“But in the real world….!:” this familiar phrase makes reality seem a simple concept, doesn’t it? But what if the real world is only an imaginative construct, a socially induced fantasy? This course focuses upon three narrative modes that test the assumptions underlying dominant perceptions of the “real” by incorporating elements of fantasy: Gothic fiction, science fiction, and magic realism. While the dominant accent will be upon the “speculative” fictions, attention will also be given to the rise of “realism” as a self-conscious movement in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, as well as to theoretical approaches to the concepts of realism and fantasy.

Texts may include Stevenson's Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde and William Gibson's Neuromancer.

Written assignments totalling 4,000 words: 100%

Any two English courses