Why did that movie make you cry? Why does that novel make you feel like you can do anything? Why do you always feel better after listening to that stand-up comic? How is it possible that you fell in love with that fictional character? This class will explore how story impacts our brains by taking an unconventional approach to the study of literature and psychology. We will approach stories as tools that do work on our brains and design hypothetical experiments that may challenge the limitations of current technology. Students will select new stories to read, chronicle their own unique reading experiences, research how the emotions they experience have been studied, and design new experiments to study the complex and fascinating relationship between story and the brain.
Why did that movie make you cry? Why does that novel make you feel like you can do anything? Why do you always feel better after listening to that stand-up comic? How is it possible that you fell in love with that fictional character? This class will explore how story impacts our brains by taking an unconventional approach to the study of literature and psychology. We will approach stories as tools that do work on our brains and design hypothetical experiments that may challenge the limitations of current technology. Students will select new stories to read, chronicle their own unique reading experiences, research how the emotions they experience have been studied, and design new experiments to study the complex and fascinating relationship between story and the brain.
How do we decide what creative works to engage with? How did people discover what they loved before the Internet? How often is an algorithm influencing what we choose to watch, read, or listen to? What is the relationship between recommender systems and human reviewers? Are social media influencers critics?
How do we decide what creative works to engage with? How did people discover what they loved before the Internet? How often is an algorithm influencing what we choose to watch, read, or listen to? What is the relationship between recommender systems and human reviewers? Are social media influencers critics?
This course is meant to be “a study of important British writers from the Romantic era to the present,” but I propose that we approach it as an opportunity to consider the meaning of “modern” as a classification of writing. Two definitions of modern from the OED: “being in existence at this time” and “characterized by a departure from or a repudiation of accepted or traditional styles and values” suggest that the creative works considered modern are likely always changing. This is not to be confused with capital “M” movements, groups, or styles like Modernist literature or Modern art. These are names given to categories created by scholars and critics making sense of creative works (often after the fact). I’ve learned that Modernist literature can feel far from modern to students in 2024. We’re going to keep this contradiction in the back of our minds this semester as we focus on literary innovations that emerged in the last two hundred or so years.
This course is meant to be “a study of important British writers from the Romantic era to the present,” but I propose that we approach it as an opportunity to consider the meaning of “modern” as a classification of writing. Two definitions of modern from the OED: “being in existence at this time” and “characterized by a departure from or a repudiation of accepted or traditional styles and values” suggest that the creative works considered modern are likely always changing. This is not to be confused with capital “M” movements, groups, or styles like Modernist literature or Modern art. These are names given to categories created by scholars and critics making sense of creative works (often after the fact). I’ve learned that Modernist literature can feel far from modern to students in 2024. We’re going to keep this contradiction in the back of our minds this semester as we focus on literary innovations that emerged in the last two hundred or so years.
This course is designed to help you turn observations and ideas into research projects that incorporate methodologies from multiple disciplines. My goal is to help you develop and hone skills this semester that you can use in university courses and in your life beyond the university, whether that be through hobbies or professional pursuits. I’m going to guide you by sharing interdisciplinary projects that I’m currently working on and ask you to chronicle your experiences and—potentially—share them with future students of this course. The first step is to decide what you’re interested in pursuing, and we’ll do this by thinking about the communities you belong to and the challenges impacting those communities.
This course is designed to help you turn observations and ideas into research projects that incorporate methodologies from multiple disciplines. My goal is to help you develop and hone skills this semester that you can use in university courses and in your life beyond the university, whether that be through hobbies or professional pursuits. I’m going to guide you by sharing interdisciplinary projects that I’m currently working on and ask you to chronicle your experiences and—potentially—share them with future students of this course. The first step is to decide what you’re interested in pursuing, and we’ll do this by thinking about the communities you belong to and the challenges impacting those communities.