ENGL269

Creative & Performing Arts (CP)

(Writing Fantasy: Fantasy Worlds and How to Build Them.) Fantastic fiction such as the Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland allows readers the illusion of escape. These works carry us on journeys to lands of myth and magic, stretching our imaginations and challenging us to reimagine the very foundations of our own world. Though fantasy embraces adventurous escapism, it is also a genre dependent on intricate world-building, rule-making, and a careful consideration of cultural systems and political hierarchies. In this writing and reading-intensive course, students seek to view our own world through the looking glass as they construct their own long-form fantasy project. Course reading may include classic and contemporary fantasy by such authors as Angela Carter, Lewis Carroll, H. Rider Haggard, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, Nnedi Okorafor, and Margaret Atwood. No prerequisites.