What are the listed short stories about and what are the main themes

Question # 00115451 Posted By: solutionshere Updated on: 10/09/2015 08:39 PM Due on: 11/08/2015
Subject Literary Studies Topic General Literary Studies Tutorials:
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Fall 2014
Comp Lit 191 / French 153D

Fantastic Fictions
The Fantastic is one of the many inventions of the Nineteenth century. It has been described as
the creative reaction to a bourgeois, prosaic world, dominated by capitalism and rationalism, and
deserted by poetry, faith and the imagination. Writers of fantastic literature were fascinated by the
parallel realities of mental disorder, madness, dreams and drug-induced perceptions. The void
left by the materialistic explanations of reality became the space where a fantastic perception of
reality could develop and thrive, hesitating between the real and the supernatural, in the
intermediate space of the unexplained and unexplainable. We will read stories by Balzac,
Cortázar, Dumas, Gautier, Gogol, Hoffmann, Kafka, Maupassant, Mérimée, Edgar A. Poe, and
Villiers de l’Ile-Adam. In English.

Time: Tuesday & Thursday 12:30-1:45
Place: Theater & Dance 1701
Instructor: Dominique Jullien
Office hours: Thursday 2:30-4:30 pm & by appointment
Office: 5220 Phelps Hall
Email: [email protected]
Thursday October 2, 2014
Introduction
Tuesday October 7
E.T.A. Hoffmann “The Sand Man” (from the reader)
Thursday October 9
E.T.A. Hoffmann, “The Cremona Violin” (from the reader)
Additional reading: 1) Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny (from the reader); 2) Hélène Cixous,
“Fiction and its Phantoms” (from the reader)
Tuesday October 14
H. de Balzac, The Wild Ass’s Skin (to p.108)
Thursday October 16
Balzac cont’d (to p.194)
Tuesday October 21
Balzac cont’d (to p.285)
Thursday October 23
Prosper Mérimée, “The Venus of Ille”
(from Joan C. Kessler (ed.) Demons of the Night)
Additional reading: Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic (from the reader)

Tuesday October 28
Alexandre Dumas “The Slap of Charlotte Corday” (from Demons of the Night)
Thursday October 30
Théophile Gautier, “The Dead in Love” (from Demons of the Night)
Tuesday November 4
Théophile Gautier, “Arria Marcella” (from Demons of the Night)
Thursday November 6
MIDTERM EXAM (IN CLASS)

Tuesday November 11

Veterans’ Day—no class

Thursday November 13
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Oval Portrait”, “The Fall of the House of Usher” (from the reader)
Tuesday November 18
Poe cont’d, “The Man of the Crowd” (from the reader)
Thursday November 20
Nikolai Gogol, “The Nose” (from the reader)
Tuesday November 25
Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, “The Sign” (from Demons of the Night)

Thursday November 27

Thanksgiving—no class

Tuesday December 2
Villiers, “Véra” (from Demons of the Night)
Thursday December 4
Guy de Maupassant, “The Horla” (from Demons of the Night)
Tuesday December 9
Maupassant, “Who knows?” (from Demons of the Night)
Thursday December 11
Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis” (from the reader)
Julio Cortázar, “The Night Face Up”; “Continuity of Parks” (from the reader)
Conclusion
Monday, December 15, 12-3 PM
FINAL EXAMINATION

WHAT YOU WILL NEED IN THIS CLASS
A. The following books are available from the UCSB bookstore:
Required Books:
1) Demons of the Night : Tales of the Fantastic, Madness, and the Supernatural from
Nineteenth-Century France, Translated & Edited by Joan C. Kessler (University Of
Chicago Press, 1995)
ISBN: 0226432084
2) Honoré de Balzac, translated by Herbert J. Hunt, The Wild Ass’s Skin (Penguin
Classics, 1977)
ISBN: 0140443304
Optional Book:
Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, Translated
by Richard Howard with an Introduction by Robert Scholes (Cornell University Press,
1980)
ISBN-10: 0801491460
B. I-clicker, available at the UCSB Bookstore
(Note: if you already have an i-clicker, you do not need to buy a new one.)
C. Additional reading (available as a reader from SB Printers). The reader is
also available in the Library on a 2-hour reserve:
Selections from:
- E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Best Tales of Hoffmann, Edited by E.F. Bleiler (Dover
Publications, 1963)
- Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny (Penguin Books, 2003)
- Hélène Cixous, “Fiction and its Phantoms: a Reading of Freud’s Das Unheimliche”
(The Uncanny”), from S. Vine (Ed.), Literature in Psychoanalysis (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2005)
- Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic (Cornell University Press, 1980)
- Edgar Allan Poe, Complete Tales & Poems (Vintage Classics, 1975)
- Nikolai Gogol, The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol, Translated by R. Pelvear & L.
Volokhonsky (Vintage Classics, 1998)
- Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis” (The Complete Stories, New York: Schocken
Books, 1971)
- Julio Cortázar, “Continuity of Parks”; “The Night Face Up” (End of the Game and
Other Stories, New York: Collier Books, 1968)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS (Please note that you must fulfill all requirements in
order to pass the course):
ATTENDANCE. No more than two justified absences are allowed during the quarter.
READING. Read all the texts carefully in preparation for class. Be prepared to
participate in class discussions. Bring the text to class. There will be quizzes.
CLICKER. Don’t forget to register your clicker. You need to bring it to every class. We
will use it every day.
EXAMS. Midterm (Thursday 11/6) and Final (Monday 12/15, 12-3 pm) both in class.
GRADING:
10% Class performance including attendance, quizzes and participation
30% Midterm Exam
60% Final Exam
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  1. Tutorial # 00109877 Posted By: solutionshere Posted on: 10/09/2015 08:39 PM
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