SF-H1163 Spellbound! Witches, Wizards and Spirits In American Literature
Since the beginning of time and across cultures, people have been interested in the supernatural, the paranormal, and the otherworldly. Often, these phenomena have appeared in the form of witches, wizards, and spirits, whether good or bad, wicked or wonderful. Women who have not fulfilled traditional gender roles have historically been cast as witches or, to use Shakespeare's phrase, as "weird sisters", or, in Donald Trump'S recent election parlance, as "nasty women." Men in turn appear as wizards, usually more positively than female witches. Men and women alike also can take the form of spirits or ghosts; even houses can be possessed. What lies beneath the great fascination with the supernatural and the paranormal, with the haunted, the possessed, and the spellbinding? What accounts for the different manifestations of spirits? This course takes students on a tour of witches, wizards, and otherworldly spirits throughout American literary history. Tropes of the witch and the wizard have appeared in literature from the time of Shakespeare (see Macbeth) to the contemporary best-selling Harry Potter series, and hits every century in between, such as in Anne Hutchinson's Puritan accounts form the 1600s, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe's in the 1800s, The Wizard of Oz in 1900, and John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick in the 20th century. The course offers readings across genre lines-poetry, fiction, non-fiction, young adult fantasy, and drama-and includes excerpts from film and television shows based upon wizards and witches (such as Bewitched, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Vampire Diaries). The course may include a field trip to Salem, MA, as well as possibly the opportunity to see Wicked at the Boston Opera House (if it is renewed through the fall season, 2017).
Prerequisite
CAS Honors Students Only