Course Description
This course will explore where popular literature comes from, how we can understand it, and how it manifests in a variety of genres. Students will primarily learn about popular literature through different genres, across historical periods, and within a variety of mediums. In the first half of the semester, we will focus on one genre, how that genre manifests in a specific medium, and compare one “older” and one “contemporary” text in that genre. In the second half of the semester, the class will flip, passing control of text selection and course instruction over to the students. As a class, students will select popular genres to study for Weeks 10-14, group up based on preferences, select two texts to cover, then lead class discussion on those genres and texts in the given week. We will apply the same model from weeks 2-7 to this one: one older text, one new text, in the same medium and genre. The class will culminate in a Critical Creation Project, offering students the opportunity critically analyze one text or one genre in the approach they so choose.
Course Materials
- Romance
- Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell
- Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
- Dystopia
- Nineteen Eighty-Four, dir. Michael Radford
- Mad Max: Fury Road, dir. George Miller
- Superheroes
- Action Comics #1
- Fantastic Four, #1-12
- Ms. Marvel, #1-12
- Sci-Fi
- Black Mirror, Netflix
- The Twilight Zone, Netflix
- Adventure Games
- Zork!, Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Tim Anderson, Bruce Daniels
- Telltale Games: The Walking Dead, PC