Writing About Literature
Intensive focus on the reading and writing skills used to analyze literary texts such as poems by Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare or Langston Hughes; short stories by Chekhov, Joyce, or Alice Walker; and a short novel by Melville or Toni Morrison. Designed not only to prepare students for further work in writing and literary and media study, but also to provide increased confidence and pleasure in their reading, writing, and analytical skills. Students write or revise essays weekly. Enrollment limited.
Fall 2015 · Writing About Literature: Writing About Love
Topics
- Close Reading
- Plot
- The Great Gatsby and Waitress
- Graphic Novels
- Fun Home
- Historical
- Beloved
- Beloved cont.
- Benito Cereno
- “The Counterpane” & “The Monkey-Rope”
- Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
- Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories cont. & This Is How You Lose Her
- This Is How You Lose Her cont.
Readings
- [TM] = Morrison, Toni. Beloved . Reprint edition. Vintage, 2004. ISBN: 9781400033416.
- [SC] = Cisneros, Sandra. Woman Hollering Creek: And Other Stories . Vintage, 1992. ISBN: 9780679738565.
- SES #: 5 · TOPICS: The Great Gatsby and Waitress · READINGS: [FSF] Ch. 7–8
- SES #: 6 · TOPICS: The Great Gatsby · READINGS: [FSF] Ch. 9
- SES #: 8 · TOPICS: Graphic Novels cont. · READINGS: [AB] Ch. 3–4
- SES #: 10 · TOPICS: Historical · READINGS: [TM] pp. 4–59.
- SES #: 11 · TOPICS: Historical cont. · READINGS: [TM] pp. 60–100.
- SES #: 13 · TOPICS: Beloved cont. · READINGS: [TM] pp. 174–235.
- SES #: 14 · TOPICS: Beloved cont. · READINGS: [TM] pp. 236–270.
- SES #: 15 · TOPICS: Beloved cont. · READINGS: [TM] pp. 271–324.
- SES #: 19 · TOPICS: Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories · READINGS: [SC] pp. 1–40.
- SES #: 20 · TOPICS: Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories cont. · READINGS: [SC] pp. 41–113.
- SES #: 21 · TOPICS: Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories cont. & This Is How You Lose Her · READINGS: [SC] pp. 114–165.
- SES #: 22 · TOPICS: Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories cont. & This Is How You Lose Her · READINGS: [JD] pp. 1–50.
- SES #: 23 · TOPICS: This Is How You Lose Her cont. · READINGS: [JD] pp. 51–122.
- SES #: 24 · TOPICS: This Is How You Lose Her cont. · READINGS: [JD] pp. 123–217.
Fall 2010
Students, scholars, bloggers, reviewers, fans, and book-group members write about literature, but so do authors themselves. Through the ways they engage with their own texts and those of other artists, sampling, remixing, and rethinking texts and genres, writers reflect on and inspire questions about the creative process. We will examine Mary Shelley's reshaping of Milton's _Paradise Lost_, German fairy tales, tales of scientific discovery, and her husband's poems to make _Frankenstein_ (1818, 1831); Melville's redesign of a travel narrative into a Gothic novella in _Benito Cereno_ (1856); and Alison Bechdel's rewriting of Oscar Wilde's _The Importance of Being Earnest_ (1895) in her graphic novel _Fun Home_ (2006). Showings of film versions of some of these works will allow us to project forward in the remixing process as well.
Readings
- Shelley, M. S. Frankenstein . New York, NY: Norton, 1995. ISBN: 9780393964585.
- Melville, H. Benito Cereno . Boston, MA: Bedford/Saint Martin’s, 2006. ISBN: 9780312452421.
- Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic . Boston, MA: Mariner’s Books, 2007. ISBN: 9780618871711.
- Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest, and Other Plays . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199535972.
- 2 · Shelley, M. S. Frankenstein . Preface, and preface to 1831 edition. Vol. I. New York, NY: Norton, 1995. ISBN: 9780393964585.
- 3 · Shelley, M. S. Frankenstein . Vol. II. New York, NY: Norton, 1995. ISBN: 9780393964585.
- 4 · Shelley, M. S. Frankenstein . Vol. III. New York, NY: Norton, 1995. ISBN: 9780393964585.
- Sources and Contexts for Frankenstein : Reports (5 minutes) on Prometheus Myth (Hesiod’s Theogony, Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound), Scientists (Erasmus Darwin, Luigi Galvani, Humphrey Davy), and Explorers (James Cook).
- Sources and Contexts for Frankenstein : Reports on Creature’s reading list (Plutarch’s Lives, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther).
- Sources and Contexts for Frankenstein : Reports on Romantic Poets (Shelley, Byron, Coleridge) and the Sublime (Burke).
- Sources and Contexts for Frankenstein : Philosophy (John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft).
- Frankenstein Adaptations: Early Silent Film
- Frankenstein Adaptations: Early Silent Film (cont.)
- 16 · Melville, H. Benito Cereno . Boston, MA: Bedford/Saint Martin’s, 2006. ISBN: 9780312452421.
- 17 · Melville, H. Benito Cereno . Boston, MA: Bedford/Saint Martin’s, 2006. ISBN:9780312452421. (cont.)
- 18 · Melville, H. Benito Cereno . Boston, MA: Bedford/Saint Martin’s, 2006. ISBN: 9780312452421. (cont.)
- 21 · Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest, and Other Plays . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199535972.
- Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest, and Other Plays . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199535972. (cont.)
- 23 · Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home . Boston, MA: Mariner’s Books, 2007. ISBN: 9780618871711.
- 24 · Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home . Boston, MA: Mariner’s Books, 2007. ISBN: 9780618871711. (cont.)
- Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home . Boston, MA: Mariner’s Books, 2007. ISBN: 9780618871711.
Prerequisites & course information
Same subject as 21W.041[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2015
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2010
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.