21L.012
Forms of Western Narrative
Examines a wide assortment of narrative forms, from Homer to the present, and considers why and how stories are told. Focuses on the close reading of literary and cultural issues, the emergence of different narrative genres, and how different media affect the construction and interpretation of narratives. Syllabus varies by term, but usually includes materials such as epics, novels, tales, short stories, films, television programs, graphic novels, and interactive games. Enrollment limited.
Fall 2007
This course examines some leading examples of major genres of storytelling in the Western tradition, among them epic (Homer's _Odyssey_), romance (from the Arthurian tradition), and novel (Cervantes's _Don Quixote_). We will be asking why people tell (and have always told) stories, how they tell them, why they might tell them the way they do, and what difference it makes how they tell them. We'll combine an investigation of the changing formal properties of narratives with consideration of the historical, cultural, and technological factors that have influenced how tales got told. In keeping with its CI-H and HASS-D label, this course will involve substantial attention to students' writing and speaking abilities.
Readings
- Homer. The Odyssey of Homer . Translated by Richmond Lattimore. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1999. ISBN: 9780060931957.
- de Troyes, Chrétien. Arthurian Romances . New York, NY: Penguin Classics, 1991. ISBN: 9780140445213.
- de Cervantes, Miguel. Don Quixote . Edited and translated by John Rutherford. New York, NY: Penguin Classics, 2003. ISBN: 9780142437230.
- Brothers Grimm. The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales . New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1976. ISBN: 9780394709307.
- Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein . New York, NY: Penguin Classics, 2003. ISBN: 9780141439471.
- Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness . New York, NY: Penguin Modern Classics, 2000. ISBN: 9780141182438.
- Chandra, Vikram. “Kama.” In Love and Longing in Bombay . New York, NY: Back Bay Books, 1998. ISBN: 9780316136778.
Spring 2004
Topics
- Introduction: Orality and Literacy
- Epic Conventions
- Stories within Stories: The Social Functions of Storytelling
- Myths of Self and Society: Fates and Fatalism
- Conflict Resolution
- Genre and Ideology I: The Tragic Arc
- Approaches to History: Methods and Materials
- Genre and Ideology II: The Tragic View of History
- Formalist Approaches to Narrative
- Character Functions in Adventure Narratives
- Narrative Perspective and the Categories of Time and Space
- Perspective and the Novelty of the Novel
- Mediation and the Triangulated Subject
- Character Development and the Accumulation of Experience
- Realism, Sentiment, and the Epistolary Novel
- Experience, Experiments, and Enlightenment Epistemology
- The Enlightened Subject
- Novels of Manners, Novels of Morals: The Bildungsroman
- Psychology in Gothic Horror and Detective Fiction
- Psychoanalytic Archetypes and Fairy-Tales
- Film Screening I
- Surrealism and the Subject of Psychoanalysis
- Film Screening II
- Modernist Ideology: Capitalist Alienation and Class Consciousness
- Film Screening III
- Late Capitalism, Pastiche, and Post-Modernism
- Narrative and New Media
Readings
- Homer. Iliad . Translated by Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1951.
- Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Aubrey de Selincourt, revised edition. London: Penguin, 1954, 1972.
- Sophocles. Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone. Volume I. Translated by David Grene, 2nd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
- Propp, Vladimir. The Morphology of the Folk Tale. Edited by Louis A. Wagner. Translated by Laurence Scott. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971.
- France, Marie de. The Lais of Marie de France. Translated by Robert Hanning and Joan Ferrante. Durham: Labyrinth Press, 1978.
- Platt, Rutherford Hayes, and J. Alden Brett, eds. “The Acts of Paul and Thecla.” In The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden. New York: Plume, 1974.
- Bakhtin, Mikhail. “Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel.” In The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Edited by Michael Holquist and Vadim Liapunov, Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982.
- Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote. Translated by J. M. Cohen. London: Penguin, 1950.
- Clos, Choderlos de la. Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Translated by P. W. K. Stone. New York: Penguin, 1961.
- Poe, Edgar Allan. Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.
- Freud, Sigmund. “On Dreams” “Family Romances,” and “The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex.” In The Freud Reader. Edited by Peter Gay. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, pp. 143-72, 297-300, and 661-66.
- Cocteau, Jean, dir. La Belle et La Bête (Beauty and the Beast). France, 1946. (Film)
- Marx, Karl. “Alienation and Social Classes.” In The Marx-Engels Reader. Edited by Robert Tucker. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Co., 1978.
- Lang, Fritz, dir. Metropolis. Germany, 1926. (Film)
- Disney-Pixar. Studios. Toy Story. USA, 1996. (Film)
- Wright, Will. The Sims . Maxis-Electronic Arts.
- SES #: 4 · TOPICS: Myths of Self and Society: Fates and Fatalism · READINGS: Homer. Iliad. Books 13-20.
- SES #: 5 · TOPICS: Conflict Resolution · READINGS: Homer. Iliad. Books 21-24.
- SES #: 8 · TOPICS: Genre and Ideology II: The Tragic View of History · READINGS: Herodotus. The Histories. Book VII.
- SES #: 9 · TOPICS: Formalist Approaches to Narrative · READINGS: Propp, Vladimir. Morphology of the FolkTale .
- SES #: 10 · TOPICS: Character Functions in Adventure Narratives · READINGS: de France, Marie. Lais . (Guigemar, Bisclavret, Lanval, Yonec, Eliduc).
- Acts of Paul and Thecla .
- SES #: 15 · TOPICS: Realism, Sentiment, and the Epistolary Novel · READINGS: Laclos. Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Part 1.
- SES #: 16 · TOPICS: Experience, Experiments, and Enlightenment Epistemology · READINGS: Laclos. Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Part 2.
- SES #: 17 · TOPICS: The Enlightened Subject · READINGS: Laclos. Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Part 3.
- SES #: 18 · TOPICS: Novels of Manners, Novels of Morals: The Bildungsroman · READINGS: Laclos. Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Part 4.
- SES #: 19 · TOPICS: Psychology in Gothic Horror and Detective Fiction · READINGS: Poe. “The Cask of Amantillado;” “The Pit and the Pendulum;” “The Imp of the Perverse;” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue;” “The Purloined Letter.”
- SES #: 21 · TOPICS: Film Screening I · READINGS: Cocteau. La Belle et la Bête .
- SES #: 22 · TOPICS: Surrealism and the Subject of Psychoanalysis · READINGS: Cocteau. La Belle et la Bête . (cont.)
- SES #: 23 · TOPICS: Film Screening II · READINGS: Lang. Metropolis .
- Lang. Metropolis . (cont.)
- SES #: 25 · TOPICS: Film Screening III · READINGS: Disney-Pixar. Toy Story .
- SES #: 26 · TOPICS: Late Capitalism, Pastiche, and Post-Modernism · READINGS: Disney-Pixar. Toy Story . (cont.)
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2007
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2004
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- 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.