FYS 13 Myth, Magic, Mystery: Writing Enchantment in the Modern World
Critical discussion of modern life often centers around the idea of its being disenchanted, with the view that the growing rationalization of enlightenment has replaced the magic and mystery that once appeared to underwrite the world. This semester we will seek to understand this concept of disenchantment, from the way it structures our view of the world, to the way different schools of thought have answered it. To do so, we will read some of the seminal writings on the theory, as well as look at the spectrum of literary responses it has generated, with particular attention to the various efforts to infuse or rediscover in the world the sort of awe, surprise, and wonder that such a rational approach would appear to blot out. Our reading will move through diverse genres, such as romanticism, gothic, mystery, mythology, and science fiction, in the work of authors from William Wordsworth and Mary Shelley to Jorge Luis Borges and Derek Walcott.