FYS537

Originality, a concept undergoing varying descriptions and likely socially constructed, is frequently linked to creativity and as being defined as the first appearance of an idea. "Inventing Originality" focuses on late eighteenth-century romanticism as the possible historical beginning of the concept. The seminar next examines originality - how expressed by imitation in classical, medieval, and early modern texts. Then, querying twentieth and twenty-first century literary experimentations in poetry and fiction, it especially attends to Baudrillard's simulacrum, Dadaist poetry, and postmodernist efforts to randomize thought. Finally, the seminar studies originality in the context of group teamwork, especially by those practicing accessibility and inclusion