Catalog Search Results
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 8
Language
English
Description
Many utopian stories were concerned with the quest to determine where women belong in an ideal society. Charlotte Perkins Gilman went a step further by creating a utopian society populated solely by women: Herland. See how questions of gender equality are reframed without the reference of an opposite gender and the impact of Gilman's vision on the feminist movements of the later 20th century.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 12
Language
English
Description
Often confused with "the detective," the private eye is different from the classical version of the detective in terms of motivation, methods, lifestyle, and beliefs, and is the major contribution of American hard-boiled fiction. Comparing a vast selection of stories across history, you'll isolate the differences between the two crime-solvers and understand the different impacts each had.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 6
Language
English
Description
Can utopian literature have real-world impact? This question is integral to understanding the significance of Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy. Witness the ways Bellamy's socialist vision of the future had genuine influence on the social activists of Gilded Age America. Professor Bedore also introduces the idea of "euchronia."
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 23
Language
English
Description
Professor Schmid uncovers the understudied world of Native American writers and characters. He reveals how the context of Native American settings has changed many of the classic elements you find in a traditional whodunit. You'll learn why tribal police, jurisdictional limitations, and cultural conflicts all add new levels of complexity and suspense to the standard mystery story.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 25
Language
English
Description
The last decade has seen Nordic noir enter the American mainstream, though they have been popular in their homeland for half a century. Professor Schmid takes you through this progressive form of mystery and suspense fiction, showing how many examples of Nordic noir provided a socially conscious look at powerful themes such as complicity with the Nazis, racism, misogyny, corruption, and class.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 15
Language
English
Description
The feminist utopian movement began in the 1970s and, despite the name, doesn't feature very many traditional "utopias." There is a guarded optimism represented in these novels that dealt with real-world issues of discrimination by creating societies portrayed as classless, crimeless, government-free, but laden with satire.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 11
Language
English
Description
Perhaps the most famous of the three defining dystopias of the early 20th century, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four has created a vocabulary of ideas we continue to use in political discourse today. Trace the ways Orwell uses language to shape his dystopic vision and the way it both reflects and distorts reality.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 30
Language
English
Description
Start this section by comparing and contrasting mystery and suspense genres through the lens of realism and how spy and conspiracy suspense novels often take realism one step further by incorporating real world geopolitical and global concerns to enhance verisimilitude. You'll explore the most famous spy and conspiracy novels, examining the real-life political circumstances of each period.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 12
Language
English
Description
Published during the wave of anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s, John Wyndham's The Chrysalids is one of the earliest examples of Young Adult dystopian fiction and a potent examination of the "fear of the Other" in dystopian storytelling. See how it set the stage for the extremely rich strain of dystopian literature aimed at younger readers that dominates bestseller lists in the 21st century.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 14
Language
English
Description
Delve deeper into the central question of free will and how utopian studies respond emotionally and intellectually by examining A Clockwork Orange. Discover the literature that influenced it and was impacted by it, while exploring the nuanced differences between reading and watching this pivotal work. Burgess looks at extreme situations to pose questions we continue to struggle with.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 5
Language
English
Description
Shift your attention from rural American utopias to explore from a different perspective: Victorian anxieties about technology and the vanishing frontier. Analyze these fears in Samuel Butler's Erewhon, which utilizes utopian conventions and heavy doses of satire to critique religion, health, education, and humanity's increasingly complex relationship to machines.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 16
Language
English
Description
Stepping back to once again take a multicultural look at mystery and suspense, Professor Schmid examines the world of Hispanic writers and characters. Examine over a century of work and authors including Rolando Hinojosa and Héctor Tobar in order to recognize common suspense story elements, and identify various interpretations of mystery subgenres including American hard-boiled crime fiction.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 4
Language
English
Description
The 19th century was the "century of utopia" and also marked the transition from utopian to dystopian stories in popular literature. Look at Americans who attempted to build real-world utopias, and in turn examine the work of two authors who reacted to the American attempt at perfect societies. Consider the ways that optimistic, utopian thinking is integral to the idea of the American Dream.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 3
Language
English
Description
Continue your exploration of the early history of utopia by examining notable works produced during the two centuries following More's initial work. Compare and contrast the ideas of "classical utopia" and "critical utopia" and understand how laughter was an integral part of 18th-century utopian storytelling, focusing on Voltaire's Candide and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 22
Language
English
Description
The shift of the role of police from a passive, outside observer to an active participant and even protagonists, came about with the emergence of the police procedural. Journeying from Maigret to Dragnet, and exploring authors such as Georges Simenon and Chester Himes, you'll see how the police procedural started as an attempt to introduce realism and resulted in redefining the genre.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 19
Language
English
Description
Examine the many ways Butler challenges boundaries - not only of genres, but also of human identity. See how she tackles the questions that are important in defining utopian futures: what does it mean to be human? Is utopia always an unresolvable paradox? And if it is, does it have to be? How much can we change and still be considered human? And really, does being human even matter?
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 10
Language
English
Description
Revisit the role of the detective through the lens of the Golden Age of fiction, including the hard-boiled crime fiction of the early 20th century. Examine how social influences such as prohibition and the mafia impacted this subgenre. Explore how the element of theater and empowering the audience to solve the mysteries made a lasting mark on the role of the protagonist in crime novels.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 7
Language
English
Description
Unlike the utopian tradition, science fiction doesn't have a single text that defines its origin. It does, however, have several figures credited with its creation. One such figure is H.G. Wells, who not only helped in the creation of science fiction as a genre, but was also deeply devoted to utopian thinking. Ultimately, his work brought utopia and science fiction together in the same space.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 26
Language
English
Description
Take an international journey starting in early 20th century Japan with Taro Hirai to modern Japanese suspense writers such as Natsuo Kirino. Then, travel to Africa and discover the lesser-known Darko Dawson series. In Latin America, you'll look in depth at two influential contributors: Leonardo Padura Fuentes and Paco Ignacio Taibo II.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 9
Language
English
Description
Shift your attention from utopian blueprints to the cautionary tales of dystopia and explore the origins of the genre and the complex ways it functions in literature. Examine the period between World War I and World War II that produced the "Big Three Dystopias" and dive into the earliest of them, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.
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