Difference between revisions of "S Modernist Fiction"

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* [Instructor] Dr. Christian Lassen
 
* [Instructor] Dr. Christian Lassen
  
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* [Time] Wednesday, 08.15 am - 09.45 am, '''weekly session''', consisting of the following two parts: '''plenary session''', discussing the asynchronous presentation (8.15 am - 9.30 am); and '''prepararory session for presentation groups''' (9.30 am - 9.45 am); '''nota bene''': presentations will not be given in class but they will be made available on Stud.IP the Friday before they are scheduled, i.e. '''watching the presentations prior to the relevant sessions constitues a mandatory course requirement.'''
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* [Time] Wednesday, 08.15 am - 09.45 am
  
 
* [Room] A01 0-009
 
* [Room] A01 0-009

Revision as of 09:54, 18 September 2023

!!!UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!


COURSE OUTLINE

3.02.141 S Modernist Fiction

  • [Module] ang614 - Genres: Cultural, Historical and Theoretical Perspectives
  • [Credits] 6 KP
  • [Instructor] Dr. Christian Lassen
  • [Time] Wednesday, 08.15 am - 09.45 am
  • [Room] A01 0-009
  • [Description] The turn of the twentieth century with its many revolutionary and ground-breaking insights in fields as diverse as psychoanalysis (Freud), evolutionary biology (Darwin), physics (Einstein), economy (Marx), or even language itself (Saussure), marks the onset of an age that has since reshaped the world and the people who live in it: the Modernist Age. Exploring the relevant historical, cultural and intellectual contexts that give rise to Modernism and delving into the spirit of an age that is marked by war, social change, and cultural diversification, this seminar offers a comprehensive exploration of Modernist fiction through a critical examination of seminal works by Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, and Virginia Woolf. It centres on the intricate interplay between subjectivity, narratology, gender, sexuality, colonialism, religion, and (the limits of) language in a number of selected novels and short stories and, therefore, pays close attention to the many innovative narrative techniques, such as stream of consciousness writing, unreliable narration, or narrative fragmentation, that contemporary authors employ to represent their characters' ever-evolving consciousness, their identity formation and their inner thoughts and perceptions. Throughout this seminar, students will actively engage in close reading, critical discussions, and independent research projects (i.e., presentations), in order to grasp the subtle complexities of Modernist fiction. By the end of the course, participants will possess the analytical tools to deal with the period's arguably most influential works, while also recognising their enduring significance in the shaping of literary history.
  • [Office Hours] Thursday, 11.00 am - 12.00 am


PRIMARY TEXTS (Mandatory Texts)

Short Stories [will be made available]

  • Conrad, Joseph. "The Secret Sharer: An Episode from the Coast." 1910. Typhoon and Other Tales. Oxford: OUP, 2008. Print. 177-217. [ISBN: 978-0-19-953903-1]
  • Mansfield, Katherine. TBA. The Garden Party and Other Stories. London: Penguin, 2007. Print. [ISBN: 978-0141441801]
  • Woolf, Virginia. "The Mark on the Wall." 1917. Kew Gardens and Other Short Fiction. Oxford: OUP, 2022. 3-9. [ISBN: 978-0-19-883813-5]


Novellas and Novels [please get your own copy]

  • Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness and Other Tales. 1899. Oxford: OUP, 2008. Print. [ISBN: 978-0-19-953601-6; please prepare Heart of Darkness]
  • Forster, E.M. Maurice. 1971 [1913/1914]. London: Penguin, 2005. Print. [ISBN: 978-0-14-144113-9]
  • Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916. Oxford: OUP, 2008. Print [ISBN: 978-0-19-953644-3]
  • Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway. 1925. Oxford: OUP, 2008. Print. [ISBN: 978-0-19-953600-9]


ASSIGNMENTS

  • [Prüfungsleistung] asynchrones (Gruppen-)Referat (2-3 Personen; ca. 20 Folien) mit Schriftlicher Ausarbeitung (10 Seiten) [oder in Ausnahmefällen: Hausarbeit (15 Seiten)]
  • [Aktive Teilnahme] Regular Attendance (cf. Richtlinien der Fakultät III, Studiendekanat), Course Preparation (i.e. watching the asynchronous presentations), 4 Abstracts

Please note that written assignments (abstracts, short term papers, long term papers) need to be composed according to the style sheet ("Leitfaden") of the University of Oldenburg, which can be accessed via the 'Institutswiki'-page of the English department. The style sheet not only provides relevant information on how to write a correct bibliography but it may also help you to structure your work according to academic standards.

Please make sure to sign the "Erklärung zum 'Plagiat'" and to attach it to your research papers.

  • [Abgabefrist] 15. September 2023.




Session 01, April 12: Introduction

Organisational Matters

  • Assignments

Assignments are graded and mandatory. In order to obtain 6 credits (KP), you will have to give an asynchronous (group) presentation (Referat, 20 Folien) on one of the presentation topics specified in the syllabus. In addition to that, you will have to hand in a short term paper (Ausarbeitung, 10 Seiten) by the end of term (15. September). In exceptional cases, you may hand in a long term paper (Hausarbeit, 15 Seiten) instead of the above. However, an exception is only granted upon consultation.

  • Presentation Topics, Presentation Groups

Presentation Topics are specified in your syllabus. In order to prepare your presentations, please pick a topic, get together in groups (see below) and write up a power-point presentation. Add your audio commentary to the presentation, save the file and send it on to me so that we can discuss your presentation during your preparatory session before you upload it. After that, you make your file available on Stud.IP on the Friday before your presentation is due so that all participants can read/ watch the presentation in time, i.e. before the session.

Requests regarding your choice of presentation topics can be send to me via e-mail, starting on Monday, April 03. Please send me three possible presentation topics and prioritise them according to your preferences. I will sign you in in the order of the requests' arrival. Please check this page regularly to see if your requests have been met.

Preparatory Sessions for presentations take place in the second part of the weekly sessions, i.e. Wednesday 9.30 am - 9.45 am. Please make sure that you send me your presentation at least one day prior to your preparatory session and that you attend said session the week before your presentation is due.

  • Active Participation

Active Participation is ungraded but mandatory. In order to fulfil the requirements, you will have to attend class regularly and watch the asynchronous presentations prior to the relevant sessions. Moreover, you will have to write four abstracts, each including a topic, a state of research, a thesis statement, and a brief outline of your argument (approx. 1 page), in the course of the seminar. You can choose your own topic; however: all abstracts have to address different primary texts. In other words, your abstracts will have to cover four out of five primary materials. They are due by the end of the week (i.e. Friday) that marks the ending of the respective sections, i.e. due date Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: May 5; due date Billy Budd, Sailor: May 19; due date Rebecca: June 9; due date Calamity Jane June 23; due date Dead Poets Society July 7) 

   Summary: Presentations

1. Pick a presentation topic and contact me via e-mail (starting April 03). Check below for available places. Presentation groups may consist of a maximum of 3 people.

2. Contact the other members of your group and prepare your presentation, i.e. power-point presentation with audio commentary.

3. Send me your presentation 8 days before your presentation is scheduled.

4. Discuss your presentation with me in your preparatory session 7 days, i.e week, before your presentation is scheduled. Preparatory sessions take place during the second part of class, i.e. Wednesday 9.30 am - 9.45 am.

5. Upload your file on the Friday before your presentation is scheduled.

6. Be ready to answer questions on the day of your presentation.

Introductory Lecture: Sexual Identity in Cultural Studies

In preparation for the seminar, please work thorough the slides of the lecture above in order to familiarise yourself with the history of the term sexual identity, starting with the discursive production of the cultural concept of sexuality in the late nineteenth century.

Session 02, April 19: Theory Session I - Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet

Theory Texts

Introductory Lecture: Sexual Identity in Cultural Studies

Guiding Questions

  • Historical Context:

Sedgwick begins her monograph by claiming that "many of the major nodes of thought and knowledge in twentieth-century Western culture as a whole are structured - indeed, fractured - by a chronic, now endemic crisis of homo/heterosexual definition, indicatively male, dating from the end of the nineteenth century" (1). Likewise, the introductory lecture "Writing Sexual Identity" chooses to begin its discussion of modernity's conception of desire, and specifically same-sex desire, in the late nineteenth century.

Why is this point in time, historically speaking, so siginificant for the discursive development of concepts surrounding same-sex desire?

What are the major discourses that begin to shape and cement new knowledges about same-sex desire?

What knowledges are being produced?

How do these new knowledges become so dominant, culturally speaking, that their conceptions of (same-sex) desire, their terminology, their classifications and categorisations continue to define the ways 'we' speak, think and talk about desire in the 21st century?

With regard to identity formation, what does Foucault mean when he points out - quoted in Sedgwick - that afetr this discursive development "the homosexual was now a species" (9)?

  • Identity Formation:

With "the homosexual" emerging as a "species", the question of visibility arises with all its ambivalent aspects. On the one hand, gay visibility has allowed for communitiy formation and concerted political action in times of crisis - e.g. Gay Liberation (after the Stonewall Riots) or ACT-UP (during the AIDS epidemic). On the other hand, however, visibility has come and continues to come at a price, as the identity of "the homosexual" has suffered (and continues to suffer) the effects of pathologisation, criminalisation (cf. Labouchère Amendment; Section 28), and other forms of institutionalised discrimination.

What makes things even more precarious is that, according to Sedgwick, in a homophobic culture such as ours, the continuum between homosocial, i.e. patriarchal, desire ("men promoting the interests of men") and homosexual desire ("men loving men") is "radically disrupted" (Sedgwick, Between Men 3) so that homosocial and homosexual desire have come to exclude each other. That is to say, such a patriarchal culture strongly invites the entertainment of homosocial bonds between men, while it ostracises the entertainment of homosexual bonds between them - and it does so, knowing that expressions of both forms of desire can be so similar as to be virtually indistinguishable. According to Sedgwick, the effect is clear: a social mechanism of policing male-male desire that makes it unable for the individual to - publicly or privately - ascertain that their bonds are exclusively homosocial.As a result of this "new" visibility, the individual becomes increasingly vulnerable to external assaults (e.g. "blackmailability") and internal crises (e.g. the return of the repressed), which, according to Sedgwick, frequently lead them into the psychological state of "homosexual panic".

What does the term "homosexual panic" mean? And how can an allegedly individual state of panic, anxiety, or fear be of social consequence?

How can this act of "(self-) disciplining" through homosexual panic be used as a policing mechanism organising male-male bonds in a specific culture/society?

What are the characteristics of a social, cultural, political regime that - according to Sedgwick - actively exploits the anxieties and fears of its subjects? Who benefits from this exploitation - and how?

Or is it "just" a coincident that the crisis of "homo/heterosexual definition" has become such a powerful organising mechanism in our culture? (Note Sedgwick's observation that other forms of sexual difference ( i.e. "masturbator (9)) have completely lost their siginficance to transport social or cultural meaning.)

  • The Closet:

In light of the above, it is no wonder that the crisis of "homo/heterosexual definition" has resulted in a phenomenon that structures sexual (non-)knowledge and (in-)comprehension along the dynamic lines of secrecy and disclosure: the closet. Sedgwick impressively demonstrates, quoting much discussed legal cases, that the relationship between secrecy/disclosure is never simply a progressive or even a liberating one, allegedly expressed in the move "out of the closet", i.e., from the state of "being in the closet" to the state of "coming out of the closet" - although "coming out" can, of course, have precisely this liberating effect. Still, rather than viewing the closet as either a protective shield or a cage to leave behind, it would do better justice to this phenomenon, if we conceptualised the closet itself as a dynamic queer tool in a homophobic society/culture whose anti-gay objective operates thorough the paradoxical, yet intentional catch-22 that "disclosure [be] at once compulsory and forbidden" (71).

Considering the anti-gay paradoxes of a homophobic culture, how do other allegedly binary argumentative structures - minoritising views/universalising views; essentialism/constructivism; censorship/freedom of speech - operate in order to pre-empt any gay-affirmative position from the beginning? And how can a gay-affirmative response seek to disempower these deliberately paradoxical anti-gay positions?

Could you conceive of strategic gay-affirmative speech acts that are able to forestall the heteronormative catch-22 that "disclosure [be] at once compulsory and forbidden" (71)?

What purpose could any of the following speech acts/representations serve: silence(s); sociolects; double entendres; indirection; camp performativity; irony; parody; metaphors; metonymies; intertextuality; etc?

What purpose could any of the following literary or cinematic motifs serve - think of our primary material: the double; doppelgänger; the handsome sailor; the ghost/the apparition; the tomboy; the "artistic" teenager; or simply staged/meaningful absence?

Preparatory Session

  • Preparatory Session Group: Annemieke Müller, Fiona Stack, Tanja Jaworski

Session 03, April 26: Analysing Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde I - Victorian Gothic Fiction and the Queer Double

Primary Material

  • Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Theory Texts

Further Reading

Presentation

  • "The thorough and primitive duality of man," or: Sexual Identities, Homosexual Panic, the Double, and the Externalisation of Same-Sex Desire in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
  • Presentation Group: Annemieke Müller, Fiona Stack, Tanja Jaworski

Preparatory Session

  • Preparatory Session Group: Viktoriya Tuparova, Deya Zaharieva

Session 04, May 03: Analysing Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde II - Metonymies and Topographies of Same-Sex Desire

Primary Material

  • Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Theory Texts

Further Reading

Presentation

  • "Black Mail House is what I call the place with the door," or: the Body, the House, and the Street as Metonymies of Same-Sex Desire in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
  • Presentation Group: Viktoriya Tuparova, Deya Zaharieva

Preparatory Session

  • Preparatory Session Group:

Session 05, May 10: Analysing Billy Budd, Sailor I - Seafaring Novels and the Handsome Sailor

Primary Material

  • Melville, Herman, Billy Budd, Sailor.

Theory Texts

Further Reading

Presentation

  • "The Deadly Space Between," or: Homosocial Spaces, Homoerotic Desires, and the Ship as Heterotopia par excellence
  • Presentation Group:

Preparatory Session

  • Preparatory Session Group: Vanessa Janßen, Lasse Stegat

Session 06, May 17: Analysing Billy Budd, Sailor II - Narratology and the Management of (Non-)Knowledge

Primary Material

  • Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Sailor.

Theory Texts

Further Reading

Presentation

  • "What was the matter with the master-at-arms?", or: Open-Secret Structures, Compulsory (In-)Comprehension, and Terrorising Narrative Designs in Billy Budd, Sailor
  • Presentation Group: Vanessa Janßen, Lasse Stegat

Session 07, May 24, Theory Session II - Vito Russo's The Celluloid Closet

Theory Texts

Further Reading

  • Benshoff, Harry M. Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film. Manchester, Manchester UP, 1997. Print.
  • Dyer, Richard. Now You See It: Studies on Lesbian and Gay Film. London and New York: Routledge, 1990. Print.
  • Russo, Vito. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. Revised Edition. New York et al.: Harper & Row, 1987. Print.

Guiding Questions

  • TBA

Preparatory Session

  • Preparatory Session Group: Rebekka Hänßler, Jessika Häfker, Elias Isfort

Session 08, May 31: Analysing Rebecca I - Film Noir, Gothic Romance, and the Apparitional Lesbian

Primary Material

  • Hitchcock, Alfred, dir. Rebecca

Theory Texts

Further Reading

Presentation

  • "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again,": Lesbian Specters, Haunted Houses and the Discplacement of Female Same-Sex Desire in Rebecca
  • Presentation Group: Rebekka Hänßler, Jessika Häfker, Elias Isfort

Preparatory Session

  • Preparatory Session Group: Marie Becker, Artur Ladilov

Session 09, June 07: Analysing Rebecca II - Narration, Focalisation, and (Performating) Heteronormative (In-)Comprehension

Primary Material

  • Hitchcock, Alfred, dir. Rebecca

Theory Texts

Further Reading

Presentation

  • "I'll play the part of a devoted wife," or: Lesbian Desire, Lesbian Panic, and Performing Heteronormative Incomprehension in Rebecca
  • Presentation Group: Marie Becker, Artur Ladilov

Preparatory Session

  • Preparatory Session Group: Verena Liebl

Session 10, June 14: Analysing Calamity Jane I - Westerns, Musicals, and the Tomboy

Primary Material

  • Butler, David, dir. Calamity Jane

Theory Texts

Further Reading

Presentation

  • "Once I Had a Secret Love," or: 'Gay' Songs, Lesbian Subtexts, and the Queering of the Western Genre in Calamity Jane
  • Presentation Group: Verena Liebl

Preparatory Session

  • Preparatory Session Group: Lisa Czuma, Ida Witt

Session 11, June 21: Analysing Calamity Jane II - Camp Attacks on the Western Genre

Primary Material

  • Butler, David, dir. Calamity Jane

Theory Texts

Further Reading

Presentation

  • "A Woman's Touch," or: Camp, Theatricality, and the Parodic Subversion of Heteronormative Gender Performmances in Calamity Jane
  • Presentation Group: Lisa Czuma, Ida Witt

Preparatory Session

  • Preparatory Session Group: Franciska Wendel, Jannik Ferdinand, Keno Kienetz

Session 12, June 28: Analysing Dead Poets Society I - All-Male Boarding School Films and the "Artistic" Teenager

Primary Material

  • Weir, Peter, dir. Dead Poets Society

Theory Texts

Further Reading

Presentation

  • Disavowing the "Barbaric Yawp"?, or: Nostalgia, Elitism, and the Exploitative Silencing of Otherness in Dead Poets Society
  • Presentation Group: Franciska Wendel, Jannik Ferdinand, Keno Kienetz

Preparatory Session

  • Preparatory Session Group: Sofie Friedrich, Nick Beckmann

Session 13, July 05: Analysing Dead Poets Society - Homosocial Genres and Homoerotic Intertexts

Primary Material

  • Weir, Peter, dir. Dead Poets Society

Theory Texts

Further Reading

Presentation

  • Universalising Dead Poets, or: Shakespeare, Whitman, and the Unqueer Representation of Queer Intertexts and Genres in Dead Poets Society
  • Presentation Group: Sofie Friedrich, Nick Beckmann

Session 14, July 12: RPO Session

Guidelines for finding your RPO topic:

Your RPO topic needs to be related to at least one of the primary texts 

   September 15: Term Paper Due

Please upload your paper to the folder "Ausarbeitungen und Hausarbeiten" on our Stud.IP page and send a printed copy to the address below.

Bitte stellen Sie Ihre Prüfungsleistung in den Ordner "Ausarbeitungen und Hausarbeiten" auf unserer Stud.IP-Seite ein und senden Sie eine gedruckte Fassung an die untenstehende Adresse.

Dr. Christian Lassen

Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik

Fakultät III: Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaften

Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

Ammerländer Heerstraße 114-118

26129 Oldenburg

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