2013 Negotiating History in Contemporary Fiction

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• 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)

Over a decade ago, 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, 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 deception, spanning the 20th century of a respective Canadian or Irish public history. At the same time, both novels had a swift entrance into literary history, if their status as bestselling, award-winning, critically acclaimed is anything to go by in this respect. In this seminar we will look at both novels from both perspectives: we will enquire how they negotiate the respective historical setting and their protagonists' past, and we will analyze how each negotiates its way into literary history.

Please, make sure to purchase and read these novels in advance. Your reading of them is prerequisite to the course. Please follow this link to a wiki course page, where you will find a preliminary course program, course requirements and course materials:

• Students should purchase and read in advance:

• 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 an oral contribution in the form of a presentation, with a term paper of ca. 10 pp. based on the topic of the presentation.
• Requirements for 9 KP: regular attendance and an oral contribution in the form of a presentation, with a term paper of ca. 15-20 pp. based on the topic of the presentation.
• As part of the "Aktive Teilnahme" regulation:

    Die aktive Teilnahme besteht aus folgenden Komponenten
    - regelmäßige Anwesenheit: max. 3 Abwesenheiten und gegebenenfalls Nacharbeit
    - Vor- und Nachbereitung des Seminarstoffs (z. B. Protokolle, Aufgaben, Vorbereitung/Lektüre von Texten) 
    - Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Fragestellung aus dem Problembereich des Seminars, z.B. durch:
      *Übernahme von Impulsreferaten 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 (3.-5.Woche), Eingrenzung (ca. 8.-10.Woche), 
       Abstract mit Fragestellung inkl. Forschungsbibliographie (RPO) (ca. 12.Woche), 
       Vorstellung der Fragestellung in der letzten Semestersitzung.

Session 1 Mo., 08.04.2013

• Introduction: Writing History, Making History

Session 2 Mo., 15.04.2013

cancelled due to visit to the London Book Fair (15-17 April)

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

Session 5 Mo., 06.05.2013

• Narrating Histories: (Un)reliable Narrators and Unruly Endings

   [Specify research interest until 10 May]

Session 6 Mo., 13.05.2013

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

Session 7 Mo., 27.05.2013

• National Histories: Public Politics, Private Pasts

Session 8 Mo., 03.06.2013

• The Genre(s) of History: Of Historical Novels and Spiritual Autobiographies

Session 9 Mo., 10.06.2013

• Writing History, Making History: Critical and Marketing Profiles of TBA and TSS

Session 10 Mo., 17.06.2013

• Atwood's TBA in reviews

 [Hand in RPOs until 21 June]

Session 11 Mo., 24.06.2013

• evaluation
• Barry's TSS in reviews

Session 12 Mo., 01.07.2013

• discussion of evaluation
• discussion of RPOs

Bibliography

Reading Material

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

and

Tools

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