Reading Fiction: Imaginary Journeys

Calendar

SES #	TOPICS / READINGS	ORAL REPORT TOPICS
1	Introduction	n/a
2	Odyssey, excerpts from Book I; Books 9–12	n/a
3	Odyssey	n/a
4	Chrétien. “The Knight of the Cart” In Arthurian Romances	Courtly love in the Middle Ages; Eleanor of Aquitaine and her daughter Marie de Champagne
5	“The Knight of the Cart” (continued)	Origins and versions of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
6	Don Quixote, Prologue and Chapters 1–5, 7–22, and 52 (i.e., pp. 11–51, 58–186, and 467–79)	The picaro and picaresque literature in relationship to Don Quixote
7	Don Quixote	The Hidalgo in the class system of Renaissance Spain; the concept of “Clean Blood;” and the place of Jews and Arabs in the Spanish historical background to Don Quixote
8	Gulliver’s Travels, Parts 1 and 4 (“A Voyage to Lilliput” and “A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms”)	Jonathan Swift’s politics; Whigs and Tories in early 18th century Britain and Ireland; Jacobitism
9	Gulliver’s Travels (continued)	Lycurgus and ancient Sparta as described by Xenophon and Plutarch
10	Frankenstein	William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft (Mary Shelley’s parents); Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and their circle, especially 1816–1818
11	Frankenstein (continued)	The search for the Northwest Passage
12	Frankenstein (continued)	Humphry Davy; the study of chemistry and the life sciences at the start of the 19th Century
13	Frankenstein (continued)	n/a
14	Heart of Darkness	King Leopold of Belgium and the Congo; the Casement Report
15	Heart of Darkness (continued)	The Scramble for Africa; the Berlin Conference of 1884
16	Heart of Darkness (continued)	n/a
17	Heart of Darkness (continued)	n/a
18	To the Lighthouse	n/a
19	To the Lighthouse (continued)	Leslie Stephen; the Bloomsbury
20	To the Lighthouse (continued)	Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and the occasion for which it was written
21	To the Lighthouse (continued)	William Cowper’s poem “The Castaway” and its use in To the Lighthouse