| Lerninhalte |
In the seminar we will trace the history of the novel of formation (bildungsroman) by reading three classic examples of different literary periods: Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847, Victorianism), James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916, Modernism) and Andrea Levy's Never Far from Nowhere (1996, Postmodernism). The course aims to deepen your knowledge of narrative theory as well as your expertise in analysing and interpreting prose fiction in historical context and in the context of genre (bildungsroman, künstlerroman, postcolonial novel of transformation). We will discuss the novels thematically, aesthetically and against the backdrop of theoretical positions (gender, class, postcolonial theory). Please buy critical editions of the two earlier novels (I suggest the latest Norton Critical Editions for Jane Eyre and A Portrait, alternatively Oxford World's Classics) and read the novels as soon as you can! We will address them in chronological order, beginning with Jane Eyre. |
