- SLC 294
- Session C
- Immersion
Why do some stories survive for centuries, constantly finding new life in different times, places, and formats? This course explores how stories travel, adapt, and survive across cultures and historical moments, introducing students to the fundamentals of cultural analysis through the lens of narrative transformation. By examining how tales are retold, reimagined, and repurposed, students will gain tools to recognize the cultural, social, and political forces that shape literary production and reception. Emphasizing comparative perspectives and theoretical discussion, the course invites students to consider questions of adaptation, translation, and circulation, while drawing on their own linguistic and cultural backgrounds. As we trace these categories, we will continually return to the broader questions of the course¿how literature functions as a form of time travel and how narratives negotiate past, present, and future. At the same time, each cluster of texts will open up distinct themes for discussion, whether the power of storytelling to suspend time, the reimagining of myth across centuries, or the ways science and history reshape our imagination of human futures. All course materials and instruction are in English, though students are encouraged to engage with texts and traditions in the languages of their focus.