Interlocution -- The Act of Talking In and Through Literature
Readings:
Rosenwasser & Stephen, Writing Analytically
Augustine’s Confessions (excerpts)
Montaigne’s Essays (excerpts)
William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream
Victor Hugo’s The Last Day of a Condemned Man
Charles Baudelaire’s “To the Reader” & other poems
Albert Camus’s The Fall
Eugène Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano
Assia Djebar’s Algerian White (excerpts)
Svetlana Alexievich’s Voices from Chernobyl (excerpts)
Course Description:
Literary expression provides multiple modalities of speaking and being spoken to, from the obvious monologue and dialogue to the asides of clever dramatic characters and impassioned addresses of politically engaged authors. Interlocution also implies the presence of both a voice and of an audience or listener, and, as we will see, there are many forms that both these entities can take.
The texts that we will be reading not only have interlocution as a common theme, but furthermore highlight multiple manifestations of it — across genres, forms, styles, and other narrative devices. Looking at the varying methods and degrees to which talking is employed by authors across different periods, we will see how it informs or defines a particular genre or style; how it functions within it; as well as how it can become problematic in instances where communication is abused, subverted, or rendered impossible.
Additional information:
French R1A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition Requirement. Classes are conducted in ENGLISH.