LIT 130 Magic and Monsters: Past Legends, Imagined Futures
3 hours
“Magic and Monsters” explores what past myths/legends tell us about our present times and imagined futures as much as they do about the period they come from. We consider how the dragons, witches, curses, and giants that threaten communities from outside reveal the internal belief systems of those same communities. We investigate the relationship between those communities and the heroes/heroines who save them. Turning to the present, we ask how such stories help us to imagine alternative realities and possibilities by reading the myths alongside their modern re-creations in contemporary magic realism, Afrofuturism, and speculative fiction.
Prerequisite
None
Notes
This course satisfies the John Jay College Option: Learning from the Past area of the Gen Ed Program
(was moved from Flexible Core: Individual and Society).