding of the play.

Week 3 ( September 25): The Graphic Novel (and Creating Myth)

  • Neil Gaiman: “A Midsummer Night's Dream”
  • Presentation topic: Historical facts in Neil Gaiman: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Week 4 (October 2): The Graphic Novel (and Creating Heroes)

  • “Fatal Wish”(Batman, issue 430; 1940)
  • Written task: Choose a page from the comic book in which the text and visual content interestingly complete each other. Explain briefly how the panel arrangement contributes to conveying the story.
  • Presentation topic: comic book heroes; (1) Superman (2) Captain America

Weeks 5 (October 9): The Coming-of-Age Novel as Dark Fantasy / Horror Novella

  • Neil Gaiman: Coraline
  • Written task: Make a list of scary / weird elements (minimum 6 items, preferably more). Then choose three and write one paragraph of each, explaining what makes the component especially scary or weird.
  • Presentation topic:Introducing Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Week 6 (October 16): The Detective Story (I)

  • Edgar Allen Poe: “The Purloined Letter”
  • Arthur Conan Doyle: “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire”
  • Presentation topic:traditional vampire concept(s)

Week 7 (October 23): NATIONAL HOLIDAY; Week 8 (October 30): AUTUMN BREAK

Week 9 (November 6): The Detective Story (II)

  • Neil Gaiman: “A Study in Emerald”
  • Written task: Explain the importance of the theater plays (title, poster text) mentioned in “A Study in Emerald” in relation to the themes of the short story
  • Presentation topic:Cthulhu (Lovecraft's universe)

Week 10 (November 13): Postmodern Rewritings of Myths

  • Neil Gaiman: “Snow, Glass, Apples”
  • Tanith Lee: “Red as Blood”
  • Written task:Choose one component of the original myth that is changed by the author in either of the stories, and explain briefly (in half a page) what effect it has on the reader.

Week 11 (November 20): Science Fiction (Dystopia and Apocalypse)

  • Robert Sheckley: “A Ticket to Tranai”
  • Ray Bradbury: “The Last Night of the World”
  • Written task: Check the terms utopia and dystopia. Choose two bizarre customs of planet Tranai and explain briefly in what ways they contribute to making one see Tranai as Utopia and as Dystopia.
  • Presentation topic: Introducing briefly Thomas More's Utopia

Week 12 (November 27): Dystopia and Young Adult Fiction I.

Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games (Read at least part I-II of the first book)

Written task: Collect 3 quotes that highlight the attitude differences between Capitol people and District 12 people, adding in brackets what quality you think the quote demonstrates. Then choose one and explain its significance in more detail (in about half a page).

Week 13 (December 4): Dystopia and Young Adult Fiction II.

Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games (Parts I-III of the first book)

Written task: Collect 3 quotes (from at least two different parts) that belong to the topic of communication and/or being cunning. Then choose one and explain its significance in the novel in more detail (in about half a page).

Week 14 (December 11): Conclusions and evaluation

  • (returning your essays with mark and correction)

Classwork:

  • Active participation in class (three absences are allowed), reading the works to be discussed thoroughly and coming to class prepared with the texts and your notes.

Written work:

  • Handing in two short written tasks and an end term paper. You need to hand in the short homework assignments at the beginning of the class that they are due as a typed and printed document. If for any reasons you cannot be present in the class for which you have written your homework, you may hand it in without negative consequences on the next occasion you attend the class (but no later than that). The deadline for the end term paper is week 12, November 27. You need to hand in the end term paper as a typed and printed document unless you may not be present in class. In that case, you need to email the paper as an attachment to by 10:00 am. on November 27, and hand in your printed document no later than the class next week. (This will not count as late submission as long as I have the emailed document sent to me on time.) Late submission will result in losing one point from your essay mark. I accept end term papers no later than 2:00 pm. on December 6 (Wednesday).
  • The end term paper should be 4-5 pages, double space, 12 pt., Times New Roman, normal margin of cc. 2 cms. You need to use at least two pieces of scholarly secondary literature, properly cited. (Preferred style is MLA.) Plagiarism is not tolerated and results in automatic failure. Do not forget to cite your primary sources properly, too.
  • Essay topics: You may choose from the following works as your target of analysis, focusing on how a specific genre is used by the author:

◦Coming-of-age novel in fantasy: Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book; J. K. Rowling: The Harry Potter series; Rick Riordian: The Lightning Thief (How do fantasy elements support/complete the theme of coming of age? Limit your paper's focus to few examples and explore those in more depth.)

◦Monster novel (aspects of the monstrous): Bram Stoker: Dracula (vampire); Stephanie Meyer: Twilight (vampire); Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus; Carrie Ryan: The Forest of Hands and Teeth (zombie); Marissa Meyer: Cinder (cyborg); Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd: A Monster Calls (tree);

◦Myth Retold / Dystopia / Science fiction: Marissa Meyer: Cinder (Are fairy tale and dystopia opposing genres? How does a fairy tale work in a dystopian / science fiction setting? How do various fairy tale components gain a different or more/less complex meaning due to the transformations?); Rick Riordian: The Lightning Thief (Greek myth)

◦YA Dystopia (dystopian world; coming-of-age in a dystopian world): Marissa Meyer: Cinder, Paolo Bacigalupi: Shipbreakers; Carrie Ryan: The Forest of Hands and Teeth;

  • Oral presentation: You may volunteer to give a short (8-10 minutes long) presentation on various topics offered during the semester. This is optional. The oral presentation may be used to replace one of your short written assignments; but if you choose to write all both written assignments, the oral presentation will count as extra work, and thus if the presentation is well done, it will help you get the better mark for this course in case your achievement is in-between two marks.
  • Important information on accessing texts: I will create a closed Facebook group so as I may effectively share the kind of reading material that is harder to access otherwise. You may also use this group for sharing information and discussing ideas relating to the seminar, as well as uploading reading materials. Please note that the graphic novels have “cbz” extension. In order to open the document and be able to read it, you need to have “cdisplay”, which you may freely download from here: . In order to join the Facebook group, you need to mark me as friend on FB. After I have let you in the group., you may “unfriend” me in case you don't really want to meet me on FB – no offense :-) .
  • Marking depends on: short written homework and class work (50%) and end term paper (50%). You may not receive a mark 5 for the course if you do not contribute regularly to class discussion. Please note that if the long essay does not meet the basic requirements either because of language quality or because of plagiarism, you may not receive a passing mark for the course.