{"id":19731,"date":"2013-09-12T19:47:52","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T18:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/?p=19731"},"modified":"2025-02-17T19:59:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T18:59:31","slug":"a-historical-survey-of-the-fantastic-in-british-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/?p=19731&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"A Historical Survey of the Fantastic in British Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Course title: <\/strong>A Historical Survey of the Fantastic in British Literature
\nInstructor<\/strong>: Assoc. Prof. Iva Polak<\/span>
\nECTS credits<\/strong>: <\/b>6<\/span>
\nStatus:<\/strong> elective<\/span>
\nSemester<\/strong>: <\/b>1 and 3 <\/span>
\nEnrollment requirements<\/strong>: <\/b>enrollment in Semester 1 and\/or 3<\/span>
\nCourse description:<\/strong> The course offers a historical survey of OE, ME and ModE texts till the late 19th century that appropriate fantasy or the supernatural for various reasons. Each text is discussed in the framework of its socio-historical context to reflect, albeit tentatively, the implied listener\/reader. Some literary works are analyzed alongside their cinematic adaptations. Theoretical underpinnings of the fantastic include discussing mimesis, the rhetoric of the real and unreal, terminological muddy waters (fantasy\/the fantastic\/Fantasy), and the notion of impulse, mode and genre.<\/span>
\nObjectives:<\/strong> Awakening students\u2019 awareness of the existence of fantasy from the very beginnings of English literature; detecting the shifts in the function of the fantastic in literature and culture; clearer understanding of theoretical underpinnings of the fantastic.<\/span>
\nCourse requirements<\/strong>:<\/b>The final grade is based on continuous assessment which includes regular attendance (max. 4 unattended classes), preparation for and participation in discussions, and writing and timely submission of seven short written assignments. Each assignment comes with guidelines, prescribed length (c. 800-1500 words) and deadline. Students must receive a minimum passing grade for reach written assignment to successfully pass the course. Plagiarizing detected in a single written assignment will lead to failing of the course.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Weekly schedule<\/strong><\/span>
\nWEEK 1
\n<\/strong>Introduction to key problems: the notion of reality in different time periods; mimesis-mimetic; fantasy-fantastic <\/span>
\nWEEK 2
\n<\/strong>What is fantastic in fantasy; historical positioning of the fantastic; fantasy as a mode and\/or a genre; introduction into the theory of the genre (Todorov, Brooke-Rose,Chanady, Hume, etc.)
\n– Christine Brooke-Rose (Ch. 2); Kathryn Hume (Ch. 2 & 5)
\nAssignment 1<\/span>
\nWEEK 3
\n<\/strong>The problem of locating the fantastic in Anglo-Saxon (OE) literature<\/span>
\nBeowulf<\/i> , c. 8th<\/sup> c. (excerpts) \u2013 historical context, Anglo-Saxon listener and encoded reader; the problem of the real and the unreal; heroic or fantastic epic<\/span>
\nWEEK 4
\n<\/strong>Beowulf (cont.) \u2013 relevance of epic for the development of fantastic literature <\/span>
\nWEEK 5
\n<\/strong><\/span>Beowulf<\/i> and Tolkien\u2019s high fantasy; Tolkien. \u201cThe Monster and the Critic\u201d
\nAssignment 2<\/span>
\nWEEK 6
\n<\/strong><\/span>Fantasy and the Middle-Ages<\/span>
\nGeoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales<\/i>  (\u201cThe Nun’s Priest’s Tale\u201d) (1387-; Caxton 1st ed. 1476) \u2013 historical context, medieval forms, fable, fantasy of the so-called \u201csimple forms\u201d (Einfache Formen<\/i>)
\nAssignment 3<\/span>
\nWEEK 7
\n<\/strong><\/span>Sir Thomas Malory. Le Morte Darthur <\/i>(1485): medieval intertext; from epic to romance; Arthuriana as myth and historiography; characters and narrative strands; Monthy Python and the Holy Grail<\/i> (1975) dir. Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones<\/span>
\nWEEK 8
\n<\/strong>No classes. Reading week.
\nWEEK 9
\n<\/strong>Fantasy and the Early Modern Period<\/span>
\nWilliam Shakespeare. The Tempest<\/i> (1623) \u2013 Elizabethan worldview; Prospero\u2019s magic and how to present it on stage and screen; application of Todorov
\nAssignment 4<\/span>
\nWEEK 10
\n<\/strong>Cinematic adaptations of The Tempest<\/em>: discussion of clips from Silent Shakespeare<\/i> (1899-1901),  Prospero’s Books<\/i> (1991) dir. Peter Greenaway, The Tempest<\/i> (2010) dir. Julie Taymor; analysis of Forbidden Planet<\/i> (1956) dir. Fred M. Wilcox
\nAssignment 5<\/span>
\nWEEK 11
\n<\/strong>Fantasy in the Neoclassical Period<\/span>
\nJonathan Swift. Gulliver’s Travels <\/i>(4th<\/sup> voyage) (1726, 1735)\u2013 utopian literature (Plato, Thomas More), Menippean satire, fantasy and allegory, location and problems of the 4th<\/sup> voyage;
\nAssignment 6<\/span>
\nWEEK 12
\n<\/strong>Fantasy and the Victorian Period<\/span>
\nLewis Carroll. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland<\/i> (1865) \u2013Victorian children literature; nonsense verse (Jabberwocky); source of the supernatural<\/span>
\nWEEK 13
\n<\/strong>Lewis Carroll. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland <\/i>\u2013 application of Todorov
\nAssignment 7<\/span>
\nWEEK 14
\n<\/strong>Towards SF<\/span>
\nH. G. Wells. The Time Machine<\/i> (1895) \u2013 \u2018impure\u2019 SF, novum (Suvin)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading list:
\n<\/b>Beowulf<\/em> (excerpts)<\/span>
\nGeoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales<\/em> (\u201cThe Nun\u2019s Priest\u2019s Tale\u201d)<\/span>
\nSir Thomas Malory. Le Morte Darthur<\/em> (excerpts)<\/span>
\nJonathan Swift. Gulliver’s Travels, IV voyage
\n<\/i>Lewis Carroll. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
\n<\/i>H. G. Wells. The Time Machine<\/i>; <\/i>\u201cThe Grey Man\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Critical editions:
\n– Brooke-Rose, Christine. A Rhetoric of the Unreal. Studies in Narrative and Structure, Especially of the Fantastic, <\/i>CUP, 1981. (Ch. 2)<\/span>
\n– <\/i>Chanady, Amaryll Beatrice. Magical Realism and the Fantastic: Resolved Versus Unresolved Antinomy, <\/i>Garland Publishing Inc, 1985. (excerpts)<\/span>
\n– \u010capek, Karel. In Praise of Newspapers and Other Essays on the Margin of Literature, <\/i>Allen&Uwin, 1951. Essays: “Towards a Theory of Fairy Tales”; “A Few Fairy-Tale Motifs”.<\/span>
\n– Hume, Kathryn. Fantasy and Mimesis. Responses to Reality in Western Literature<\/em>. Methuen. 1984. (Ch. 2 & 5)<\/span>
\n– Jackson, Rosemary. Fantasy. The Literature of Subversion, <\/i>Routledge, 1981. (excerpts)
\n– Polak, Iva. Futuristic Worlds in Australian Aboriginal Fiction<\/em>. Oxford:Peter Lang, 2017: Ch.1 & 2
\n– Suvin, Darko. “On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre”. College English<\/em>. Vol. 34. No. 3, 1972: 372-382.<\/span>
\n– <\/i>Todorov, Tzvetan. The Fantastic. A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, <\/i>Cornell UP, 1975.<\/span>
\n– Tolkien, J.R.R. The Monster and the Critics and Other Essays, <\/i>HarperCollins, 2006. Essays: “The Monster and the Critics”; “On Fairy Stories”.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

All texts shall be made available in electronic format.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Course title: A Historical Survey of the Fantastic in British Literature Instructor: Assoc. Prof. Iva Polak ECTS credits: 6 Status: elective Semester: 1 and 3 Enrollment requirements: enrollment in Semester 1 and\/or 3 Course description: The course offers a historical survey of OE, ME and ModE texts till the late 19th century that appropriate fantasy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-i-9-semestar-knjizevni-kolegiji-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19731"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47199,"href":"https:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19731\/revisions\/47199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anglist.ffzg.unizg.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}