Reading Literature: The Poetics of Memory
According to ancient myth, Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, was mother of the muses. That indicates how important memory is to literature and the reading of literature. In what ways do different literary genres involve memory? How do texts remember each other? What is the relationship between memory and interpretation, and how does memory contribute to the building of interpretive communities? How does it shape poetic and narrative form, structure, syntax, and impersonation, and what part does it play in literary representations of gender, race, and class? 3 hrs. lect./disc.