Popular Fiction

Welcome to the shadow side of literature! Popular fiction has huge cultural reach and significance, and it is the site of long-standing and fierce debates about the psychological (and bodily) impact, social utility, and aesthetic merit of stories. In this subject, students will read a range of contemporary and recent popular texts, written by professional authors, fans, and artificial intelligence, while learning about the historical and institutional contexts that produced them. Students will think about the gendering of popular fiction, and learn to apply multiple critical approaches and theoretical frameworks - from the positive (pop fiction as the true culture of the people) to the negative (mass-produced fiction as mechanism of patriarchal and authoritarian control).