A Portrait of the Artist As...

Protagonists of great literary works in the tradition of the Künstlerroman (artist's novel) are typically young men--from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister to Joyce's Stephen Dedalus and beyond. Countless readers and writers have seen in those characters possible models for self-fashioning in art and life. This course focuses on works of literary fiction in which the aspiring artist is not a young man, even sometimes not a human being. Reading and discussing texts that challenge our assumptions about individuality, creativity, and humanity at large, we will explore how ideas about art can matter to how we live.