Course aim:  the course focuses on Thomas Harris’s pathbreaking and absorbing novel The Silence of the Lambs.  We will also focus on finding “ways in” to a text that allow us to see it from many possible angles.  Literature is always filled with multiple meanings, and it can be illuminating to see and reframe a text in different ways. The goal of the course is to introduce readers to enjoy this controversial, absorbing, disturbing novel, and to hone readers’ ability to enjoy reading deeply into any text. 

What we’ll do:  Of course, plot comes first in a detective fiction - and solving the mystery is the first goal. The novel is usually a quick read, I hope everyone can finish it by week 3 at the latest. Then we will play with “reading” The Silence of the Lambs in three ways:  as a novel of education (Bildungsroman); as a reshaping of the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter; and as a subtle questioning of our assumptions about the “use” of sentient beings.