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In this composition course, we will explore the art and science of dreaming to practice college writing skills. Can dreams help us understand the self, as Freud argues? Are dreams mystical, magical…even prophetic? Or are they simply the meaningless result of randomly fired neurons? What do they have to do with memory, metaphors, repressed desires, and waking life? How have they driven and inspired artistic endeavors? These questions speak to the uncertainties and ambiguities that scholars grapple with while researching and writing about dreams; however, these complexities also explain why dreams have fascinated great thinkers across historical and disciplinary gulfs, and inspired all types of artists and writers, from William Shakespeare, to Salvador Dalí, to Stephanie Meyers. The topic of dreams is one that integrates the personal and the academic, allowing us, as a class, to practice different kinds of writing, directed at many different types of audiences and disciplines; moreover, there are countless, diverse primary and secondary sources that we will explore and utilize over the course of the semester. As students in this class, you will write four major essays drawing upon ideas and questions previously explored in these sources on dreams, and you will eventually write a research paper that enters these academic conversations. Moreover, as a class, we will all keep dream blogs, documenting our dream lives and reflecting on them through the lens of our course readings and discussions.

In this composition course, we will explore the art and science of dreaming to practice college writing skills. Can dreams help us understand the self, as Freud argues? Are dreams mystical, magical…even prophetic? Or are they simply the meaningless result of randomly fired neurons? What do they have to do with memory, metaphors, repressed desires, and waking life? How have they driven and inspired artistic endeavors? These questions speak to the uncertainties and ambiguities that scholars grapple with while researching and writing about dreams; however, these complexities also explain why dreams have fascinated great thinkers across historical and disciplinary gulfs, and inspired all types of artists and writers, from William Shakespeare, to Salvador Dalí, to Stephanie Meyers. The topic of dreams is one that integrates the personal and the academic, allowing us, as a class, to practice different kinds of writing, directed at many different types of audiences and disciplines; moreover, there are countless, diverse primary and secondary sources that we will explore and utilize over the course of the semester. As students in this class, you will write four major essays drawing upon ideas and questions previously explored in these sources on dreams, and you will eventually write a research paper that enters these academic conversations. Moreover, as a class, we will all keep dream blogs, documenting our dream lives and reflecting on them through the lens of our course readings and discussions.