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Vorheriges Semester
Making Public: The Novel and its Imagined Communities
DozentIn: Jatin Wagle
Veranstaltungstyp: Seminar
Ort: 41/101
Zeiten: Mo. 14:00 - 16:00 (wöchentlich)
Beschreibung: It is a truism to state that literature constitutes its own public and is in turn constituted by it. But, does a novel, or more precisely its author, “know” its community of potential readers? Or, how does the modern narrative genre imagine a community that then corresponds to the social site of its conception and dissemination? According to Benedict Anderson (_Imagined Communities_, 1983), the novel, shaped by a quasi-omniscient narrative voice and embodying a diegetic universe in which several characters reside in the same temporal continuum sometimes even without meeting one another, conjures a social space – an imagined community of strangers as it were – that functions as a literary analog to the modern nation. This course in American Studies aims to explore the multifarious manners in which the modern American novel has shaped the United States as a national community and has in turn been defined by it.
In this seminar, we will take up a selection of theoretical, analytical, and fictional texts that demand careful preparation and thoughtful discussion. Please note that this course is recommended for advanced master’s students since it builds upon their awareness and understanding of the advanced concepts and theories in literary and cultural studies.
We will take up the following two novels for intensive discussion and analysis:
Herman Melville, _The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade_ (1857)
Paul Beatty, _The White Boy Shuffle_ (1996)
Please procure print or eBook versions of these literary texts and start reading them. Several free or low-cost editions of Melville’s text could be available. Please see to it that your edition is complete and usable in classroom discussions. Recommended edition for Beatty, _The White Boy Shuffle_ [Oneworld, 2017, ISBN: 9781786072252].
Please note that this course will take up literary texts that might be viewed as disturbing or offensive, especially because of their racially explicit vocabulary and imagery. This should not be seen as an attempt at normalizing racist epithets or attitudes, but on the contrary as an opportunity to appreciate and examine literary and cultural expression that tackles and critiques the complex and murky realities of racism.
As part of your assigned work in this seminar, all the course participants would need to carefully prepare the reading(s) allotted for a session, develop points of discussion, respond to the reading(s) via annotations on Google Docs. If you have queries or doubts, they should also be raised on the digital, collaborative tools. The due dates for your contributions will be mentioned in the syllabus wiki. Our weekly, in-person meetings will be assisted by expert groups/session presenters.
While posting your comments, remarks and questions on digital, collaborative platforms used in this course, please keep in mind that you are communicating and interacting within an academic context. Therefore, your contributions are expected to articulate informed and well-grounded views that are germane to the course contents, i.e., considered reflections based on analyses and/or scholarly readings.
We will review our progress, revisit and amend the course schedule, our strategies of classroom interaction as well as the seminar contents on a periodic basis. Readings will be made available in a “Readings” folder via links or as pdfs under the “Files” tab.
This course shares requirements and guidelines with other American Studies courses taught at IfAA. The “American Studies Tool Kit” in the Stud.IP “Files” section outlines these requirements and guidelines. Please see the “Guidelines for Seminar Papers” for information on the formal requirements for the final paper. The “Abbreviations Key” and “Grading Rubric” are used in the grading and feedback process and will enable you to better judge your own paper even before handing it in. Please check the course webpages on Stud.IP regularly for updates, announcements, and changes.
