Eileen Adair Reeves

Beastly Tales

What does it mean to talk like an animal? Why and how do writers attempt such tricks? This course has as its focus a particular type of fiction, that of the speaking animal. We will examine the long-term development of this genre in novels, novellas, television and the occasional lyric, paying particular attention to the tension between the fantastic premise of the animal autobiography and a set of realistic concerns about the natural world.
Afterlives of the Artists

We will examine the ways in which Giorgio Vasari's "Lives of the Artists" have morphed into modern and postmodern literature, focusing on the novelistic and lyric subversions of the original model. Adjustments to the standard narrative include biographies of wretched artists, artsy dealers, and aesthetically inclined criminals; texts set within the imagined world of a painting; tales privileging the instrument or materials over the artist; and dramatically rewritten or unwritten lives of the usual suspects.
Beastly Tales

What does it mean to talk like an animal? Why and how do writers attempt such tricks? This course has as its focus a particular type of fiction, that of the speaking animal. We will examine the long-term development of this genre in novels, novellas, television and the occasional lyric, paying particular attention to the tension between the fantastic premise of the animal autobiography and a set of realistic concerns about the natural world.
Afterlives of the Artists

We will examine the ways in which Giorgio Vasari's "Lives of the Artists" have morphed into modern and postmodern literature, focusing on the novelistic and lyric subversions of the original model. Adjustments to the standard narrative include biographies of wretched artists, artsy dealers, and aesthetically inclined criminals; texts set within the imagined world of a painting; tales privileging the instrument or materials over the artist; and dramatically rewritten or unwritten lives of the usual suspects.
The Classical Roots of Western Literature

This course focuses on the classics of the Western literary tradition from Antiquity through the medieval period. We will examine the ways in which poets, playwrights, biographers, and other fabulists addressed questions of public duty and private emotion, domestic and exotic customs, and natural, unnatural, and supernatural events. All works are taught in English.
Comparative Literature Graduate Pedagogy Seminar

Teaching practicum required of departmental PhD students; open to those planning to teach in the spring semester, as well as to those concurrently teaching their first course at Princeton. A wide range of topics is discussed, based primarily upon the needs and experience of participants. These typically include: facilitating discussions, delivering lectures, grading papers, designing course syllabi, teaching with translations, using technology in the classroom, developing a statement of teaching philosophy, and preparing a teaching portfolio.
The Classical Roots of Western Literature

This course focuses on the classics of the Western literary tradition from Antiquity through the medieval period. We will examine the ways in which poets, playwrights, biographers, and other fabulists addressed questions of public duty and private emotion, domestic and exotic customs, and natural, unnatural, and supernatural events. All works are taught in English.
Comparative Literature Graduate Pedagogy Seminar

Teaching practicum required of departmental PhD students; open to those planning to teach in the spring semester, as well as to those concurrently teaching their first course at Princeton. A wide range of topics is discussed, based primarily upon the needs and experience of participants. These typically include: facilitating discussions, delivering lectures, grading papers, designing course syllabi, teaching with translations, using technology in the classroom, developing a statement of teaching philosophy, and preparing a teaching portfolio.
Classics of Scientific Communication: Lucretius, Galileo, and Darwin

How does revolutionary science happen? Why do some scientific texts have staying power? Do scientific concepts follow particular trajectories through social sciences, the arts, and popular culture? We will address such questions in this interdisciplinary course for students interested in the peculiar dynamics of scientific cognition, theoretical elaboration and system-building, and strengths and limits of representation.
Junior Seminar: Introduction to Comparative Literature

The Junior Seminar will investigate the literal and figurative meanings of the phrase "the place of literature." How relevant is geography to literature? How do we distinguish between imagination, invention, and falsehood when considering a literary setting? How well, far, and fast do texts travel? How do contemporary texts convey the particulars of transient populations and non-native speakers? What does an individual text disclose about its origins and potential destinations? What does it mean to map a text?

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