Course Syllabus

The Blue Humanities: Literature, Film and Science of the Sea

Syllabus Barbara Krystal Comparative Literature 240A Summer 2021.docx 

The ocean has been cast as “alien” to the human, yet it is the origin of all life and represented in  image, song and narrative. Indeed, water origin myths are prevalent in diverse cultures around the world. We will study the significance of the sea in fictional and factual accounts, incorporating both science and humanities, to work through the many ways the sea is represented as a “heterotopic” space to explore identity, a laboratory, a place to escape, and a place of unknown mystery. 

Objective:

Identify themes in literature of the sea to understand how the sea is both real (physical) and metaphorical (imaginative).

Connect narratives to particular historical moments.

Examine how science, literature, and film meet at the crossroads of the ocean, drawing from each other to explore, represent, and narrate the sea.

Evaluate the social history of the sea and exploration

Theory:

“The Uncanny” by Sigmund Freud

“Monster Theory” by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

“Maritime Culture” by Helen Rozwadowski

“Undersea” by Rachel Carson

Texts/Film:

Under the Sea Wind by Rachel Carson

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

“Manuscript Found in a Bottle” by Edgar Allan Poe

The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Text and Film)

Assignments:

Prepared Daily Questions for Class Meeting

Weekly blog on readings (Think/Write Micro-Essays Responses)

Specific prompt on one text (Three short papers 2-3 pp.)

Specific Prompt for Comparative Essay (Two Long papers 5- 7 pp.)