Prose Fiction
and the Invention of the Self
Embedded Files
Friday and Robinson CrusoeFriday (left) and Robinson Crusoe, lithograph by Currier & Ives, c. 1874
Literature is an important means by which we define and understand ourselves. Literary genres and styles change over time. These changing modes of literary expression provide various articulations of human subjectivity. What it meant to be a self in ancient Athens is not the same as what it means to be a self in 21st century Canada, and these varying historical modes of self are expressed in varying modes of literature.
Through our reading of several works of prose fiction, we will explore this intersection of “modes of self” and “modes of literature”. We will begin with classical works of prose wherein the self finds its ultimate meaning in relation to a higher, all-encompassing order, a realm that transcends the individual philosophically or theologically. We will then read works of prose fiction that are representative of the modern experience of the self as a sovereign individual.
Jan 14: The Self and Cosmic / Philosophical Order: Plato
Required Reading: (on-line)
- Homer, The Odyssey (ca 750 BCE)
Book XI.333-540 (Odysseus' Descent to the Underworld)
- Plato, The Republic (375 BCE)
Book VII (514a-521c) (Allegory of the Cave)
Lecture Outline:
- Plato: The Ancient Greek Conception of the Self and The Republic
Jan 21: The Self and Divine Order: The New Testament
Required Reading (on-line):
- The New Testament (Excerpts) (ca 50 - 100 CE)
Lecture Outline:
- The New Testament and the Christian-Medieval Conception of the Self
Jan 28: The Self and Divine Order: St. Augustine
Required Reading (0n-line):
- Confessions (401 CE)
- from Book II (the Pear Tree)
- from Book VIII (the Conversion)
Lecture Outline:
- St. Augustine: The Christian-Medieval Conception of the Self and the Confessions
Feb 4: Locke and the First Wave of Modernity
Required Reading:
- John Locke, from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) (on-line)
Suggested Reading (On-line):
- Leo Strauss, "The Three Waves of Modernity" (1975)
Lecture Outline:
Feb 11: Daniel Defoe: The Thinking Self
Required Reading:
- Robinson Crusoe (1719) (pages 110 - 220)
Lecture Outline:
Feb 25: Rousseau and The Second Wave of Modernity
Required Reading (on-line):
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality (Preface) (1755)
Lecture Outline:
March 4: Emily Bronte: The Feeling Self
Required Reading:
- Wuthering Heights (1847) (Chapters 1 - 17)
Lecture Outline:
March 18: Nietzsche and the Third Wave of Modernity
Required Reading (on-line):
- Nietzsche, Selections (1882-88)
Lecture Outline:
March 25: William Faulkner: The Fragmented Self
Required Reading:
- As I Lay Dying, Sections 1 - 32; pages 3 - 78
Lecture Outline:
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse