ASIAN 207 A /GLITS 251 A /C LIT 251 A
Madness, Music, and Imagination in Literature
Spring 2023 Dr. Hee Eun Helen Lee
MGH 254 MW12:30-2:20 Office: SMI 020
E-mail: hlee921@uw.edu Office Hours: M 11:30-12:20
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course explores how insanity in art can shape the cultural and the social, the individual and the collective consciousness in society. The discourse of consciousness from the long 19C is as separate as subordinate to the larger cultural, historical, psychological and philosophical perspectives of society. Inviting the 19C thought into our conversation about madness and imagination is valuable not in spite of the historical distance between their worldview and our own but because of it. Making connections to the present rather illuminates the contingency of the present by way of the alterity of the past.
By investigating the non-human concepts such as monsters, the supernatural and nature across the continental cultures, this course surveys the underlying discourse that resonates across national border. The following questions will lead us into the course: Why is madness such a compelling topic? How is madness different from sanity? What does it mean to be ‘out of our senses’? How is creativity a form of madness? How have history and culture treated insanity as a creative state? Why are creativity, genius, and imagination often feared by society? Above all we will seek to recognize the essence of “thought and imagination” and to embrace a compassionate understanding of how madness and creativity are necessary to human cognition and heart.
Readings will be drawn from transnational borders, including a variety of genres including William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Baudelaire, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Smith, E.T.A. Hoffmann and others. This course will also incorporate cinematography as we read the non-human imagination in movies.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, (Oxford University Press; 3rd edition (January 1, 2020)), ISBN: 9780198840824
Grade Distribution:
Participation 10%
Class Discussion Leading 15%
Reading Responses 10%
Short Papers 30%
Final Project 20%
Round Table Presentation & Peer Review 15%
Schedule:[i]
* =handout or Canvas PDF
Syllabus
Wk 1
3/27 M Introduction to Course; Reading journal, Discussion posts, Essays, Multi-modal Project
3/29 W Blake selection from Songs of Innocence and Experience; Kant "What is Enlightenment?"; Short film analysis
Wk2 Reading Eyes in Nature; Reading Beyond
4/3 M Tim Morton’s The Mesh; Wordsworth “The Ruined Cottage”
4/5 W Shelley “Ozymandias”; “Mutability”; Charlotte Smith selection of Sonnets; “Marriage of Heaven and Hell”
Wk3 Spirituality or Madness?
4/10 M Edmund Burke’s “The Sublime and the Beautiful”; Coleridge “The Ancient Mariner”
4/12 W Prose Selections from Charles Baudelaire’s The Paris Spleen
Essay 1 Due: Friday, 14th 11:59pm
Wk4 Madness, Monsters, and Science
4/17 M Cohen’s 7 Theses; Frankenstein I
4/19 W Group Discussion 1 Frankenstein II
Wk5
4/24 M Frankenstein III
4/26 W Group Discussion 2 Freud’s “The Uncanny”; Hoffmann “The Sandman”; Klaus (Netflix)
Wk6 Musical Madness or Music in Madness?
5/1 M Excerpt from Schopenhauer The World as Will and Representation; Kleist; “St. Cecilia; Hoffmann “Rat Krespel”
5/3 W Group Discussion 3 Dong-in Kim’s “Sonata of a Flame”; Cheong-jun Yi, “Seopyeonje”
Essay 3 Due Friday, 5th 11:59pm
Wk7
5/8 M No Class – Prof. Lee is off to present at a conference.
5/10 W Group Discussion 4 Charlotte Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper”; Ken Liu “The Paper Menagerie”
Final Project Announcement
Wk8 Cinematography; Madness and Fantasy; Magical realism?
5/15 M Edmund Burke’s “The Sublime and the Beautiful”; Pan’s Labyrinth
5/17 W Group Discussion 5 Pan’s Labyrinth
Movie Analysis Due: Sunday, 21st 11:59pm
Wk9
5/22 Conference Prep
5/24 Roundtable Pt. I
Wk10
5/29 M Memorial Day: NO CLASS
5/31 W Roundtable Pt. II
[i] This schedule is as of now my best approximation of how the class ought to move along. I have attempted to negotiate between assigning too much reading and giving you insufficient amounts of material to write on. I reserve the right to change the order of works as seems best to suit our needs as a learning community. HL