What is it about animals that makes them such a compelling symbolic trope in fantastic narratives and public discourse? Beginning with J.K Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, we will study the animals of fantasy narratives in the context of their cultural and political history to understand the popularity and success of these stories across the ages. Additionally, we will address problematic manifestations of the “beast” as a tactic to dehumanize women, people of color, queer folks, and all those on the margins of mainstream society. In class, we’ll begin by defining animal, human, and beast –terms we will complicate throughout the semester as we learn more about the tradition of the beast fable, and the ways in which these stories contribute to human exceptionalism (the idea that we are special among—or essentially different from – other living things).
As this course carries a Writing Flag, be prepared to write regularly and provide classmates with constructive feedback throughout the semester. In addition to major writing assignments, you will complete short blog posts and revise your writing based on feedback from the instructor and your peers. In this way, you will refine your writing practice and improve writing skills according to your own strengths and preferences. Together, we will explore fantastical beasts as vehicles for the discussion of the body, power, and public good. Under what circumstances is it empowering to be a beast, or be like a beast, and when is it an insult? What do fantastic beasts reveal about the way we view the world, and especially ourselves? For your final project, you will write your own beast fable as a response to a contemporary controversy of your choosing.
Unit 1: Coming to Terms with the “Beast”
“A beast does not know that he is a beast, and the nearer a man gets to being a beast, the less he knows it.” –George MacDonald
What is the difference between our understanding of “animal,” “human,” and “beast”? In Unit 1, students will put each of these terms into dialogue. They will study the development of beast fables within the broader genre of fantasy in order to arrive at an understanding of the complex networks of meaning involved in animality as a narrative trope. Using UT Libraries resources, students will select a fantastic beast of their choosing from J.K. Rowling’s book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in order to research its origins, the context of its appearance(s) in narrative, and the social, cultural, or political movements it has been tied to. Ideally, students will select a creature that appears elsewhere in fantasy narratives so that Project 1 will feed into their examination of a specific beast fable in Project 2. The instructor will provide a variety of resources, including symbolic dictionaries and online research tools. As a class, we will juxtapose Rowling’s fictional magizoology text with the filmic narrative inspired by it. What beliefs, values, interests, and investments does the author have in the ongoing cultural discussion of animals? How are both narratives embedded in existing traditions of the beast fable and fantasy more broadly? To answer this question and demonstrate their skills as researchers, students will practice summarizing and synthesizing a variety of sources and texts. Unit 1 will serve as a foundation for the skills required to perform a nuanced rhetorical analysis of a fictional text in Unit 2.
Unit 2: Political Beasts – the Body, Power, and the Public Good
“Man is by nature a political animal.” –Aristotle
“The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.” –Voltaire
What do wild beasts, sexy beasts, and “beast mode” have in common? What are the origins of these popular expressions? In Unit 2, students will learn the tools of rhetorical analysis in order to examine the literary animal as an expression of the body, of power, and as a tool for enacting public good. For example, as a class we will look at J.K. Rowling’s charity Lumos as a case study and ask: why would the author use the Fantastic Beasts franchise to shine a light on the institutionalization of children into orphanages worldwide? While Unit 1 focused primarily on building a foundation for the study of fictional animals, Unit 2 will focus on developing an understanding of the rhetoric terminology and audience to analyze the indirect rhetorical appeals used by fantasy authors. Students will discuss how narratives like Disney’s Zootopia, Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and the Fables of LaFontaine are embedded in—and indirectly reinforce—particular political agendas or ideologies. To accomplish the analytical goal of Unit 2, students will select a single fantasy narrative, summarize its content, and systematically analyze it. While students will be encouraged to continue developing their ongoing research of the same creature they selected in Unit 1, they may choose to shift their focus. In either case, students will provide credible secondary sources to assist them as they make analytical arguments about narratives in Project 2. This rhetorical analysis should demonstrate how an allegorical argument is put together and why specific rhetorical choices may have been made, which will then allow students to mindfully create their own allegorical narratives in Unit 3. In Unit 2, emphasis will be placed on the revision step of the writing process, of which peer feedback will be an essential element.
Unit 3—Writing the Beast: From Analysis to Authorship
“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” – Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Building upon their work in Units 1 and 2, students will put their understanding of rhetorical strategies into practice by developing an allegorical argument in response to a contemporary controversy. Additionally, students will adapt this knowledge to create visual media that appeals to their target audience. Ideally, students will incorporate one or more of the fantastical creatures they researched in the preceding units by “rewriting” them, in the words of Joseph Harris. In the early stages of Project 3, students will “counter” an existing representation of their chosen fantastical beast by exploring the strengths and limitations of its author’s rhetorical choices. In doing so, students will uncover the values that underwrite allegorical arguments and begin to locate their own position within an existing creative and rhetorical framework. For example, as a class we may ask: how does Wes Anderson’s adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox counter author Roald Dahl’s vision, while simultaneously taking its own approach to the narrative? How does the transformation of the fox from heroic outlaw to con artist in Disney’s Zootopia reflect similar transformations in the trajectory of the beast fable since Aesop? In this unit, students will compare written and visual texts as we discuss the impact of audience, venue, and medium on meaning-making. In this way, students will come to terms with their own stance on the ways in which non-human and imaginary creatures can emotionally engage the spectator in social, cultural, or political discourse.
The overall aim of Unit 3 is for students to integrate each step of the (re)writing process, as outlined by Joseph Harris: coming to terms, forwarding, countering, and taking an approach. For their final blog post, students will reflect on what they have learned about themselves as a writer throughout the semester and identify their stylistic preferences. They will workshop their creative projects with their writing groups and discuss the following: Who am I writing to? What existing discussion am I entering? What will I add to this discussion? What’s working, and what should be developed further?
