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Instructors: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Rainer Emig
Event type:
Seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
05.874.512
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 30
Registration group: BS/ELC 512
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie
Requirements / organisational issues:
Although the novel dominantes the literary scene today, it is a relative latecomer. Its emergence is usually traced back to the 18th century, when it supplanted the previously dominant genre of the romance. Literary historians connect the so-called 'rise of the novel' to the emergence of a literate middle class that had the ability, but also the leisure time to read extended narratives and wanted these stories to be about people like themselves, which gave rise to Realism. The course will test these assumptions by looking at texts on the borderline of the new novel genre, such as John Bunyan's immensely successful and influential The Pilgrim's Progress (1678/1684) and Aphra Behn's exciting colonial tale Oroonoko (1688). It will then contrast them to an established early novel, Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders (1722), the story of a thief and prostitute.
Students should acquire copies of all three texts and read The Pilgrim's Progress for the first sessions.
Required Reading:
John Bunyan (2008): The Pilgrim's Progress. Ed. W.R. Owens. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford et al. Oxford UP. Print.
Aphra Behn (2009): Oroonoko and Other Writings. Ed. Paul Salzman. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford et al. Oxford UP. Print.
Daniel Defoe (2011): Moll Flanders. Ed. G. A. Starr and Linda Bree. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford et al. Oxford UP. Print.
Introductory Background Reading:
Nicholas Seager, ed. (2012): The Rise of the Novel. A Reader's Guide to Essential Criticism. Basingstoke et al.: Palgrave Macmillan. Print.
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