ENGL1080.09 Fall 2015 Literature Core [Weiskott]

From Beowulf to Fight Club, Western culture is obsessed with representing humanoid monsters and alter egos. The nightmare of a doppelganger impersonating or even replacing an individual has haunted writers and directors as diverse as Woody Allen and Robert Louis Stevenson. Computer technology seems to have made the fantasy of being in two places at once a reality, and each year teams of programmers vie for the Loebner Prize for “Most Human Computer.” In this course we will meet famous doppelgangers of literature and cinema, with such questions in mind as, Can doppelgangers become fully human? and What if the doppelganger is you?

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