This Spring 2014, Mythgard Institute invites you to join old friends Dr. Amy H. Sturgis and Dr. Corey Olsen – as well as a new, visiting professor, Dr. Dimitra Fimi for three epic courses. Understand the history and impact of Gothic literature, meet the mind behind Chaucer’s works and discover what it means to be Celtic in this semester’s offerings.
Learn what you’ll love about each of the new courses by reading summaries below or click through to get more in depth:
THE GOTHIC TRADITION
The Gothic literary tradition began in the mid-eighteenth century in Europe and lives on in various forms across the globe through contemporary fiction, poetry, art, music, film, and television. Mad scientists, blasted heaths, abandoned ruins, elusive ghosts, charming vampires, and even little green men people its stories. With ingredients such as a highly developed sense of atmosphere, extreme emotions including fear and awe, and emphases on the mysterious….
CHAUCER: VISIONS OF LOVE
This class is the first semester in a two-part survey of Chaucer’s major works. In this first semester, we will study the works with which Chaucer established his reputation in his time: his early dream vision poems and his greatest completed work: Troilus and Criseyde. In the second semester, we will study The Canterbury Tales. In this first semester, we will focus on immersing ourselves in Chaucer’s language….
CELTIC MYTH IN CHILDREN’S FANTASY
The medieval literature of Ireland and Wales is thought to have saved for posterity the vestiges of what would have been ancient ‘Celtic’ mythology. Tales of heroes, otherworld voyages, transformation and magic have fascinated folklorists and antiquarians since the rediscovery of Celtic texts in the 19th century, and have inspired writers of fantasy literature from Victorian times to today….