The impossibly polymathic Polish science fiction mastermind Stanislaw Lem authored A Perfect Vacuum (1971), a collection of "perfect reviews of non-existent books"--books, Lem implies, he had always meant to write but had not gotten around to.
I could, in turn, offer a sampling of syllabi for courses I have never taught. My wish list:
* Studies in the Novel: Moby-Dick
* Special Topics in Language and Literature: The Aphorism
* Special Topics in Language and Literature: The Epigraph
* Special Topics in Language and Literature: Jorge Luis Borges
* Special Topics in Popular Culture: Superheroes
* Special Topics in Language and Literature: Time Travel
* Major American Writers: Mark Twain
* Special Topics in Film Studies: Federico Fellini
* Special Topics in Popular Culture: Mad Men
* Honors Seminar: Creativity
For the record, here are the courses I have taught, 1971-2010 (at Northern Kentucky University, one student, David Hensley, took at least ten courses from me alone, double-majoring in English and Lavery):
1. Advanced Writing
2. American, British, and World Literature surveys
3. American Quality Television
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5. Chinese Literature
6. The Coen Brothers
7. Contemporary British Film (a course offered in London Summer 1992)
8. Contemporary Cinema (graduate course)
9. Cult Television (graduate module)
10. The Creative Process (Honors Seminar)
11. Deadwood and The Sopranos (graduate seminar)
12. The Edge of History (honors seminar)
13. The Evolutionary Imagination (honors seminar)
14. Film and Television Genres (graduate course)
15. Film History
16. Film History Online
17. Film Studies (Graduate Course)
18. Film Theory and Criticism (honors section)
19. The Films of Stanley Kubrick
20. Freshman Composition
21. The Gangster Film (graduate/undergraduate course)
22. The Grotesque (graduate course)
23. Intellectual Backgrounds of Modern Literature
24. Intercultural Communication (graduate course)
25. Introduction to English Studies
26. Introduction to Film
27. Introduction to Literature
28. Ireland and Scotland at the Movies (taught on location in the UK)
29. Joss Whedon: Television Auteur (graduate course)
30. Literary Criticism
31. Literature and Film
32. Literature and Psychology
33. Lost
34. Major British Writers: C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield (graduate seminar)
35. Major Themes in American Literature Online
36. Mass Communication and Society (graduate course)
37. Media and Reality (honors seminar)
38. Media Theory and Criticism (graduate course)
39. Modern Critical Theory (graduate course)
40. Modern Poetry
41. Native American Literature
42. Non-Western Literature
43. Oral Communication
44. Popular Culture Studies (graduate course)
45. Popular Literature of the 20th Century: Science Fiction (graduate course)
46. Popular Literature of the 20th Century: The Movies (graduate course)
47. Public Speaking
48. Science Fiction
49. Science Fiction Online
50. Science Fiction Film (graduate course)
51. The Space Age (honors seminar)
52. The Sopranos (graduate course)
53. Survey of Popular Culture
54. Television and Culture
55. Wallace Stevens (graduate seminar)
56. Wallace Stevens and Merleau-Ponty (team-taught undergraduate seminar)
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1 comment:
Even without teaching a course, you influence us, because if you merely mention a book, we want to read it.
Just recently, I read Stanislaw Lem's _Microworlds_ because of you. You also turned me onto Jung's Memories, Dreams and Reflections, and my husband read James Tiptree; Goedel, Escher and Bach (which he had forgotten he had formerly wanted to read); some book whose name I can't remember about the Supreme Court and homosexuality or something); and several others. You've also gotten him hooked on Mad Men.
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