ARTS624/ARTS624W/HUMS624/HUMS624W Narrative Fiction and Film Joseph Fitzpatrick June 27 - July 29, 2016 Schedule: Mondays & Wednesdays, 6:30pm-9:30pm Location: Boger Hall 115 (41 Wyllys Ave.) Information subject to change; syllabi and book lists are provided for general reference only. This seminar offers 3 credits, and enrollment is limited to 18 students. This course is open to auditors. This course is offered with a Foundational Course Option (W).

What do we do when we tell stories? How do we make sense of the stories we hear? How do the stories we have heard determine the stories we tell? This course will pose and explore these questions through three bodies of texts: literary narratives (predominately 19th and 20th century fiction); popular films; and narrative theory (from the French, Russian, and American traditions). We will focus on two stories or narrative scaffolds that appear over and over in the stories we read and see and that provide particular challenges for their narrators and audiences. The first of these is the story of star-crossed lovers (e.g. Romeo and Juliet), a story that is fated always to end in death; the second is the detective / mystery / crime narrative that begins from a death and moves toward a resolution that we cannot predict (e.g. Sherlock Holmes mysteries). Drawing from a range of literary theorists who have tried to understand the workings of narrative across media, we will trace these two recurring stories as they are re-told (and intertwined) in literary and popular texts.

The foundational option of this course (ARTS624W or HUMS624W) provides an additional level of guidance, support, and feedback. Students enrolling in the first term of study, as degree candidates or with the intention to apply for candidacy, are encouraged to take advantage of this option. Foundation courses focus sharply on the development of the necessary tools and skills required by graduate level research and writing. Students enrolled in the foundational course option will have additional writing assignments and will receive more extensive detailed feedback on their work from the instructor.