Genres of Popular Literature
Instructor: Ildikó Limpár
Email: limparildiko@gmail.com
Week 1 (September 11): Introduction
Week 2 (September 18): Comedy, Parody, and Fairy Fantasy:
 William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream
 Background reading: Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
 Written task: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is structured on the
principle of doubles that contrast each other. List at least 4 of such contrastive
pairs, signaling what contrastive characteristics/values/ideas they represent. (You
may think in term of characters as well as setting). Then choose one pair and
discuss very briefly (half a page) in what ways we can see them as contrasts and
how they contribute to a fuller understanding of the play.
Week 3 ( September 25): The Graphic Novel (and Creating Myth)
 Neil Gaiman: “A Midsummer Night's Dream”
 Presentation topic: Historical facts in Neil Gaiman: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Week 4 (October 2): The Graphic Novel (and Creating Heroes)
 “Fatal Wish” (Batman, issue 430; 1940)
 Written task: Choose a page from the comic book in which the text and visual
content interestingly complete each other. Explain briefly how the panel
arrangement contributes to conveying the story.
 Presentation topic: comic book heroes; (1) Superman (2) Captain America
Week 5 (October 9): The Coming-of-Age Novel as Dark Fantasy / Horror Novella
 Neil Gaiman: Coraline
 Written task: Make a list of scary / weird elements. Choose three and write one
paragraph of each, explaining what makes the component especially scary or weird.
 Presentation topic: Introducing Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Weeks 6 (October 16): Class held by guest lecturer Borbála Bökös from Partium
University, Nagyvárad
Week 7-8 (October 23, 30): AUTUMN BREAK
Week 9 (November 6): Science Fiction (Dystopia and Apocalypse)
 Robert Sheckley: “A Ticket to Tranai”
 Ray Bradbury: “The Last Night of the World”
 Written task: Check the terms utopia and dystopia. Choose two bizarre customs of
planet Tranai and explain briefly in what ways they contribute to making one see
Tranai as Utopia and as Dystopia.
 Presentation topic: Introducing briefly Thomas More's Utopia
Week 10 (November 13): Dystopia and Young Adult Fiction I.
 Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games (Read at least part I-II)
 Written task: Collect 3-3 quotes that highlight the attitude differences between
Capitol people and District 12 people, adding in brackets what quality you think the
quote demonstrates. Then choose one and explain its significance in more detail (in
about half a page).
Week 11 (November 20): The Detective Story (I)
 Edgar Allen Poe: “The Purloined Letter”
 Arthur Conan Doyle: “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire”
 Presentation topic: “the classic vampire” features
Week 12 (November 27): The Detective Story (II)
 Neil Gaiman: “A Study in Emerald”
 Written task: Explain the importance of the theater plays (title, poster text)
mentioned in “A Study in Emerald” in relation to the themes of the short story
 Presentation topic: Cthulhu (Lovecraft's universe)
Week 13 (December 4): Postmodern Rewritings of Myths
 Neil Gaiman: “Snow, Glass, Apples”
 Tanith Lee: “Red as Blood”
 Written task: Choose one component of the original myth in either of the stories
that is changed by the author and explain briefly (in half a page) what effect it has
on the reader.
Week 14 (December 11): Conclusions and evaluation
 (returning your essays with mark and correction)
CLASSWORK:
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Active participation in class (three absences are allowed), reading the pieces to be
discussed thoroughly and coming to class prepared with the texts and your notes.
WRITTEN WORK:
 Handing in two short written tasks and an end term paper. You need to hand in
the short homework assignments at the beginning of the class that they are due as
a typed and printed document. If for any reasons you cannot be present in the class
for which you have written your homework, you may hand it in without negative
consequences on the next occasion you attend the class (but no later than that).
The deadline for the end term paper is week 11, November 20. You need to hand
in the end term paper as a typed and printed document unless you may not be
present in class. In that case, you need to email the paper as an attachment to
limparildiko@gmail.com (use “doc” extension) by 14:15 p.m. on November 20, and
hand in your printed document no later than the class next week. (This will not
count as late submission as long as I have the emailed document sent to me on
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time.) Late submission will result in losing one point from your essay mark. I accept
end term papers no later than 16:00 p.m. on December 3.
The end term paper should be 4-5 pages, double space, 12 pt., Times New
Roman, normal margin of cc. 2 cms. You need to use at least two pieces of
scholarly secondary literature, properly cited. (Preferred style is MLA.) Plagiarism
is not tolerated and results in automatic failure. Do not forget to cite your primary
sources properly, too.
Essay topics: You may choose from the following works as your target of analysis,
focusing on how a specific genre is used by the author:
◦ Coming-of-age novel / fantasy: Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book; J. K.
Rowling: The Harry Potter series (How do fantasy elements support/complete
the theme of coming of age? Limit your paper's focus to few examples and
explore those in more depth.)
◦ Monster/Vampire novel: Bram Stoker: Dracula; Stephanie Meyer: Twilight; Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley: Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (What fears
or desires may be connected to the vampire(s)/monster in the examined text?
What is the role of the supernatural in the novel? How does it reflect on the age
it was written in?)
◦ Myth Retold / Dystopia / Science fiction: Marissa Meyer: Cinder (Are fairy tale
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and dystopia opposing genres? How does a fairy tale work in a dystopian /
science fiction setting? How do various fairy tale components gain a different or
more/less complex meaning due to the transformations?)
Oral presentation: You may volunteer to give a short (8-10 minutes long)
presentation on various topics offered during the semester. This is optional. The
oral presentation may be used to replace one of your short written assignments; but
if you choose to write all both written assignments, the oral presentation will count
as extra work, and thus will help you getting the better mark for this course in case
your achievement is in-between two marks.
Important information on accessing texts: I will create a closed Facebook group
so as I may effectively share the kind of reading material that is harder to access
otherwise. You may also use this group for sharing information and discussing
ideas relating to the seminar, as well as uploading reading materials. Please note
that the graphic novels have “cbz” extension. In order to open the document and be
able to read it, you need to have “cdisplay”, which you may freely download from
here: http://www.cdisplay.me/ . In order to join the Facebook group, you need to
mark me as friend on FB. I will let you in the group. (Then you can “unfriend” me in
case you don't really want to meet me on FB – no offense :-) ).
Marking depends on: short written homework and class work (50%) and end term
paper (50%). Please note that if the long essay does not meet the basic
requirements either because of language quality or because of plagiarism,
you may not receive a passing mark for the course.