EGL 193 - Confronting the Canon: Queering the Hero’s Journey

Course Units: 1

(Fall: Murphy) This course will challenge traditional renderings of various heroic tales through the double-edged lens of queer and feminist theory. Our discussions will draw from various scenes and film screenings of classic stories that may include The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bhagavad Gita, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Aeschylus’s trilogy The Oresteia, Homer’s Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, the story of Jesus, Beowulf, and several fairy tales, as well as slightly more contemporary classics such as Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Matrix, Harry Potter, and The Wizard of Oz, among others. “Confronting the Canon” courses are cornerstones of the new English curriculum and required beginning with majors/minors in the class of 2025. Also counts toward GSW.

100-level courses are open to all students. CC: HUL, HUM, JCHF, JLIT, JSPE ISP: GSW