English: The Literary Cannibal

Advanced study in literary genres, forms, and themes. Representative topics: Noir in Fiction and Film; Great American Race Novel; Post-Apocalyptic Fiction. May be repeated for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years. Prerequisites: ENGL 1500, ENGL 2000; English major, Secondary Education with a concentration in English, or English minor; minimum Junior standing.

Synchronous online

The cannibal has long been an object of fascination upon which we project our ideas about what it means to be human. This senior seminar will examine the figure of the cannibal in literature from the 19th-century imperialist novel to the 21st-century post-apocalyptic dystopia. In literature, cannibalism has served as an allegory for evil, an allegation used to deny the humanity of the other, and as a means of critiquing social and economic relationships. In this course, we will read fiction about cannibalism in order to consider how our culture has used cannibalism to make claims about the self and other, and to explore race, economics, and sexuality. Readings will include, _American Psycho_, _The Road_, _Tender is the Flesh_, and other fiction.