Difference between revisions of "2017 AM Expedition Narratives: Literary Representations of British Polar Exploration in the Long Nineteenth Century"

From Angl-Am
Jump to: navigation, search
Line 9: Line 9:
 
     “One of the jobs of historical novelists is to uncover those secret histories which, for one reason or another,  
 
     “One of the jobs of historical novelists is to uncover those secret histories which, for one reason or another,  
 
     professional historians have overlooked. Often this involves the apperception of a narrative where others might simply have seen discontinuities.”  
 
     professional historians have overlooked. Often this involves the apperception of a narrative where others might simply have seen discontinuities.”  
     Giles Foden, rev. of Richard Flanagan’s Wanting, Guardian, 26 Sept 2009)
+
     --Giles Foden, rev. of Richard Flanagan’s Wanting, Guardian, 26 Sept 2009
  
 
Our knowledge of the history of voyages of exploration is largely based on our knowledge of expedition narratives: most of what we know about the journeys of these (mostly) men is based on written accounts. These accounts are partly authored by the explorers themselves (logbooks, diaries, journals, memoirs, scientific papers) and partly penned by others: fellow explorers, biographers, novelists.
 
Our knowledge of the history of voyages of exploration is largely based on our knowledge of expedition narratives: most of what we know about the journeys of these (mostly) men is based on written accounts. These accounts are partly authored by the explorers themselves (logbooks, diaries, journals, memoirs, scientific papers) and partly penned by others: fellow explorers, biographers, novelists.

Revision as of 12:10, 18 April 2017

  • Time: Tue, 08:00-10:00
  • Venue: A01 0-010 b
  • Course: 3.02.150
  • Lecturer: Anna Auguscik
  • Modul: ang615 Motifs - Themes - Issues (and their Media)
  • Course Description:
    “One of the jobs of historical novelists is to uncover those secret histories which, for one reason or another, 
    professional historians have overlooked. Often this involves the apperception of a narrative where others might simply have seen discontinuities.” 
    --Giles Foden, rev. of Richard Flanagan’s Wanting, Guardian, 26 Sept 2009

Our knowledge of the history of voyages of exploration is largely based on our knowledge of expedition narratives: most of what we know about the journeys of these (mostly) men is based on written accounts. These accounts are partly authored by the explorers themselves (logbooks, diaries, journals, memoirs, scientific papers) and partly penned by others: fellow explorers, biographers, novelists.

In this course, we will focus on representations of the British exploration of the polar regions in the long nineteenth century. In particular, we will read various texts based on and inspired by John Franklin's 'Lost Expedition' (1845) and the 'Terra Nova Expedition' led by Robert Falcon Scott (1910-13). The diversity of non-fictional and fictional texts, literary and genre novels, historical and contemporary texts will allow us to examine the following questions: What plots/themes/motifs/character constellations are typical of the expedition narrative (e.g. in reference to Empire, Englishness, masculinity, or science and culture)? What specific narrative strategies do we find (e.g. multiple narrators, intertextuality, genre mix)? How do these accounts handle the relationship between 'fact' and 'fiction'? What is the motivation for re-narrating these expeditions? What effects might they have on the (contemporary) image of these explorers?

Please, make sure to purchase and read the following two novels in advance. Your reading of them is prerequisite to the course.

  • Robert Edric. The Broken Lands [1992]. London: Picador, 1993.
  • Beryl Bainbridge. The Birthday Boys [1991]. London: Abacus, 2009.

In addition, you will each become an expert on one of the following texts:

  • Wilkie Collins, The Frozen Deep (1874)
  • Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World (1922)
  • Kim Stanley Robinson, Antarctica (1998)
  • Richard Flanagan, Wanting (2008)
  • Rebecca Hunt, Everland (2014)

PLEASE NOTE: Beryl Bainbridge's The Birthday Boys will be made available at the CvO bookshop. Robert Edric's The Broken Lands is currently out of print. Several second-hand copies can be acquired in my office (EUR 5). If you use an e-book version, please make sure to have a reading device with you in each session (cf. e.g. www.buecher.de, EUR 6,99) Please, contact me if you have difficulties with obtaining the book.

  • Additional materials for preparation, as well as the detailed syllabus, will be made available here and/or on Stud.IP. There will be a Handapparat in our library.
  • Course Requirements
  • Requirements for 6 KP: regular attendance and a (oral/)written contribution in the form of either a presentation + written outline (10-12 pp) or seminar paper (15 pp), with based on the topic of the seminar.
  • As part of the "Aktive Teilnahme" regulation:
    Die aktive Teilnahme besteht aus folgenden Komponenten
    - regelmäßige Anwesenheit: max. 2 Abwesenheiten und gegebenenfalls Nacharbeit
    - Vor- und Nachbereitung des Seminarstoffs (Expertengruppen, Vorbereitung/Lektüre von Texten) 
    - Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Fragestellung aus dem Problembereich des Seminars, durch:
      *Übernahme von Ergebnispräsentationen und 
      *(nur falls Seminararbeit angestrebt, verschriftlicht, ansonsten als Teil der Präsentation) 
       Entwicklung einer Research Paper Outline im Laufe des Semesters (die Zeitangaben verstehen sich als Empfehlungen): 
       Wahl eines Themenbereichs (bis 25.April),
       Abstract mit Fragestellung inkl. Forschungsbibliographie (RPO) (bis 27.Juni), 
       Vorstellung der Fragestellung in der letzten Semestersitzung.


Session 1 Tue, 04 April

Session 2 Tue, 11 April

  • Historical and Theoretical Contexts: The Age of Exploration and Historical Fiction
  • Excerpts from:
  • R. Davis, "History or His/story? The Explorer cum Author." Studies in Canadian Literature / Etudes en litterature canadienne 16. 2 (1991): n.pag.
  • Edmund Burke III, "Modernity’s Histories: Rethinking the Long Nineteenth Century, 1750-1950." UC World History Workshop, 2000.
  • Mike Pearson, "'No Joke in Petticoats' British Polar Expeditions and Their Theatrical Presentations." The Drama Review 48. 1 (Spring 2004): 44-59.

Session 3 Tue, 18 April

  • Textual Analysis 1: Robert Edric, The Broken Lands (1992)
  • Handout: Narratology
  • Close Reading: Chapter VII, pp.56-59: "A fight"

Session 4 Tue, 25 April

  • Textual Analysis 2: Beryl Bainbridge, The Birthday Boys (1991)
  • Handout: Narratology

Session 5 Tue, 02 May

  • Textual Analysis 3: Pre-Texts and Inter-Texts
  • Group Work with Expert Texts
  • Handout: Narratology

Session 6 Tue, 09 May

  • Centre and Periphery: Semantic Space in Expedition Narratives

Session 7 Tue, 16 May

  • The Age of Exploration: Empire and Imperialism

Session 8 Tue, 23 May

  • Neighbours and Natives: Englishness and its 'Other'

Session 9 Tue, 30 May

  • Gendered Expeditions: Masculinity, Homoeroticism and the Woman at Home

Session 10 Tue, 06 June

  • Surgeons on Ice: Representations of Science and Scientists

Session 11 Tue, 13 June

  • Gothic, Ghosts and Polar Genres I

Session 12 Tue, 20 June

  • Gothic, Ghosts and Polar Genres II

Session 13 Tue, 27 June

  • Final Discussion
  • evaluation
  [Hand in RPOs until 27 June at the latest]

Session 14 Tue, 04 July

  • discussion of RPOs
  • feedback on evaluation
  [Hand in research papers until 15 August]

Materials

Bibliography

Expedition Narrative

Franklin

  • Craciun, Adriana. “The Franklin Relics in the Arctic Archive.” Victorian Literature and Culture 42.1 (2014): 1-31.
  • McCorristine, Shane. “The Spectral Presence of the Franklin Expedition in Contemporary Fiction.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 55.1 (2014): 60-73.
  • Kennedy, Victor. “An Exploration of Canadian Identity in Recent Literary Narratives of the Franklin Expeditions.” ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries 3. 1-2 (2006): 193-200.
  • Collis, Christy. “Vertical Body/Horizontal World: Sir John Franklin and Fictions of Arctic Space.” The Body in the Library. Ed. and introd. Leigh Dale and Simon Ryan. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi, 1998. 225-36.

Scott

Tools

Further Reading

  • Mary Louise Pratt. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge, 1992.

Quotes

Links