LIT 2010 – Spring 2027 – Albergo

This course will explore how works of fiction from the Western canon and beyond engage with personal and communal memory and examine how narrative fiction itself contributes to processes of collective memory production. As memory scholar Astrid Erll writes, "Fictions, both novelistic and filmic, possess the potential to generate and mold images of the past which will often be retained by entire generations" (389). In this course, we will delve into fiction as both a "memory-making medium" (Erll 389) and a vehicle for representing how communities contend with and make meaning of the past, and as a result, the present. With a central focus on literature from the twentieth century to the present, we will consider how memory contributes to shaping individual and collective identity and exposes the ongoing resonances of the past in the present.

In attending to the various manifestations of memory in a selection of literary works, we will explore an array of distinct narrative forms, styles, and movements, and identify and analyze features of fiction such as plot, point of view, theme, symbolism, and character. Students in the course will have numerous opportunities to practice critical interpretation and written analysis of works of fiction. This course fulfills the State-Mandated Writing (W) credit.