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Course Description

Summary

Alienation, deprivation, solitude, and starting anew may be prevalent ideas in contemporary dystopian storytelling, but the physical and psychological circumstances of running aground, along with its rewards, have long been fertile ground for writers. The course would reflect on the precursors of such narratives, beginning in the eighteenth century with Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels. The early literature of being stranded would lead to more contemporary work by Muriel Spark, J. M. Coetzee, J. G. Ballard, the poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Derek Walcott, and the movie, “The Martian.” The course would ask students to consider the evolution of ideas about exile from colonialism to more modern concepts of human alienation; and to study the various personas of the castaway, among them adventurer, inventor, outcast, satirical character, seer, metaphorical figure.