This course examines novels and stories whose basic reality is familiar up until the introduction of a magical element. The magic can take the form of a demon, a talisman, a physical transformation, a miraculous transition in space or time, etc. The appearance of a second plane of existence calls into question all assumptions about what we are accustomed to calling reality.

Readings will be drawn from the works of following authors: Jorge Luis Borges, Mikhail Bulgakov, Italo Calvino, Julio Cortázar, Laura Esquivel, Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, Gabriel García Márquez, Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Vladimir Nabokov, Orhan Pamuk, Franz Kafka, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 40

Prerequisites: None

Instructor: Weiner

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: