First-Year Seminar: Engaging the Classical Past in Modern Fiction

3 units

This course will explore the persistent -- but often camouflaged -- influence of classical antiquity on modern genre (popular) fiction. Students will read and discuss both texts from antiquity (e.g., Ovid's Metamorphoses, Lucian's A True History) and selections from the works of major 20th-century authors drawn from the canon of a specific genre. Although popular fiction embraces a wide range of authors and styles, genres that are particularly engaged with the classical past include science fiction (e.g., Jules Verne, Suzanne Collins), fantasy (e.g., J.R.R. Tolkien, Rick Riordan), horror (e.g., H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King), mystery (e.g., Elizabeth Peters, Steven Saylor), and adventure (e.g., Clive Cussler, David Gibbins). Discussion of these texts will include theorization about the nature of the genre and its origins as well as specific examples of allusions and intertexts to ancient Greek and Roman authors, focusing on the characters, artifacts, monsters, themes, legends, and plot devices drawn from Greco-Roman mythology or modern mythology about Classical antiquity. Course is for first-year, non-transfer students only.