Fantastic Journey: Antiquity and Beyond

Investigation of phenomenon of fantastic or imaginary journey, from Homer’s Odyssey to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey . Examination of ways in which travel to strange or new worlds is presented through number of texts (and occasionally films) across different cultures and periods, with focus primarily on antiquity but also looking at how important motifs from ancient Greek and Roman travel narratives have endured to present day. Issues include cultural relativism, what makes space either familiar or alien, rebuilding of home in fantastic territories, methods of travel (both fantastic and mundane), methods of measuring time and distance across space, modern classifications of fantasy and science fiction, and to what extent these terms are applicable to ancient world.

P/NP or letter grading.