First-year students attending Rutgers University next year will be able to take a new course which compares John Green’s books to classic literature.
The course, titled “The Fault in Our Fiction,” will be taught by Associate Professor of English Brad Evans at Rutgers’ New Brunswick campus. He’ll be comparing books like Green’s Paper Towns, The Fault in Our Stars, etc to books like Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.
“The fault in our fiction (refers to) the misconception that fiction doesn’t matter,” Evans told USA Today. “Some people like to dismiss John Green novels as ‘just young adult fiction,’ but fiction shapes our lives more deeply than we often acknowledge.”
According to USA Today, Evans came up with the idea last year when he witnessed the John Green fandom in full force at a screening of The Fault in Our Stars in New York City. “When Evans saw the packed theater,” they write, “he had the idea of reading Green’s novels through a more-sophisticated lens.”
The report states that the students taking the class will take a field trip to a movie theater in 2016 to watch the book-to-film adaptation of Looking For Alaska, but a release date for the film has yet to be announced.
Rutgers has made a name for itself recently by putting together pop culture-related classes. Last year they announced a Beyoncé course. Surely unique courses like these two are great publicity for Rutgers.
Would you feel like a real college student if you were taking a classic on John Green books?
Related: Welcome to ‘Orlando,’ North Carolina: A day on the set of Paper Towns