Exploration of metafictional texts, that is, texts that call attention to themselves as artifice. Examination of how these texts expose their status as fictional constructs both thematically and structurally and, 因此, how they call into question the boundaries between fiction and reality. Although the term “metafiction,” which William Gass coined in 1970, is used most often to refer to postmodern works in the Western tradition written in the 1960s and 1970s, metafictional texts date back to antiquity and can be found across the globe. Accordingly, this course examines contemporary metafictional texts from East Africa, 中国, Europe and the United States, as well as their precursors. Emphasis on close reading of literary texts as well as on critical analysis and writing.

This experimental, interdisciplinary course introduces students to the fields of art studio and comparative literature through close reading of literary and visual texts; practices of visual and literary analysis; planning and execution of two-dimensional design projects; and translation of ideas across media. Emphasis on identifying and creating corollary relationships between formal features of literary text and visual design elements (such as line, 形状, 纹理, 价值, color, 空间). Focus on developing and strengthening skills in textual analysis and two-dimensional design thinking as well as strategies for creative problem-solving, interdisciplinary thinking, and hands-on making.

What is “literary and media activism”? And what does it mean to “call for change” through new forms of media? How does the relationship between “literature” and “social movements ” challenge our understanding of media as an agent of change in the global present? Beginning with readings from the Green Belt Movement in Africa, the Nation of Islam in Chicago, to the Civil Rights Movement and Hashtag Black Lives Matter in the US, and other reform movements in global South, this course explores the understudied relationship between literary activism and social media movements that expose multiple systems of oppression and discrimination. Using a comparative lens of analysis, the course investigates how literature and media illuminate the local incentives and underpinnings of contemporary social movements, and the reasons behind their global rise or regional demise.