Literary Influence & Intertextuality
Course Description and Goals
“Let us agree on this: that we live our lives through texts. These may be read, or chanted, or experienced electronically, or come to us, like the murmurings of our mothers, telling us of what conventions demand. Whatever their form or medium, these stories are what have formed us all, they are what we must use to make our new fictions. . . .Out of old tales, we must make new lives.” – Carolyn Heilbrun, Hamlet’s Mother and Other Women (1990)
In this course, we will engage with the premise that all texts derive meaning from their relation to other texts by examining literary texts that illustrate and expand on the theoretical concepts of influence and intertextuality. You will read and apply literary theory and criticism. The course is designed to provide advanced literature majors an opportunity to plan, prepare, write, and present a substantive individual research project.
Prerequisites: LITT 1101 and LITT 2123. Senior status.
Required Texts
- Jasper, David, and Stephen Prickett, eds. The Bible and Literature: A Reader. Wiley-Blackwell, 2007.
- Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Norton Critical Edition. Norton, 2003.
NOTE: You must have this edition of “The Tempest” –it includes other versions of the play and related critical material we will be reading.
- Tartar, Maria, ed. The Classic Fairy Tales: Texts and Criticism. Norton, 1999.
- An up-to-date handbook of style and usage for writers of research papers (ie. MLA Handbook; The New St. Martin’s Handbook; Rules for Writers, etc.)
Recommended Texts
Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics: The Basics. Routledge, 2004.
Foster, Thomas. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Harper, 2003.
