Being Human: Exploring Our Boundaries in Literature & Film

What does it mean to be human? How does imaginative work explore the boundaries of being human? This course investigates these questions in three units: animals, dehumanization, and the uncanny valley. In unit 1 we read works that interrogate the boundary between humans and other animals. How do we conceptualize what defines us and how do creative works interrogate the validity of these human concepts by exploring other animals' perspectives? In unit 2, we continue this exploration, focusing only on human-human interactions, especially in terms of migration, concentration camps, and colonialism. In unit 3, we try to understand who is human (not robot) in diverse media. Authors include Kafka, Coetzee, Spiegelman, Primo Levi, Scego, Maaza Mengiste, Asimov, Collodi, and Philip K. Dick.