Imitation, quotation and appropriation are fundamental creative strategies—in the visual arts, writing, music, and filmmaking. Imitation is how you learn your craft, quotation how you demonstrate expertise, and appropriation a strategy, often with political and legal implications. Forms of expression generated in one context and culture are translated and appropriated for new audiences and purposes. This course examines a diverse range of key monuments, texts, and practices, including the theorization of art in the Italian Renaissance, twentieth-century feminist retellings of "classic" tales, and the international exchange of plots and the formal language of storytelling between the Hollywood Western and Japanese samurai films. The course considers the pleasures and parameters of genre, the conception of intellectual property, and the politics of appropriation.