|
Instructors: Natasha Audrey Anderson
Event type:
online: Practice class
Displayed in timetable as:
05.874.211
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 45
Registration group: ELC 211
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie
Requirements / organisational issues:
This class requires active oral and written participation, including responses to reading assignments, class discussions, and a short multimedia presentation (e.g. PowerPoint).
Course Outcomes:
- Investigate the life and literature of Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë.
- Explore the Brontë sisters’ writings through the historical context of the nineteenth century and modern reader responses.
- Understand Victorian conceptualizations of reading by studying representations of intradiegetic reader figures in Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Wuthering Heights.
- Analyze the Victorian novel and its influence on contemporary culture through close reading, viewing of digital resources, and personal reflection.
Contents:
How do we interact with books?
Readers are creative consumers not only by interpreting and emotionally responding to narratives but also by enacting the fictional world through embodied methods. In honor of the 200th anniversary of Anne Brontë’s birthday in 2020, this course explores the visceral appeal and popular afterlives of the novels of the Brontë sisters in order to gain greater insight into a vital element of British culture. Within nineteenth-century novels such as those by Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë, representations of readers deliberately placed within the narrative serve as a focal point in order to guide the audience’s attention and to stimulate their emotive interaction with the text. Correspondingly, the book-loving protagonists in the novels of the Brontë sisters reflect the physical readers emotionally responding to the narratives.
Today, readers commonly assert the continued relevance and widespread resonance of the Brontës’ writing not only by reading their books and watching movie adaptations but also via their imaginative blog posts and interactive presentations on Internet platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, or Wikis like Fanlore. At the same time, this participatory culture also encompasses corporeal activities, including pilgrimaging to Haworth Parsonage, traveling to Anne Brontë’s gravesite at St. Mary’s Church, hosting Victorian-style afternoon teas, or participating in the ongoing Brontë200 celebrations. By examining the self-reflective narrativity and modern reader responses of novels of the Brontë sisters, students will investigate how readers bring stories to life.
Weekly readings, available via the LMS-platform, are required for this class.
Recommended reading list:
Readings for this course include scholarly articles, digital resources, and excerpts from the following books, available via the LMS-platform:
https://lms.uni-mainz.de/moodle/login/index.php
Additional information:
At the conclusion of this course, students can:
- Interpret and discuss the representations of reading and literary-historical context of Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Wuthering Heights in an informed and reflective manner.
- Investigate and analyze historical developments of literature production and circulation in the Victorian era.
- Evaluate and present contemporary responses to writings of the Brontë sisters and their impact on popular culture.
Digital teaching:
We are going to use the LMS-platform JGU Mainz to manage our class online. To join the digital class, please go to:
Please log in using your JGU Uni Mainz Account > user name + password.
Go to: Startseite > Kursbereiche > curricular > WiSe 2020/21 > Kurse suchen > Cultural Studies IV - English Literature and Culture: Reading and Remembering the Brontë Sisters
For general information on digital instruction at JGU Mainz, please visit:
|
