Aims

Acquiring a method of analysis for one or more literary genres though the analysis of canonical contamporary texts (19th, 20th, 21st century). This course will provide students with basic scholarly methods and tools enabling him/her to approach a literary text critically (poems, novels and short stories, plays).

Main themes

Close in-depth critical study of contemporary canonical texts. This course will introduce strudents to basics of narratology, stylistics and genre theory. Several literary texts (poems, novels, short stories, plays) will be analysed methodically.

Content and teaching methods

Students will acquire the skill to read literary texts critically through a reprentative sample of excerpts from the German tradition of the 19th and 20th centuries. Different techniques will be studied enabling students to analyse narrative texts. The first part of the course will be devoted to the specific questions related to Erzähltheorie (the structuring of narrative time and space, narrative perspective, focalisation, internal structure of the narrative, ...), which will allow a better contextualization of the excerpts that are studied.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Assessment : oral or written exam on the contents of the course and required reading.

Teaching method : formal lectures + 10 hours of tutorial (seminar sessions).

Course materials : M. Martinez & M. Scheffel, Einführung in die Erzähltheorie (München, Beck, 2000).

Other credits in programs