Prose Fiction
Term 2
M, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
The Perilous Realm is the world of Faërie, the shadow world of human desire, a realm of unfamiliar beauty as well as unanticipated menace, and ever dangerous to the unwise or unwary who travel its twilight paths. Faërie is a place where our personhood is both revealed and undone, where humans are not the only beings of significance…or power. Our readings for this course will guide us through the Perilous Realm, focusing on speculative works loosely as “fantasy,” as distinguished from science fiction and horror. By analyzing both canonical works in fantasy (including novels by J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula K. Le Guin), more radical interventions in the field, and important literary criticism, we’ll consider how fantasy fiction informs our understanding of what it is to be (or not to be) human and why it matters, and how these works complicate our own storied experiences as both readers and social beings.
