LI411 - Topics in European Literature: Games, Theory and Literature (4 Credits)

LI411 - Topics in European Literature: Games, Theory and Literature (4 Credits) Games, gaming, gambling and play in every possible form, including video games, permeate our culture. This class will explore the theme of games in literature and in theory in a variety of genres. Drawing on the theory of games in literature and culture, such as the seminal works "Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture" (1955) by Johan Huizinga, or Roger Caillois's "Man, Play, and Games" (1961) and R. Rawdon Wilson's "Palamedes' Shadow: Explorations in Play, Game, and Narrative Theory" (1990), students not only will acquire new critical tools of reading literature, but also they will grasp a better understanding of how games lie at the heart of the art of fiction and how they define our perception of culture. Students will read some landmarks of literature such as J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Fellowship of the Ring", poems by Keats, Tennyson, Browning, Dostoyevsky's "The Gambler", Samuel Beckett's "The End Game" and Julio Cortazar's "Hopscotch" among others. Instructor: Vassiliki Rapti