Description
[cross-listed with LIT 3403; Social Practice minor] As artists, the subject of death will be found in our work at some point, whether it be in the form of an elegiac response, metaphysical inquiry, political outrage toward mass killing in warfare or meditation on our collective predicament. In this reading-intensive course, students will explore and discuss numerous critical and creative writings on death. Assigned readings will include, but are not limited to, Philippe Ariès’ "Western Attitudes Towards Death from the Middle Ages to the Present,” Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” Don DeLillo’s White Noise, and various poems and short stories that have death as their subject. Students will write two close reading response essays, and produce a final creative project accompanied by a detailed artist statement.