Online Seminar: "Fluid Boundaries: Gender and the Freedom of Movement in American Literature"

International Seminar: "Fluid Boundaries: Gender and the Freedom of Movement in American Literature"
24/10/2021 - 30/01/2022

GIRES, the Global Institute for Research, Education & Scholarship is proud to introduce a series of short seminars dedicated to literature.

The seminars are dedicated to dissecting together the main themes, background and plot lines of core novels in the taught undergrad curriculum. Dr. Akroyd aims to guide you through the maze of iconic novels of American literature, help you explore their structure and hidden meanings. Together will place the novel in their historical context while she will explain how you could elaborate information and semantics existing in the soul of a novel.

The Program

Novel 1 (Sunday- October 24,2021)
THE SPY by James Fenimore Cooper
The trickster archetype and memories of witch-trials.

Novel 2 (Sunday- October 31, 2021)
ISRAEL POTTER by Herman Melville
The concept of bare life and the commodification of the male body in the American Revolution.

Novel 3 (Sunday- November 7, 2021)
RARA AVIS by John Randolph of Roanoke
Gender fluidity, disability and echoes of the Two-Spirit concept.

Novel 4 (Sunday- November 28, 2021)
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Mark Twain
Cross-dressing and Outcasts. Social issues, cross-dressing and the comical

Novel 5 (Sunday- December 5, 2021)
LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott
The representation of Jo March and what lessons can we learn from her different portrayals in film versions.

Novel 6 (Sunday- December 12, 2021)
THE SANCTUARY by William Faulkner
Exiting the constraints of traditional femininity. Horror or liberation?

Novel 7 (Sunday- January 16, 2022)
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
Male prostitution and freedom of movement/social mobility.

Novel 8 (Sunday- January 30, 2022)
MOBY DICK (3 different versions: 1953, 1998 and 2015)
Representations of gender fluidity in the film versions of classic textual narratives