Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Virginia Commonwealth University/Intertextuality (Fall 2023)

Like the double helix of the DNA molecule, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche and the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” wind together and connect at many points across centuries, genres, and media. This course explores conspicuous and influential examples of these oddly mirroring stories that, in Maria Tatar’s words combine “a high coefficient of weirdness” with “emotional ferocity … rich with implications about matters both aesthetic and existential.” Our exploration will be wide-ranging and eclectic, as strangely foundational tales and myths deserve, including the classic 1757 version of “Beauty and the Beast” by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont, films by Cocteau and by Trousdale-Wise, novels by Charlotte Bronte, C. S. Lewis, and Robin McKinley, stories by Angela Carter and Emma Donoghue, an ode by Keats, and a beautifully told and illustrated children’s version of Cupid and Psyche by M. Charlotte Craft and her mother, Kinuko Y. Craft. Our primary analytical areas will be aesthetic, thematic, psychological, and narratological, with substantial attention to historical and cultural contexts and concerns.