L399 4920 JUNIOR HONORS SEMINAR
Judith Anderson

2:30p-3:45p TR (15 students) 3 cr. IW.

TOPIC: “Allegory and Metaphor: Interpreting Texts and Making Meaning”

For some theoretical readers of literature, all meaning is allegorical or metaphorical; for others, metaphor and allegory (a special kind of metaphor) are only a certain kind of meaning. What I’d like to do is to look at some of these ideas about meaning and at texts that test and modify them. My list is still tentative (and you are welcome to lobby in my office hours this fall), but I’m thinking of Spenser, Shakespeare, Ionesco, and Beckett (twentieth- century absurdist dramatists), and our contemporary, Paul Auster. Short stories by Hawthorne are also likely, and even a tale by Chaucer is a possibility. I’m also thinking about Lewis Carroll, Calvino, and Borges. Both in theory and in practice, the subject of this seminar is everywhere, and it might even be what defines us as civilized human beings.

Above section requires approval from the Director of English Honors, Judith Brown, jcb@indiana.edu. Obtain Authorization from BH 442.