Difference between revisions of "2013 Negotiating History in Contemporary Fiction"

Revision as of 09:10, 7 April 2013

• Time: Mon, 08:00 - 10:00
• Venue: A01 0-007
• Lecturer: Anna Auguscik
• Modul: AM 15 Motifs - Themes - Issues (and their Media)

• Course Description:

"Thirty years or so ago, the historical novel had dropped below the horizon of respectable attention. [...] Yet, by the century's end, historical fiction commanded a prestige and acclaim unknown since its heyday." (Tonkin 2001)

Around the turn of the millennium, journalist and critic Boyd Tonkin described the ebb and flow of the historical novel, claiming that the Booker Prize for Fiction – allegedly the most important literary prize in the UK – played a pivotal role in the renaissance of this genre. In fact, author Hilary Mantel and her recent double Booker victory stand living proof that Tonkin's claim is still valid: she won the 2009 and the 2012 Booker Prize with the respective first and second part of her trilogy set at the court of King Henry VIII.

In this seminar, we will take a look at two novels which were both read as historical novels, and which, apart from being shortlisted for (or winning) the Booker Prize in the 2000s, have other striking resemblances. Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin (2000) and Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture (2008) both feature aging female narrators who attempt to re-write their histories with accounts of love and deceit, and referring back to events that span a respective Canadian or Irish twentieth century. At the same time, both novels had a swift entrance into literary history, if their status as bestselling, multi-award-winning, critically acclaimed fiction is anything to go by in this respect. In the course of the semester, we will read the two texts and their contexts from both perspectives: we will analyze how they negotiate the respective historical setting and their protagonists' past, and we will enquire how each negotiates its way into literary history.

Please, make sure to purchase and read these novels in advance (both will be made available at the CvO bookshop). Your reading of them is prerequisite to the course.

• Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (2000)
• Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture (2008)

• Additional materials for preparation, as well as the detailed syllabus, will be made available here.

• Course Requirements

• Requirements for 6 KP: regular attendance and a written/oral contribution in the form of a project, with a term paper of ca. 10 pp. based on the topic of the project.
• Requirements for 9 KP: regular attendance and a written/oral contribution in the form of a project, with a term paper of ca. 15-20 pp. based on the topic of the project.
• 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 (Gruppenprojekte, 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 6.Mai),
       Abstract mit Fragestellung inkl. Forschungsbibliographie (RPO) (bis 28.Juni), 
       Vorstellung der Fragestellung in der letzten Semestersitzung.

Part I: Intro & Close Reading

Session 1 Mo., 08.04.2013

• Introduction

Session 2 Mo., 15.04.2013

• Project 1: Groups will prepare folders for both novels and present in session 3 and session 4

• Group A: character constellation and brief descriptions
• Group B: narration chart incl. time and setting
• Group C: plot structure, themes and motifs

Session 3 Mo., 22.04.2013

• Atwood, TBA: narration, characterization, themes and plot structure

Session 4 Mo., 29.04.2013

• Barry, TSS: narration, characterization, themes and plot structure

   [Specify research interest until 06 May]

Part II: Negotiating the Past

Session 5 Mo., 06.05.2013

• Gender(ed) Histories: Female Subjectivities, Feminist Memoirs

Session 6 Mo., 13.05.2013

• National Histories: Public Politics, Private Pasts

Session 7 Mo., 27.05.2013

• The Genre(s) of Narrating History

Session 8 Mo., 03.06.2013

• Project II: Groups will prepare secondary reading and present in session 11

• Group A: gender and history (incl. academic reception)
• Group B: nation and history (incl. academic reception)
• Group C: genre and history (incl. academic reception)

Part III: Negotiating a Place in Posterity

Session 9 Mo., 10.06.2013

• Project III: Groups will prepare profiles/reviews and present in session 10

• Group A: critical and marketing profile for TBA
• Group B: critical and marketing profile for TSS
• Group C: the role of history in the public reception of TBA and TSS

Session 10 Mo., 17.06.2013

• Negotiating Literary History: The Profiles of TBA and TSS

Session 11 Mo., 24.06.2013

• The role of history in the reception of Atwood and Barry's novels
• evaluation

 [Hand in RPOs until 28 June]

Part IV: Discussion and Outlook

Session 12 Mo., 01.07.2013

• reflection
• discussion of evaluation
• discussion of RPOs

Materials

Bibliography

Reading Material

• Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (2000)
• Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture (2008)

Contemporary Historical Novel

• Miller, Laura J. 2000. "The Best-Seller List as Marketing Tool and Historical Fiction." Book History 3: 286-304. [office]
• Tonkin, Boyd. 2001. "Historical." Good Fiction Guide. Ed. Jane Rogers. Oxford: OUP. 62-64. Cf. also [1]
• Keen, Suzanne. 2006. "The Historical Turn in British Fiction." A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction. Ed. James F. English. Malden, MA: Blackwell. 167-87. [HA]
• Widdowson, Peter. 2006. "'Writing Back': Contemporary Re-Visionary Fiction." Textual Practice 20.3 (Sept): 491-507. [office]
• Bradford, Richard. 2007. The Novel Now: Contemporary British Fiction. Malden, MA: Blackwell. [HA]
• Young, Samantha. 2011. "Based on a True Story: Contemporary Historical Fiction and Historiographical Theory." Otherness: Essays and Studies 2.1 (Autumn). [office]
• Robinson, Alan. 2011. Narrating the Past: Historiography, Memory and the Contemporary Novel. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. [für Bib bestellt]

Contemporary Fiction and the Book Market

• Todd, Richard. 1996. Consuming Fictions: The Booker Prize and Fiction in Britain Today. London, England: Bloomsbury. [HA]
• Huggan, Graham. 2001. The Postcolonial Exotic. Marketing the Margis. London. Routledge. [HA]
• English, James F. 2005. The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value. Harvard. [HA]
• Squires, Claire. 2007. Marketing Literature: The Making of Contemporary Writing in Britain. London: Palgrave Macmillian. [HA]

Tools

• Handout: Traditions in our discourse about literature
• Handout: Narratology

Quotes

• "Current historical fictions seems to be written with the sole purpose of denying life. These novelists believe that literature belongs in a heritage theme park or, better, the grave. Anywhere but the here and now" (Blincoe and Thorne, All Hail the New Puritans, 2000: xv)

Further Reading

Barry, TSS

• Grene, Nicholas. "Out of History: From The Steward of Christendom to Annie Dunne." Out of History: Essays on the Writings of Sebastian Barry. Ed. Christina Hunt Mahony. Dublin, Ireland: Carysfort, 2006. 167-82. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 10 Feb. 2013. [GVK bestellt]
• Harney-Mahajan, Tara. "Provoking Forgiveness in Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture." New Hibernia Review/Iris Éireannach Nua: A Quarterly Record of Irish Studies 16.2 (2012): 54-71. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 10 Feb. 2013. [GVK bestellt]

Atwood, TBA

• Dvorak, Marta. "The Right Hand Writing and the Left Hand Erasing in Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin." Commonwealth Essays and Studies 25.1 (2002): 59-68.
• Paillot, Patricia. "To Bind or Not to Bind: Irony in The Blind Assasin by Margaret Atwood." Etudes Canadiennes/Canadian Studies: Revue Interdisciplinaire des Etudes Canadiennes en France 53 (2002): 117-26.
• Still, Judith. "Bluebeards and Bodies: Margaret Atwood's Men." Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of Language and Literature 42 (2002): 165-80.

• Bouson, J. Brooks. "'A Commemoration of Wounds Endured and Resented': Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin as Feminist Memoir." Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 44.3 (2003): 251-69.
• Ingersoll, Earl. "Waiting for the End: Closure in Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin." Studies in the Novel 35.4 (2003): 543-58.
• Stein, Karen F. "A Left-Handed Story: The Blind Assassin." Margaret Atwood's Textual Assassinations: Recent Poetry and Fiction. Ed. Sharon Rose Wilson. Columbus, OH: Ohio State UP, 2003. 135-53.
• Waltonen, Karma. "'Bodies Conjured up for Them by Words': Structure through Myth in Atwood's The Blind Assassin." Identity and Alterity in Canadian Literature/Identité et altérité dans la littérature canadienne. Ed. Dana Puiu. Cluj-Napoca, Romania: Risoprint, 2003. 255-63.

• Cooke, Nathalie. Margaret Atwood: A Critical Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004. Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers.
• Ku, Chung-hao. "Eating, Cleaning, and Writing: Female Abjection and Subjectivity in Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin." Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies 30.1 (2004): 93-129.
• Parkin-Gounelas, Ruth. "'What Isn't There' in Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin: The Psychoanalysis of Duplicity." MFS: Modern Fiction Studies 50.3 (2004): 681-700.
• Staels, Hilde. "Atwood's Specular Narrative: The Blind Assassin." English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature 85.2 (2004): 147-60.

• Barnard, Anette, and Jan-Louis Kruger. "Hands as Markers of Fragmentation." Literator: Tydskrif vir Besondere en Vergelykende Taal- en Literatuurstudie/Journal of Literary Criticism, Comparative Linguistics and Literary Studies 26.2 (2005): 17-37.
• Harold, James. "Narrative Engagement with Atonement and The Blind Assassin." Philosophy and Literature 29.1 (2005): 130-45.

• Davies, Madeleine. "Margaret Atwood's Female Bodies." The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood. Ed. Coral Ann Howells. Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 2006. 58-71.
• Economou, Mary G. "Weaving Women: Confessions and Identity in Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle, Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin." Cultures de la confession: Formes de l'aveu dans le monde anglophone. Ed. Sylvie Mathé and Gilles Teulié. Aix-en-Provence, France: PU de Provence, 2006. 143-58. Mondes Anglophones.
• Guo, Guoliang, and Jie Zhao. "Lun Mang ci ke zhong de cun zai zhu yi jie ru guan." Foreign Literature Studies/Wai Guo Wen Xue Yan Jiu 28.121 (2006): 113-20.
• Lee, Gui-Woo. "[The Narrator and Addressee of Testimony: Iris and Sabrina in The Blind Assassin]." Feminist Studies in English Literature 14.1 (2006): 99-120.
• Robinson, Alan. "Alias Laura: Representations of the Past in Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin." Modern Language Review 101.2 (2006): 347-59.
• Watkins, Susan. "The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood." Booker Prize Novels: 1969-2005. Ed. Merritt Moseley. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2006. 313-324. Dictionary of Literary Biography 326.

• Dancygier, Barbara. "Narrative Anchors and the Processes of Story Construction: The Case of Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin." Style 41.2 (2007): 133-152.
• Ingersoll, Earl G. "Modernism/Postmodernism: Subverting Binaries in Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin." Margaret Atwood Studies 1.1 (2007): 4-16.
• Ingersoll, Earl G. "Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin as Spiritual Adventure." Adventures of the Spirit: The Older Woman in the Works of Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, and Other Contemporary Women Writers. Ed. Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis. Columbus, OH: Ohio State UP, 2007. 105-25. *Koyuncu, Nevin Yildirim. "Revising Scripts of Femininity in Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin." Interactions: Aegean Journal of English and American Studies/Ege İngiliz ve Amerikan İncelemeleri Dergisi 16.2 (2007): 73-86.
• Raschke, Debrah, and Sarah Appleton. "'And They Went to Bury Her': Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin and The Robber Bride." Adventures of the Spirit: The Older Woman in the Works of Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, and Other Contemporary Women Writers. Ed. Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis. Columbus, OH: Ohio State UP, 2007. 126-52. [GVK bestellt]
• McWilliams, Ellen. "Keeping Secrets, Telling Lies: Fictions of the Artist and Author in the Novels of Margaret Atwood." Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal/Revue d'Etudes sur les Femmes 32.1 (2007): 25-33.
• Wilson, Sharon R. "Through the 'Wall': Crone Journeys of Enlightenment and Creativity in the Works of Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Keri Hulme, and Other Women Writers." Adventures of the Spirit: The Older Woman in the Works of Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, and Other Contemporary Women Writers. Ed. Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis. Columbus, OH: Ohio State UP, 2007. 83-102.

• Strolz, Andrea. "'True Stories' in the Course of Time in Margaret Atwood's 'The Blind Assassin'." A Sea for Encounters: Essays towards a Postcolonial Commonwealth. Ed. Stella Borg Barthet. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi, 2009. 287-306. Cross/Cultures: Readings in the Post/Colonial Literatures in English 117.

• Barzilai, Shuli. "'If You Look Long Enough': Photography, Memory, and Mourning in The Blind Assassin." Margaret Atwood: The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake. Ed. J. Brooks Bouson and Sarah Graham. New York, NY: Continuum, 2010. 103-123. Continuum Studies in Contemporary North American Fiction.
• Bouson, J. Brooks, and Sarah Graham, eds. Margaret Atwood: The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake. New York, NY: Continuum, 2010. Continuum Studies in Contemporary North American Fiction.
• Dancygier, Barbara. "The Text and the Story: Levels of Blending in Fictional Narratives." Mental Spaces in Discourse and Interaction. Ed. Todd Oakley and Anders Hougaard. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Benjamins, 2008. 51-78. Pragmatics & Beyond: New Series 170.
• Domínguez, Pilar Cuder. "Margaret Atwood's Metafictional Acts: Collaborative Storytelling in The Blind Assassin and Oryx and Crake." Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 56 (2008): 57-68.
• Farca, Paula Anca. "Generations of Canadian Women Alone Together in Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin." Notes on Contemporary Literature 40.3 (2010): 10-12.
• Jovanović, Aleksandra V. "Writing Closure." On the Borders of Convention. Ed. Aleksandra Nikčević Batrićević and Marija Knežević. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars, 2010. 59-67.
• Michael, Magali Cornier. "Narrative Multiplicity and the Multi-Layered Self in The Blind Assassin." Margaret Atwood: The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake. Ed. J. Brooks Bouson and Sarah Graham. New York, NY: Continuum, 2010. 88-102. Continuum Studies in Contemporary North American Fiction.
• Peled, Nancy. "Motherless Daughters: The Absent Mothers in Margaret Atwood." Textual Mothers/Maternal Texts: Motherhood in Contemporary Women's Literatures. Ed. Elizabeth Podnieks and Andrea O'Reilly. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2010. 47-61.
• Tolan, Fiona. "'Was I My Sister's Keeper?': The Blind Assassin and Problematic Feminisms." Margaret Atwood: The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake. Ed. J. Brooks Bouson and Sarah Graham. New York, NY: Continuum, 2010. 73-87. Continuum Studies in Contemporary North American Fiction.
• Wilson, Sharon. "Fairy Tales, Myths, and Magic Photographs in Atwood's The Blind Assassin." Once upon a Time: Myth, Fairy Tales and Legends in Margaret Atwood's Writings. Ed. Sarah A. Appleton. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars, 2008. 73-93.