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EN209

Special Topics

0.5 credits · Undergraduate

Fall 2025 · Bad Stories: Conspiracy, Gaslighting and Narrative

Topics

  • Narrative cognition and identity
  • confirmation bias
  • conspiracy narratives
  • gaslighting
  • truth and knowledge
  • social-media persuasion
  • literary representations of deception.

Readings

  • Ian McEwan, Atonement (Vintage Canada, 2001).
    Required
  • Jonathan Rauch, The Constitution of Knowledge.
    Required
  • William Shakespeare, Othello, the Moor of Venice (Simon & Schuster, 2017).
    Required
  • Additional assigned selections include Renée DiResta’s Invisible Rulers and Arlie Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land, through MyLearningSpace.
    Other material
Sources