This course seeks to help students develop a critical approach to fiction, travel writing, and film by problematizing the concept of fiction itself. This means asking questions about what constitutes fiction as opposed to nonfiction. What does fiction encompass and what does it exclude? Are the lines between fiction and nonfiction always clearly identifiable or do they sometimes blur?
Through close reading and analysis, students will learn to explore texts employing a particular focus/ theoretical framework to examine how texts, as cultural productions, actively contest, negotiate, and/or perpetuate (rather than simply passively represent) issues of class, gender, race, sexuality, national identity, and empire at particular historical moments.
We will look at British and French travel writing on 19th century Egypt, two 19th century “sensation” novels, a 20th century postcolonial novel, and a film. Texts include Gustave Flaubert, Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour (1849); Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (1859); Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897); Ahdaf Soueif, The Map of Love (1999), and a course package of historical/ theoretical readings.
Course requirements include regular attendance, a demanding reading schedule, quizzes, team presentations, active in-class participation, and participation on Go-post. To fulfill the W requirement: you must write and revise 2 short papers (each two pages long) and one final 6-8 page-paper. Total amount of (revised) writing: 10-12 pages.

Texts:

• Gustave Flaubert. Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour. 1849. [978014043582-5]
• Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White. 1859. [978019953563-7]
• Bram Stoker. Dracula. 1897. [978009951122-9]
• Ahdaf Soueif. The Map of Love. 1999. [978141771111-6]
• ? A course package.