The bizarre, the inexplicable, the transcendent, the uncanny-mystery manifests itself in many different forms. The private detective, for example, engages in "an adventure in search of a hidden truth," in Raymond Chandler's words. He knows the crime can be solved. Yet much contemporary art seems to withhold the comfort of such certainty. The hidden remains hidden, and mystery looks like an end in itself, an aesthetic principle. This seminar will examine the idea of mystery from a variety of perspectives and through several different artistic forms: fiction by Edgar Allan Poe, Vladimir Nabokov, Henry James, Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, Flannery O'Connor, and Raymond Chandler; poetry by Robert Frost, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Robert Browning, and W. S. Merwin; paintings by Edward Hopper and Rene Magritte; and films by Howard Hawks (The Big Sleep) and Michelangelo Antonioni (Blow-Up). Requirements: class participation, a short paper, and a 15- to 20-page paper. Prerequisite: a 100-level English course, except 150. Major Seminar. Enrollment limited to 15 (expected: 15). Preference to English and Comp/Lit. Studies majors. (Post-1900)