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Instructors: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Klaus Peter Müller
Event type:
Proseminar
Displayed in timetable as:
06.008.0031
Credits:
6,0
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 40
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie zzgl. Bevorzugung höherer Fachsemester
Contents:
Which Dickens novel is best for a class on this level? Oliver Twist (1837-38) would surely have been an alternative, as it is a nice, well-written book. But it is widely known, especially in Germany, and Hard Times has been chosen instead. One important reason is that we are going through hard times again, and one objective in this class will be to find out whether the hard times of the past have anything in common with our own times or not. We will, there-fore, begin with finding out what specific difficulties and hardships the novel presents and how they are depicted. Which characters have been chosen, what is the action in this novel etc.? We'll, therefore, also focus on the basic elements of storytelling and the characteristics of Dickens's narrative style. Another topic will be the industrial world presented to us and the various ways of living, thinking, speaking, and acting the text deals with. In this way, we'll get a fairly comprehensive understanding of Dickens, his style of writing, and how he saw and understood the world he lived in.
We will also look at a film that has been made of this novel, a BBC version with Alan Bates as Bounderby, and discuss the differences between the two media and their characteristics. If you know of any other film, TV etc. versions, tell us. Which problems does the text, its language and the period and topics dealt with produce for a translator?
Basically there is a cultural studies focus in this class, but students can also write term papers on the language used in the novel as well as on problems of translation or on the differences / characteristics of the media employed. Students can thus get either a kulturwiss. or sprach- / translationswiss. Schein.
Recommended reading list:
Text: Dickens, Charles, Hard Times. An Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism, New York: Norton, 32001 (ed. by Fred Kaplan & Sylvère Monod) This edition is extremely useful as it provides readers with great background information and material (e.g. Dickens' comments on the composition of his novel, information about the industrial age, education etc., and essays on the novel, e.g. its imagery, gender and paradox etc.). It is also available at a very reasonable price, namely from € 2.83 + 3 postage at Amazon. Cheaper elsewhere? Check it out, but buy this issue, not any other one! You need a printed copy of the text for this class. Students without a print version are not accepted.
Registering for this class: As Jogustine will start accepting registrations very late this winter term, it is highly recommended that you sign in for this class in the secretaries' office (room 247) at the usual office hours (8-11, until 12 on Tuesdays, not open on Fridays). You will then receive the topics for short presentations early enough for you to prepare the term in the most efficient way. It is totally useless to try to join the class after 18 October 2012 without any preparation, i.e. without you having read your short presentation and the novel at least twice. It is, therefore, highly recommended that you decide as soon as possible whether you want to join this class. Then you'll have time enough for everything.
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