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The Political Constitution of Literature
DozentIn: Jatin Wagle
Veranstaltungstyp: Seminar
Ort: nicht angegeben
Zeiten: Do. 12:00 - 14:00 (wöchentlich)
Beschreibung: While examining the formation of a “national” consciousness first in Europe and then in the Americas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Benedict Anderson speaks of readers of novels and their imagined identification with other readers like themselves across long distances (_Imagined Communities_, 1983). He terms the political economy underlying the dissemination of fictional narratives and newspapers ‘print capitalism’ – a conceptual portmanteau referring to several phenomena, such as, the printing press, widespread literacy, copyright legal regimes, and a marketplace for literature. The notion of national literatures that we take for granted by now is a product of these and cognate social and economic processes.
This course in “American” Studies aims to examine the dynamic political-economic contexts of literature and its study, by taking up a wide array of theoretical, analytical as well as literary/fictional texts.
We will take up a few literary texts for closer analysis, but begin with the following:
Claudia Rankine, _Citizen: An American Lyric_ (2015)
Please procure print or eBook version of this book and start reading it.
Please note that the readings in this seminar will be challenging and would demand careful preparation and thoughtful discussion. Moreover, this seminar is recommended for advanced master’s students, since it builds upon their understanding of advanced concepts and theories in literary and cultural studies.
