Lehrende/r: Sarah Wegener
Veranstaltungsart: Seminar/Proseminar
Anzeige im Stundenplan: 05.874.123
Semesterwochenstunden: 2
Credits: 6,0
Unterrichtssprache: Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 45
Anmeldegruppe: ELC 123
Prioritätsschema: Senatsrichtlinie Zulassung gemäß Richtlinie über den Zugang zu teilnahmebeschränkten Lehrveranstaltungen vom 07. März 2007. Nähere Informationen hierzu entnehmen Sie bitte www.info.jogustine.uni-mainz.de/senatsrichtlinie
Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches: A thorough preparation of all texts and material is a precondition for obtaining credits in this course. Please be aware that this is a reading-intensive course. Students are expected to participate in class discussions actively and regularly (a seminar is not a lecture!). As part of their active participation, students prepare a short presentation (15 mins) in groups and complete the odd small assignment.
Inhalt: Fin de siècle – the last decade(s) of the nineteenth century were marked by a particular mood that arose amidst the challenges of new social concerns and the promise of a new era fast-approaching. The New Woman, for instance, challenged Victorian gender conventions and the patriarchal order, scientific ideas on evolution sparked a more pessimist awe of degeneration. The late-nineteenth century is often associated with decadence, a general crisis sensibility or melancholia but also with novelty and drastic divergence. In literature this led to prolific engagement with the social concerns of the turn of the century. In an artistic sense, the fin de siècle also fuelled debates on (literary) art itself and reflections on aestheticism, sometimes in conflict with the socio-political anxieties addressed in literary works. With its proneness for symbolism and literary experiments, the fin de siècle already paved the way for Modernism. In this seminar, we will study a wide range of late-Victorian texts tapping into various fields of concern at the turn of the century. In Oscar Wilde’s Salomé and The Picture of Dorian Gray, we will encounter femme fatales and dandies. H.G. Well’s The Time Machine and Mathilde Blind’s The Ascent of Man will allow us glimpses into (re)figurations of evolution. In Richard March’s The Beetle, we’ll finally encounter a fin de siècle horror tale with a certain whiff of decadence. Some shorter pieces of poetry or short stories will spice up our discussions about literary art in the final stages of a long era.
Empfohlene Literatur: Please obtain a copy of the following texts and preferably read them before term:
