Psychology and Literature III

Anne Constantinople [aconstantinople@gmail.com]

This is a different version of the course I taught last year, same purpose but different readings.  Our charge remains the same: to consider first what we learn about characters in fiction from the descriptions provided by the authors.  And then to see how theories of personality development may amplify or challenge our understanding. We will do a lot of reading, mostly of novels but perhaps also a memoir, and you will be encouraged to share your thoughts and opinions.  In other words, this is not a lecture course but one that depends on the engagement of us all to make the magic happen. 

I will lecture briefly from time to time on theories of personality development that I think may be helpful to us, but otherwise we will talk about the assigned readings (which means they need to be read before class!). 

 9/20              Dolen P. Valdez, Take my Hand (2023)

 9/27              Penelope Lively, Judgment Day  (1981)

10/4               Anne Tyler, Clock Dance  (2018)

10/18             TBD