Conventional wisdom tells us to turn to psychotherapy or philosophy or religion or history rather than to literature and film for words of wisdom, for insights into the human mind and heart. This course would widen that lens, focusing upon a source of salvation given only marginal attention in contemporary culture: fictional characterization. In particular, this course tests the benefits of analyzing characterization in our age of multimedia, when the person silently printed on the page is also embodied and enacted on radio or screen. In tandem, contemporary literary characterizations might combine forces to "save our lives."

Our primary means of investigating this theory to gain insightful, critical revelations will be in-depth, multi-genre studies of literary characterization in print and in audio/film adaptations of fictional narratives.

Some central questions for research and discussion over the course of the quarter:

? What constitutes “character” in life and in literature, both in the past but particularly in the present?

? Are we in contemporary society more or less likely to flatten existing traits of “character” into “caricature,” shaped as we can be by conventional cultural norms and relying on vague or conflicting notions about what it means to “have character”?

? Can the study of literary characterizations broaden and deepen our study of actual people while enriching our own moral and mental selves--while saving our lives?

? Do audio and visual adaptations flesh out character profiles, fusing words in print with resonant-voiced actors so as to allow readers richer insights into literary characters and conflicts?

? Should we adjust our aesthetic values, viewing multimedia and traditional print literatures as literary complements rather than competitors as a means of enhancing our own lives, our own characters?





Course work includes a willingness to challenge one's current aesthetic values about film and literature; weekly engaged, in-person critical discussion; online research of literary and film terms via UW databases; critical written analysis of stories and films, as well as published reviews and critiques of those stories and films; a midterm and final examination. Course texts to purchase at the University Bookstore include "The Reader"; I will add stories and critical film texts to this list according to availability and cost, so please attend class before you purchase the books.

I will also make available short stories that cannot be found online.

Film adaptations will be screened in class for course discussion, and class attendance for these screenings is required. For review of films for the midterms and final examinations, you will be expected to rent or otherwise check out from libraries these same films. Again, please attend class before buying any books, as DVD availability might affect the textbook orders before the first day of the quarter.