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HS American Realism and the Avant-Garde

Dozent/in
Prof. Dr. Ulf Schulenberg

Angaben
Hauptseminar

nur Fachstudium, LAFV, LAFN, Magister, Master, Bachelor, Sprache Englisch
Zeit und Ort: Do 8:30 - 10:00, A 401

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches
Das HS Literature kann wie folgt verwendet werden:
  • L-GYM Englisch (neu): "Hauptmodul L-Gym Literature"

  • BA English and American Studies (neu): "Hauptmodul A Literature" mit begleitender Independent Study Group (Zulassungsvoraussetzung: Zwischenmodul II)

  • BA American Studies: "Hauptmodul A Literature/Culture" mit begleitender Independent Study Group (Zulassungsvoraussetzung: Zwischenmodul II)

  • MA North American Studies - Culture and Literature: Mastermodul 5: "Aufbaumodul Literary Studies": HS mit begleitendem Kurs (nur im SS)oder Mastermodul 8: "Vertiefungsmodul Literary Studies": HS mit begleitender Independent Study

  • MA English Studies: "Freie Ergänzungsstudien/Wild Card": Wie Aufbaumodul, mit begleitendem Kurs

Inhalt
For most of the twentieth century, “realism” was a disreputable term. With the advent of modernism, many writers, artists, and scholars came to think that realism was primarily characterized by its simplistic epistemology and ontology, its equally simplistic notion of mimesis and reflection theory, as well as its presumptuous idea that it would be possible faithfully and objectively to mirror society in its totality. Scholars such as Fredric Jameson have called attention to the fact that realism often functions as a negative term and that whenever one searches for realism it vanishes since it was nothing but a mere marker or before that illuminated the radical nature of modernism and the avant-garde. In this course, we will seek to understand the idea of realism by concentrating on American realism. Our discussion will be divided into four parts:
1. What is realism (discussing this phenomenon in an international perspective)?
2. What is special about American realism?
3. We will ask to what degree American realism was already modern, and whether avant-garde works of art can legitimately claim to have radically rejected realist premises.
Finally, we will discuss the important phenomenon of a postmodern realism and what it tells us about the possibility of mediating between realism and the avant-garde. We will read theoretical texts (by, for instance, Auerbach, Barthes, Lukács, and Jameson), and then we will use these conceptual tools in order to approach the primary texts.

Empfohlene Literatur
Suggested Reading
  • Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1953.

  • Roland Barthes, “The Reality Effect,” in Barthes, The Rustle of Language. Translated by Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang, 1986. 141-48.

  • Richard Gray, “Reconstructing the Past, Reimagining the Future: The Development of American Literature, 1865-1900,” in Gray, A History of American Literature. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004. 245-335.

  • Fredric Jameson, The Antinomies of Realism. New York:Verso, 2013.

Primary Texts

  • Henry James, The American

  • Mark Twain, Puddn'head Wilson

  • Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars

  • excerpts from Nic Pizzolatto, Galveston.

Zusätzliche Informationen
Erwartete Teilnehmerzahl: 20

Verwendung in folgenden UnivIS-Modulen
Startsemester SS 2015:
Amerikanistik, Modul B
Aufbaumodul Literary Studies (Master Modul 5)
Ergänzungsstudien/Wild Card (WiC)
Vertiefungsmodul Literary Studies (Master Modul 8)

Institution: Lehrstuhl für Amerikanistik, insbesondere Literaturwissenschaft (Prof. Dr. Kley)
UnivIS ist ein Produkt der Config eG, Buckenhof