Reading & Composition

“I may be crazy, but it keeps me from going insane.” -Waylon Jennings

This course will examine the nebulous concept of “madness” through a variety of literary forms, periods, and linguistic traditions. What does it mean to be mad? Is madness a state of delusion or psychosis, analogous to or continuous with our contemporary understanding of mental illness? Is it rather a literary device or convention, not bound by medical fact? Is madness about the psychology of an individual, or is it a socially constructed category of existence? Is it possible to define madness when it seems to behave differently, not just from period to period or cultural tradition to cultural tradition, but from author to author?

This course fulfills the university reading and composition requirement. As such, we will be focused on the interrelated skills of close reading and intensive writing. Class discussion will focus on developing and articulating ideas about texts through collaborative analysis; the various writing activities and workshops will introduce new ways of thinking about structure and development.

Selected readings (subject to change):

Jorge Luis Borges, "The Aleph" and "The Zahir"

Vladimir Nabokov, "Symbols and Signs"
Edward Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Ian McEwan, Enduring Love

William Shakespeare, King Lear

Han Kang, The Vegetarian

David Grossman, See Under: Love

Peter Weiss, Marat/Sade

Sylvia Plath, "Lady Lazarus"