Doppelgangers have haunted, entertained, and educated readers in texts dating as far back as Plato’s Republic. A psycho-sexual malady, supernatural visitation, harbinger of sin, personification of fear, alter ego, or reflection of an alternate world, the doppelganger has remained a popular motif in world literature. In ENGL 242 we will consider novels, short stories, plays, film, and philosophy dating from 380 BC to the 21st century from Mexico, Germany, Greece, Russia, Italy, England, Japan, America, and Argentina which take up the doppelganger motif in several contexts, including: colonialism, race, sexuality, and gender.

Close reading practices, argumentation skills, exploratory discussion, and academic-level composition will aide students in their development as interesting writers, critical thinkers, and epicureans who glut themselves on the multifarious pleasures of literature. “Doppelgangers in Fiction” is a general literature course for all majors that satisfies the writing requirement (W) at the University of Washington. To pass the course, students must compose 10-15 pages of revised writing.

Book list:

• Calvino, Italo. The Nonexistent Knight and the Cloven Viscount. Trans. Archibald Colquhoun. New York: Harvest, 1962. Print. [ISBN-10: 0156659751; ISBN-13: 978-0156659758]

• Fuentes, Carlos. Aura. Trans. Lysander Kemp. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1986. Print. [ISBN-10: 0374511713/ISBN-13: 978-0374511715]

• Larsen, Nella. The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and the Stories. Ed. Charles Larsen. New York: Anchor, 2001. Print. [ISBN-10: 0385721005; ISBN-13: 978-0385721004]

• Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Plume, 1970. Print. [ISBN 0-452-27305-6]

• Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Ed. Stanley Wells. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print. [ISBN-10: 0199536090; ISBN-13: 978-0199536092]

• Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Ed. Katherine Linehan. New York: Norton, 2003. Print. [ISBN-10: 0393974650; ISBN-13: 978-0393974652]