Course Details
Country:
Multiple
Institution:
External - Semester at Sea
Course Title:
Critical Studies of Popular Texts
Course Number:
E333
Course Description:
Charles Dickens starts David Copperfield (1850) with a sentence both beguiling and amusing, “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether this station will be held by anyone else, these pages must show.” The resulting narrative is part novel, part memoir – an entirely fictionalized coming-of-age, or Bildungsroman, story predicated on Dickens’ own life but also a study of what it means to grow up, to develop a point of view, to become the hero of one’s own life, often by enduring the pain and confusion that so often accompanies the loss of innocence in the journey from childhood to adulthood. In a similar vein, this course will engage in a critical study of the “coming of age” narrative, a story that is typically told as a memoir about adolescence but can also be rendered through stories of self-discovery. In particular, our readings
Language:
English
Approved Equivalent:
ENGH L497
