Bone up on your Norse mythology and grab your best wand.
A Fantasy Literature course will make its debut in fall 2012. The class will focus on the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, and J.K. Rowling, who created the Harry Potter book series.
Dr. John Glass, Associate Professor of English and Modern Foreign Language, will be teaching the class.
This is the first Fantasy Literature course that has ever been offered by UTM.
The class will focus on the aspects of what makes good fantasy literature, elements of allegory and comparisons between the works.
Glass offers an explanation for the high quality of Tolkien’s and Lewis’s work.
“What makes Tolkien and Lewis really good is that they know their literature. Because they read good literature, they work to become good writers,” said Glass.
The course will also focus on the biographies of Tolkien and Lewis, their writing goals and what elements make their works so good. Glass explained how their personal backgrounds led to well-rounded pieces of writing.
“Tolkien is a great linguist and Lewis is a really great Renaissance scholar. They know all the stories behind the stories,” said Glass.
While the exact syllabus has yet to be ironed out, a great deal of reading and writing will be required of students.
“Expect a lot of reading. They should expect that their buddies in the class will keep them on their toes.”
Tentatively, there will be two research papers.
“The way I’m thinking of it, it will be a pretty standard upper-division course with a mid-term and final and two papers,” Glass said.
The only prerequisite for the class is English 112. Prior reading of the works of the authors is not required, but certainly welcome. For those students interested in enrolling in the course, be aware there are only 20 slots available.
“People who are going to take this and want to take this already know a fair amount. I expect there will be a lot of talking and people in the class should expect to enter into a lot of discussion,” Glass said.
