2008 AM Historical Novels

Time and Location: Tuesdays 10-12 am, A01 0-004
Language tutor office hours: Tuesdays 5-6 pm, A6 2-211
Tutorial: Tuesdays 6-8 pm, A6 0-009

Course Description

The historical novel is one of the classical subgenres of the modern novel. This course will introduce students to the beginnings and the early history of the genre. In the first half of the semester, we will read Walter Scott's Waverley (1814) and become familiar with the main characteristics of a genre which invites its readers to reflect on the relation in which their romantic past stands towards their current modernity. In the second half of term, we will encounter a set of shorter eighteenth-century texts which were also called 'historical novels', although they were not at all concerned with 'history' in the modern sense. We will analyse a selection of these texts, attempt to identify their generic features and examine their differences to the modern form. In doing so, we will also seek to understand the developments that led from one type of historical novel to the next. By the beginning of term, students should have purchased and read Walter Scott, Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since, ed. Claire Lamont, Oxford World's Classics, Oxford University Press, 1998. As introductory reading please consult the essays by Borgmeier and Trevor-Roper (cf. below, reading materials)

Course Requirements for credits as a Aufbaumodul:

Regular attendance and active participation (you may miss up to two meetings, whatever the reasons).
An oral presentation of ca. 20 minutes that will form the basis for your subsequent term paper (you present information and develop an argument that must allow you to formulate research questions concerning a particular text and topic, which will then be discussed by the seminar).
Joining one of three 'expert groups'.
A term paper (generally dealing with one or several of the issues raised in your oral contribution; length ca. 10 pages; deadline September 1, 2008).

NOTE:

Fulfilling all four requirements successfully will earn you a total of six credit points towards your module (6 KP)
Fulfilling only the first three requirements will earn you a total of three credit points towards your module (3 KP). [For students who plan to take 3 KP it is especially important to be active in an 'expert group'.]

08.04.2008

Introduction. Technicalities.
Distribution of Presentations. Constitution of Expert Groups.

15.04.2008

Skills and Goals in presentation and discussion.
(Distribution of Presentations. Constitution of Expert Groups [Group 1: The Writing of History, Group 2: Problems of Genre, Group 3: Textual Analysis].)

22.04.2008

Problems and what to do with them: achieving a research-oriented perspective (1) : History and Theory

Read and discuss: Trevor-Roper, Hugh. "The Invention of Tradition: The Highland Tradition of Scotland." The Invention of Tradition ed. Eric Hobsbawm, Terence Ranger, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1st. ed. 1983, repr. 2003. 15-42.

Guiding questions:

What is the actual history of the Scottish Highland population and of their dress and customs? What is their actual significance in Scottish history?
How did the kilt and the tartan come to be associated with traditional Scotland?
What questions follow from the information presented by Trevor-Roper?
What consequences could this have for our thinking about history, and about the historical novel?

29.04.2008

Problems and what to do with them: achieving a research-oriented perspective (2): Genre perspectives

Read and discuss: Borgmeier, Raimund. "Das Gattungsmodell: Sir Walter Scott, Waverley (1814)". Borgmeier, Raimund / Reitz, Bernhard (ed). Der historische Roman. 19. Jahrhundert. Heidelberg: Winter (1984).

Guiding quesitons:

What are the specific genre-attributes of a historical novel, according to Borgmeier?
What does Borgmeier say about Scott's models, and about the tradition of the historical novel?
What are the characteristic ways of referring to real historical events and real historical persons, according to Borgmeier?
At what points does Borgmeier simply present information, and at what points does he engage in a critical debate about the interpretation of the text?
Can you see any problems that Borgmeier's essay might raise for the context of our seminar?

06.05.2008

"Sixty Years Since" - Past and Present in Waverley (historical background, plot structure and historical characters and events in Waverley)

Presentation: Vivien Baldwin, Marion Canisius, Andreas Sprenkel

13.05.2008

Waverley and his Women: The role of the hero, the role of the female protagonists, and the romantic plot.

20.05.2008

Scotland vs. England in Waverley: The Representation of Space and the Ideology of the Text Presentation: Katharina Bohn, Kathrin Gerdes, Sara-Lena Braasch