FYW-1160 Alien Visions

In this writing seminar we will explore literary, visual, and critical texts that offer varying representations of “the alien.” For a number of writers and artists, the notion of the “alien” – the foreign or the strange – solicits a fascinating, almost troublingly idealized response. Think, for instance, of films and texts that longingly look to close encounters or contact with the unimaginably different. At other times – perhaps more often – the idea of the alien provokes a frightened, even violent, response. We will examine these varying responses to the alien from a number of perspectives (psychological, social, cultural) and in a wide range of works. 4 credits.