This course explores the ways in which stories have been created and the ways in which human imagination and creativity shape narrative form. What does it mean to tell a story? What is the relationship between fiction and reality? The point at which a narrative becomes self-conscious – the point at which a ‘story’ is self-consciously being told – is also the point at which the literal becomes the literary. It is this divergence, in all its variety, that we will examine and analyse across a variety of forms and a variety of media. What makes a ‘story’? What can the non-literal tell us about the literal and in what ways is this commentary achieved? We will investigate the consequences and the implications of narratives – both connected to and at a distance from reality – across a wide range of creative projects, inquiring about the origins and the impacts of each imaginative enterprise. Through the process of reading stories, we strive to become better readers and analysts and aim to better understand the range of forms that narrative can take and the methods we might use to interpret those forms. This course will suggest frameworks for recognising and explicating these various forms, with the goal of critically reflecting on their construction, their connection to reality and their impact on readers. Through stories, we will learn, discover, question, and criticize human experience, assumptions, ambitions, compulsions and dreams. We enjoy and examine a range of stories in different media – · poetry . drama · novels · short stories · film . songwriting From different eras – Moving from early modern to postmodern And from different regions – Europe, Asia and the Americas We will broach narrative theory, philosophical and cultural movements, history and historiography, framing, adaptation, translation and more, all with a view to fostering a broader appreciation of, and engagement with literary forms and the creative imagination.