Audio downloadduring a really good sale.I usually spend a great deal of time reading the reviews of lectures series before committing both the cash and the time to them. It took me a long while (and a very good sale + coupon) to get around to this oneinly because the reviews are so negative. Many of those negative reviews (on The Great Courses site) focus on Dr Rabkin's interpretations of some of the literary works (books)me of them may be validme may be pure speculation. After listening to thes [...]

This is excellent; the professor is great and his material is top-rate. I only have two minor complaints: there is not enough fantasy covered compared to SF, and the last few lectures are very spoiler-y.

The Great Courses Series hat zwei Vorlesungen zum Thema Sci-Fi im Katalog. Diese hier ist die ältere. Ursprünglich Kurs Nummer 296, also einer der sehr frühen Kurse dieser Reihe, wurde die Vorlesung überarbeitet und mit Fantasy ergänzt.Die Vorlesung besteht also nun aus zwei Teilen. Teil1 Fantasy und Teil 2 Sci-Fi.=== Fantasy ===1. The Brothers Grimm & Fairy Tale Psychology 34 min 2. Propp, Structure, and Cultural Identity 30 min 3. Hoffmann and the Theory of the Fantastic 31 mi [...]

Terrific series that will help you to better appreciate the fantastic in literature (e.g fables, children's literature, Tolkien, sci fi, Alice in Wonderland, Virginia Woolf, magical realism, and much more). Most listeners will have read many of the books that Dr. Rabkin talks about, but he brings out -- in a believable way -- some of the deeper layers of meaning that I never saw in my surface readings. A few notes from the lecture on children's lit:1. Characters: typically the hero is a child or [...]

I thought this would be mildly interesting to hear about fantasy in novels, history and how it relates to our society present and past. But as soon as I started reading-- wow! Fascinating. I've read a lot of the novels talked about in part 1 of 2 so I'm not sure if that makes a big difference, I suspect it does but still Really interesting, once I got into the first lecture, i.e kept distractions at bay I zipped through the first part like there was no tomorrow. It starts with Grimms Fairy tales [...]

Be warned, here you will find statements such as this:"In fact, the union of these pieces in the tripartide manner or quadripartide manner of Freud or Jung is what gives psychological strength."I'll fully admit that I am being incredibly unfair in taking the above quote out of context, but I wanted to illustrate what I mean when I say that there is more to Rabkin's lectures than many readers, starting with myself, are looking for.Consider this an advanced analysis of Fantasy/Science Fiction from [...]

This is as positive a point of view on Fantastic literature as I've found from any academic aside from Tom Shippey. I liked Shippey's course on Heroes more, but Rabkin is worth listening to if you're interested in an academic take on the fantastic in literature. In the end my primary beef is that the academy attempts to define "the fantastic" in a way that feels stretched to me, and that feels like it's designed to pull away from fantasy. While Rabkin embraces science-fiction as a key contempora [...]

A decent enough lecture series, and quite comprehensive. Rabkin covers the significant contributions to science fiction and fantasy (including fairy tales and the like) from the Grimm brothers (and earlier) to modern day, including recurring themes and stories. Which is why this series is 24 lectures long instead of the usual 12. I didn't necessarily buy all of his symbolism and interpretations--I realize sex is a dominant theme in literature, but I don't know that literature is about sex quite [...]

This was well produced, and the format of 30 minute (approx.) sections made it very convenient to pick up and put down as my available time allowed. I found myself disagreeing with about 70% of the Professor's interpretations and conclusions, but the material was set up in such a way that it made me think about my own conclusions- how I came to them, what influenced my understanding, etc. and so, even though I disagreed with almost everything, it was good for me to see those other interpretation [...]

This was a really fun course that follows fantastic literature from the writing down of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm up through modern sci-fi and cyberpunk novels. The teacher is very scholarly and illuminates the fantasy and science fiction stories and their authors well. He was a little too fond of Freudian analysis, and makes some, in my opinion, unjustified leaps of interpretation in that direction. Other than that, I loved his insights into the way that mythology and religion continue [...]

Interesting and accessible lectures on fantastical elements in literature. The professor focuses on English-language literature, with some French- and German-language lit as well.People often speculate on why traditional fairy tales are so darkly violent. Rabkin's theory is that grandmothers told the tales to grandchildren while all the able-bodied people were out farming and harvesting. So the parents weren't around to tell the grandmas not to frighten the kids, and the grandmas had a pretty bl [...]

An excellent lecture series on a fairly eclectic range of "imaginative" fiction. Obviously, all fiction is somewhat imaginative (otherwise it would be nonfiction), and the connecting link to all of these stories seems to be that they are ones the lecturer enjoyed (which isn't a bad thing, most of them seemed quite good). Overall, Rabkin does a decent job of summarizing and an even more decent job of highlighting important themes and innovations in the works. He's also quite a good lecturer, and [...]

I couldn't tear away from this lecture series. Incredibly interesting and made me want to read almost every book discussed, even ones from genres I'm not generally interested in, like science fiction. A multitude of fantastical books are presented with profound insight, mastery, vivid imagery, and societal impact. Moreover, there is attention given to the personal lives and inspirations of several great authors, offering details that I never knew and thoroughly enjoyed learning about.

Rabkin is an excellent lecturer who obviously knows his material. Material on Verne, Wells,, Heinlein, Asimov is very good; that on Le Guin, Gibson, and especially Miller's "Canticle for Leibowitz" less so.

I couldn't even finish it, this was so bad.

Again, interesting and recommended. however this time it was part I missing from the library! I enjoyed parts II and III very much.

Broad in scope and very entertaining. I didn't agree with all of the professor's opinions, but even when my viewpoint differed it was still worthwhile to hear this approach.

What a great course brief in each subject but gives a taste on fantastic literature across the ages. Bravo Mr. Rabkin.