ENGL 336 - Ghost in the Machine

FDR: HL
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ENGL 299. This course considers the way in which literature–from the 17th and 18th centuries to the present–responds to problems of self, soul, matter, and consciousness. We read scurrilous love poetry and experimental novels where the body has a mind of its own. We see how writers attempt to capture the fleeting movements of the psyche by developing a “stream of consciousness” style. We consider how certain literary texts give us a glimpse into the inner lives of non-human thinking things (such as a bat, a talking parrot, and even a brain in a vat). We also think about how literature responds to developments in neuroscience. Keiser.